RSS Parse API
Fetches an RSS, Atom or RSS 1.0 feed and returns its channel metadata and a normalised list of items -- id, title, link, summary, content, author, dates and categories -- with every date in ISO 8601 UTC.
- Endpoint
POST /v1/rss-parse- Price
- $0.002 per call
- Family
- Feeds & site structure
- Docs
- /docs/rss-parse
01When to use it
- It needs the network and normalises three feed formats that say the same things in different tags and two different date formats, behind an XXE-safe XML parser. One call replaces the three-parser, RFC-822-date, entity-decoding scraper an agent would otherwise carry.
When not to use it
- The input is over 5 MB (5,242,880 bytes): rss-parse answers too_large (413).
- The destination needs more than 8 s to answer: the call ends with upstream_timeout (424).
- The destination is on a private or local network: the network guard refuses it with blocked_target (403).
02Parameters
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| url | string | yes | Absolute http(s) URL of the RSS 2.0, Atom or RSS 1.0 (RDF) feed, up to 2048 characters; up to 5 redirects are followed and a DTD is refused. |
| limit | integer | no | Maximum number of items returned, 1 to 1000 (default 50), counted after the since filter; a longer feed is cut and reported as truncated. Default: 50. |
| since | string | no | ISO 8601 timestamp with Z or an offset; when set, only items whose published (or else updated) date is at or after it are kept, and undated items are dropped. |
03Limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Size cap | 5 MB (5,242,880 bytes) |
| Timeout | 8 s |
04Example
The published example of rss-parse, verbatim: the request body and the response it returns.
Request
POST /v1/rss-parse
content-type: application/json
payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>
{
"url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml",
"limit": 10
}Response
200 OK
payment-response: <base64 settlement receipt>
{
"url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml",
"source_url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml",
"final_url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml",
"http_status": 200,
"format": "rss",
"feed": {
"title": "Field Notes",
"link": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/index.html",
"description": "Short notes on frost, rain and wind from a small test garden.",
"language": "en",
"updated": "2026-08-25T06:15:00Z",
"generator": "Hand-written sample"
},
"items": [
{
"id": "fieldnotes-rain-gauge",
"title": "Reading a rain gauge by hand",
"link": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/notes/rain-gauge.html",
"summary": "How the daily rain reading is taken & written down.",
"content": "<p>The gauge is read once a day at eight in the morning.</p>",
"author": "Field Notes Editors",
"published": "2026-08-25T06:15:00Z",
"updated": null,
"categories": [
"rain",
"method"
]
},
{
"id": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/notes/first-frost.html",
"title": "The first frost of the season",
"link": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/notes/first-frost.html",
"summary": "A light ground frost on the lower beds, measured at dawn.",
"content": null,
"author": "Field Notes Editors",
"published": "2026-08-24T06:30:00Z",
"updated": null,
"categories": [
"frost"
]
}
],
"count": 2,
"total": 2,
"truncated": false,
"fetched_at": "2026-09-01T12:00:00.000Z"
}Sample file: web/fieldnotes/feed.xml. RSS 2.0 feed of the Field Notes sample site: two items with content:encoded, dc:creator, categories and RFC 822 dates in two time zones.
| Response field | Type | In the example |
|---|---|---|
| url | string | "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml" |
| source_url | string | "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml" |
| final_url | string | "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml" |
| http_status | number | 200 |
| format | string | "rss" |
| feed | object | an object with title, link, description, language, updated and generator |
| items | array | 2 items, each with id, title, link, summary, content, author, published, updated and categories |
| count | number | 2 |
| total | number | 2 |
| truncated | boolean | false |
| fetched_at | string | "2026-09-01T12:00:00.000Z" |
05Call it from code
JavaScript
// rss-parse: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
// Install: npm install @x402/fetch@2 @x402/evm@2 viem@2
// Save as client.mjs (ES module, Node 18+), export EVM_PRIVATE_KEY with the paying wallet's key in your shell, then run: node client.mjs
// The wrapper reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import { wrapFetchWithPayment, x402Client, decodePaymentResponseHeader } from '@x402/fetch'
import { ExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm/exact/client'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'
const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY)
const client = new x402Client().register('eip155:8453', new ExactEvmScheme(account))
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client)
const body = {
"url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml",
"limit": 10
}
const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://grist.tools/v1/rss-parse', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' },
body: JSON.stringify(body),
})
console.log(res.status, await res.json())
const settle = res.headers.get('payment-response')
if (settle) console.log(decodePaymentResponseHeader(settle).transaction)Python
# rss-parse: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# Install: pip install "x402[requests,evm]>=2.24,<3"
# The session reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import os
from eth_account import Account
from x402 import x402ClientSync
from x402.http import decode_payment_response_header
from x402.http.clients.requests import x402_requests
from x402.mechanisms.evm.exact import register_exact_evm_client
from x402.mechanisms.evm.signers import EthAccountSigner
account = Account.from_key(os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])
client = x402ClientSync()
register_exact_evm_client(client, EthAccountSigner(account), networks="eip155:8453")
session = x402_requests(client)
payload = {
"url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml",
"limit": 10
}
res = session.post("https://grist.tools/v1/rss-parse", json=payload)
print(res.status_code, res.json())
settle = res.headers.get("payment-response")
if settle:
print(decode_payment_response_header(settle).transaction)curl
# rss-parse: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# 1. Unpaid call: HTTP 402, the requirements in the payment-required header (base64 JSON) and in the body.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/rss-parse' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"url":"https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml","limit":10}'
# 2. Same call with the signed payment (an EIP-3009 authorization, EIP-712 signed: it cannot be
# typed by hand). x-payment is accepted as the v1 alternative. HTTP 200 carries payment-response.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/rss-parse' -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>' -d '{"url":"https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/feed.xml","limit":10}'06Errors
| Code | HTTP | For this service |
|---|---|---|
| invalid_input | 400 | The body does not match the schema; its fields are url, limit and since. |
| blocked_target | 403 | |
| unreachable_target | 424 | |
| upstream_status | 424 | |
| upstream_timeout | 424 | |
| unsupported_content_type | 415 | |
| too_large | 413 | |
| unprocessable | 422 | |
| internal | 500 |
Input that is rejected before the tool runs (malformed JSON, schema mismatch, body over the size limit) is never charged.
When each code is raised, and what it means for payment: /docs/rss-parse.
07Questions
- How much does a rss-parse call cost?
- $0.002 per call, paid in USDC on Base via x402, with no account and no API key.
- What does rss-parse return?
- A JSON object with 11 top-level fields: url, source_url, final_url, http_status, format, feed, items, count, total, truncated and fetched_at. The example on this page is a real call over web/fieldnotes/feed.xml.
- What happens when a rss-parse call fails?
- The tool answers with a typed JSON error from the errors table. Payment is settled only after the tool has produced its result; a call that fails inside the tool is never settled. A 503 upstream_unavailable can follow a settled call; the x402 payments guide covers it, 429, 402 and an uncertain 500.