Blogwatcher — Monitor blogs and RSS/Atom feeds via blogwatcher-cli tool

Blogwatcher

Monitor blogs and RSS/Atom feeds via blogwatcher-cli tool.

Skill metadata


Source	Bundled (installed by default)
Path	`skills/research/blogwatcher`
Version	`2.0.0`
Author	JulienTant (fork of Hyaxia/blogwatcher)
License	MIT
Tags	`RSS`, `Blogs`, `Feed-Reader`, `Monitoring`

Reference: full SKILL.md

The following is the complete skill definition that Hermes loads when this skill is triggered. This is what the agent sees as instructions when the skill is active.

Blogwatcher

Track blog and RSS/Atom feed updates with the blogwatcher-cli tool. Supports automatic feed discovery, HTML scraping fallback, OPML import, and read/unread article management.

Installation

Pick one method:

Go: go install github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/cmd/blogwatcher-cli@latest
Docker: docker run --rm -v blogwatcher-cli:/data ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli
Binary (Linux amd64): curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli
Binary (Linux arm64): curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_linux_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli
Binary (macOS Apple Silicon): curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_darwin_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli
Binary (macOS Intel): curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli

All releases: https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases

Docker with persistent storage

By default the database lives at ~/.blogwatcher-cli/blogwatcher-cli.db. In Docker this is lost on container restart. Use BLOGWATCHER_DB or a volume mount to persist it:

# Named volume (simplest)
docker run --rm -v blogwatcher-cli:/data -e BLOGWATCHER_DB=/data/blogwatcher-cli.db ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli scan

# Host bind mount
docker run --rm -v /path/on/host:/data -e BLOGWATCHER_DB=/data/blogwatcher-cli.db ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli scan

Migrating from the original blogwatcher

If upgrading from Hyaxia/blogwatcher, move your database:

mv ~/.blogwatcher/blogwatcher.db ~/.blogwatcher-cli/blogwatcher-cli.db

The binary name changed from blogwatcher to blogwatcher-cli.

Common Commands

Managing blogs

Add a blog: blogwatcher-cli add "My Blog" https://example.com
Add with explicit feed: blogwatcher-cli add "My Blog" https://example.com --feed-url https://example.com/feed.xml
Add with HTML scraping: blogwatcher-cli add "My Blog" https://example.com --scrape-selector "article h2 a"
List tracked blogs: blogwatcher-cli blogs
Remove a blog: blogwatcher-cli remove "My Blog" --yes
Import from OPML: blogwatcher-cli import subscriptions.opml

Scanning and reading

Scan all blogs: blogwatcher-cli scan
Scan one blog: blogwatcher-cli scan "My Blog"
List unread articles: blogwatcher-cli articles
List all articles: blogwatcher-cli articles --all
Filter by blog: blogwatcher-cli articles --blog "My Blog"
Filter by category: blogwatcher-cli articles --category "Engineering"
Mark article read: blogwatcher-cli read 1
Mark article unread: blogwatcher-cli unread 1
Mark all read: blogwatcher-cli read-all
Mark all read for a blog: blogwatcher-cli read-all --blog "My Blog" --yes

Environment Variables

All flags can be set via environment variables with the BLOGWATCHER_ prefix:

Variable	Description
`BLOGWATCHER_DB`	Path to SQLite database file
`BLOGWATCHER_WORKERS`	Number of concurrent scan workers (default: 8)
`BLOGWATCHER_SILENT`	Only output “scan done” when scanning
`BLOGWATCHER_YES`	Skip confirmation prompts
`BLOGWATCHER_CATEGORY`	Default filter for articles by category

Example Output

$ blogwatcher-cli blogs
Tracked blogs (1):

  xkcd
    URL: https://xkcd.com
    Feed: https://xkcd.com/atom.xml
    Last scanned: 2026-04-03 10:30

$ blogwatcher-cli scan
Scanning 1 blog(s)...

  xkcd
    Source: RSS | Found: 4 | New: 4

Found 4 new article(s) total!

$ blogwatcher-cli articles
Unread articles (2):

  [1] [new] Barrel - Part 13
       Blog: xkcd
       URL: https://xkcd.com/3095/
       Published: 2026-04-02
       Categories: Comics, Science

  [2] [new] Volcano Fact
       Blog: xkcd
       URL: https://xkcd.com/3094/
       Published: 2026-04-01
       Categories: Comics

Notes

Auto-discovers RSS/Atom feeds from blog homepages when no --feed-url is provided.
Falls back to HTML scraping if RSS fails and --scrape-selector is configured.
Categories from RSS/Atom feeds are stored and can be used to filter articles.
Import blogs in bulk from OPML files exported by Feedly, Inoreader, NewsBlur, etc.
Database stored at ~/.blogwatcher-cli/blogwatcher-cli.db by default (override with --db or BLOGWATCHER_DB).
Use blogwatcher-cli <command> --help to discover all flags and options.