feedfinder2

What it is and what it does

Feedfinder2 is a Python library that searches a website for feed URLs—RSS, Atom, or other syndication formats—and returns them as a list. It wraps the original feedfinder logic created by Mark Pilgrim and maintained by Aaron Swartz, adapting it for modern use. The library exposes a single public function, `find_feeds`, which takes a domain or URL and returns a ranked list of feed URLs it discovers by parsing the site's HTML.

The package has no runtime dependencies, making installation straightforward, but it has not been actively maintained since its 2016-01-25 release. The repository shows minimal recent activity. This age raises concerns about compatibility with current Python versions and whether its feed-detection heuristics remain effective on modern websites.

Use it for:

• Automatically discover RSS or Atom feeds on a website when building a feed aggregator or reader.
• Bulk-index feed URLs from a list of websites for archival or monitoring purposes.
• Detect available syndication formats on a domain as part of a web scraping or content-discovery pipeline.
• Migrate or consolidate feeds from multiple sites without manually hunting for feed URLs.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Feedfinder2 detects and returns feed URLs (RSS, Atom, etc.) available on a given website by parsing its HTML.

No. The package is abandoned (last release 2016-01-25) and its Python version compatibility is unspecified. While MIT-licensed and dependency-free, the lack of maintenance means it will likely fail on modern Python versions and may not handle contemporary website structures. For active feed discovery, use a maintained alternative or implement feed detection directly with current libraries.

Install

feedfinder2 on PyPI

pip install feedfinder2

uv add feedfinder2

poetry add feedfinder2

Installing feedfinder2

Before you install

High install friction: the package has been abandoned since 2016 with no updates for many years. The latest release is from 2016-01-25, and the repository shows minimal recent activity. No runtime dependencies, but the age and lack of active development signal potential compatibility issues with modern Python versions.

License in practice

MIT license is permissive and imposes no significant restrictions on use, modification, or distribution.

Quickstart

from feedfinder2 import find_feeds
feeds = find_feeds("xkcd.com")
print(feeds)

Python version compatibility is unspecified; the package may not work on modern Python versions without fixes, given its last release in 2016-01-25.

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works on current Python versions without modification.
• Whether external HTTP fetching or parsing libraries are actually required at runtime despite being unlisted.
• Whether feed detection accuracy remains acceptable for contemporary website structures.

Package facts

Evidence: feedfinder2-0.0.4.tar.gz

Tags

More WWW/HTTP packages