Skip to content

USAGE.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
165 lines (118 loc) · 4.51 KB

USAGE.md

File metadata and controls

165 lines (118 loc) · 4.51 KB

RSS MCP Server - Usage Examples

This document provides practical examples of how to use the RSS MCP Server with Claude Desktop.

Usage Examples

Example 1: Fetch Latest News Headlines

Prompt:

"Can you fetch the latest 5 headlines from the BBC News RSS feed? The URL is https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml"

What happens:

  • Claude will use the fetch_feed_entries tool
  • Returns feed metadata and article summaries
  • No full article content (just titles, links, and summaries)

Expected output format:

{
  "title": "BBC News - Home",
  "description": "BBC News - Home",
  "link": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/",
  "entries": [
    {
      "title": "Article Title",
      "link": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/article-url",
      "pubDate": "2025-06-06T10:30:00Z",
      "summary": "Brief article summary..."
    }
  ]
}

Example 2: Get Full Article Content

Prompt:

"Please fetch the full content of this article and format it as Markdown: https://example.com/news/article-url"

What happens:

  • Claude will use the fetch_article_content tool
  • Extracts main content from the webpage
  • Converts HTML to clean Markdown format
  • Removes ads, navigation, and other non-content elements

Expected output format:

{
  "title": "Article Title",
  "content": "# Article Title\n\nMarkdown content here...",
  "url": "https://example.com/news/article-url",
  "extractedAt": "2025-06-06T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Example 3: RSS Feed Analysis

Prompt:

"Can you fetch the latest 10 articles from TechCrunch RSS feed (https://techcrunch.com/feed/) and analyze the main topics being covered?"

What Claude can do:

  • Fetch multiple articles using fetch_feed_entries
  • Analyze titles and summaries for common themes
  • Provide insights about trending topics
  • Suggest which articles might be most interesting

Example 4: Content Aggregation Workflow

Prompt:

"I'd like to create a daily tech news summary. Can you:
1. Fetch latest articles from Hacker News RSS
2. Get the full content of the top 3 most interesting articles
3. Create a summary of each"

Multi-step process:

  1. Uses fetch_feed_entries for the RSS feed
  2. Uses fetch_article_content for each selected article
  3. Claude analyzes and summarizes the content

Example 5: Research Workflow

Prompt:

"I'm researching AI developments. Can you fetch articles from MIT Technology Review's AI section RSS feed and then get the full content of any articles about large language models?"

Advanced workflow:

  1. Fetch RSS feed entries
  2. Filter articles by keywords in titles/summaries
  3. Extract full content for relevant articles
  4. Provide comprehensive analysis

Supported RSS Feed Types

The server works with most standard RSS and Atom feeds:

  • RSS 2.0 - Most common format
  • Atom 1.0 - Modern XML format
  • RSS 1.0 - RDF-based format

Popular RSS Feeds for Testing

  • BBC News: https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml
  • TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/feed/
  • Hacker News: https://hnrss.org/frontpage
  • MIT Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com/feed/
  • The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml

Tool Parameters

fetch_feed_entries

Parameter Type Required Description Default
url string Yes RSS feed URL -
limit number No Max entries to return (1-100) 10

fetch_article_content

Parameter Type Required Description
url string Yes Article URL to extract content from

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

  1. "Server not found" error:

    • Check the file path in claude_desktop_config.json
    • Ensure the server was built (npm run build)
    • Restart Claude Desktop completely

  2. RSS feed not loading:

    • Verify the RSS URL is correct and accessible
    • Some feeds may require specific user agents
    • Try with well-known feeds first (BBC, TechCrunch)

  3. Article content extraction fails:

    • Some websites block automated access
    • Complex JavaScript-heavy sites may not work well
    • Paywalled content cannot be extracted

  4. Performance issues:

    • Large RSS feeds may take time to process
    • Reduce the limit parameter for faster responses
    • Article extraction can be slow for heavy websites