matrix-feed-bot

A bot for reading RSS/Atom feeds in Matrix rooms.

Setup

Requires Python 3.11+.

Install the dependencies: pip install aiohttp feedparser Jinja2 simplematrixbotlib

Then copy the matrix_feed_bot.py file to your server.

Config

Create a user account on the server to represent your bot.

Then create config.toml to configure the authentication details.

[simplematrixbotlib.config]
homeserver = "https://example.com"
username = "username"
password = "password"

If you don't want to use a password, you can use the account's access token.

[simplematrixbotlib.config]
homeserver = "https://example.com"
username = "username"
access_token = "some_long_string_that_represents_my_access_token"

You can also set interval to a custom number of seconds if you want to change the frequency the bot will check for updates (defaults to 1 hour).

Further (generic) config options for the bot are available as documented at: https://simple-matrix-bot-lib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/manual.html#built-in-values

Running

Running is as simple as running the Python script: python matrix_feed_bot.py

The script accepts an optional argument to allow a custom path to the config file: python matrix_feed_bot.py /path/to/config.toml

The feed data will be saved in the feeds/ directory under the current working directory.

Systemd

To run this as a systemd service, you could create a simple service file like:

[Unit]
Description=Matrix Feed Bot

Wants=network.target
After=syslog.target network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 -O /path/to/matrix_feed_bot.py /path/to/config.toml
KillMode=process
PermissionsStartOnly=true
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
TimeoutStopSec=60
#User=user_to_run_as
WorkingDirectory=/feed/data/will/be/stored/under/here/

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Usage

To use the bot, first invite the bot user to a room.

To subscribe to a feed in a room: !rss subscribe https://matrix.org/blog/feed

The latest entry from the feed should then be posted into the room.

To view all feed subscriptions in a room: !rss list

To unsubscribe from a feed: !rss delete https://matrix.org/blog/feed