RSS-Bridge

Why deploy RSS-Bridge on Render?

RSS-Bridge is a self-hosted web application that generates RSS and Atom feeds for websites that don't provide their own. It includes hundreds of site-specific bridges (for services like YouTube, Telegram, Bandcamp, and Wikipedia) plus generic bridges that convert arbitrary pages into feeds, enabling you to follow content in a feed reader even when no native feed exists.

This template deploys RSS-Bridge from the pinned official Docker image and, crucially, auto-generates the RSSBRIDGE_authentication_token for you via Render's Blueprint—so you skip the step most people get wrong: securing an open instance before it gets abused as a scraping proxy. The whole render.yaml is already wired (Docker image, port 80, correct plan), meaning the one-click deploy forks the repo and ships a running, token-protected service without you touching an env file or writing a compose config. Upgrades are a one-line tag change plus a push, and because the app is stateless with no database or disk to provision, there's nothing else to manage.

Architecture

What you can build

You'll have a private RSS-Bridge instance running on your own URL, protected by an auto-generated token so only you can use it. From there you can turn sites that don't offer feeds—YouTube, Telegram, Bandcamp, Wikipedia, and hundreds of others—into RSS or Atom URLs you paste into any feed reader. Note that some sites rate-limit or block cloud providers, so a few bridges may need a proxy to work reliably.

Key features

• Pinned Docker Image: Runs the official rssbridge/rss-bridge image at a pinned version tag that you upgrade by editing render.yaml and pushing.
• Auto-generated Auth Token: Render's generateValue creates RSSBRIDGE_authentication_token on first Blueprint apply, requiring a secret on every request to prevent open-proxy abuse.
• Stateless Web Service: No database or persistent disk is needed; the service keeps only a short-lived in-memory feed cache on port 80.
• INI Config via Env Vars: Any setting from config.default.ini.php can be set using RSSBRIDGE_
  _ environment variables, including limiting enabled bridges.
• Proxy Support: Setting RSSBRIDGE_proxy_url routes requests through a proxy to reach sites that rate-limit or block cloud provider IPs.

Use cases

• Podcast fan turning a Bandcamp artist page into an RSS feed
• Researcher tracking Wikipedia article changes in their feed reader
• Journalist monitoring Telegram channels without opening the app daily
• Developer aggregating YouTube channel uploads into one unified feed

What's included

Next steps

1. Copy RSSBRIDGE_authentication_token from the service's Environment page, then open the service URL and enter it — The RSS-Bridge front page loads and shows the full list of available bridges instead of a token prompt
2. Generate a feed using the Wikipedia bridge (a site that works from cloud servers) and open the resulting feed URL in your browser — You should see valid RSS/Atom XML with recent items, and the URL will include your token as ?token=...
3. Add that feed URL to your feed reader and refresh — The latest items appear in your reader, confirming the token-authenticated URL works end to end without a 429 or empty feed

Resources

• RSS-Bridge official site