Curate global and per-project RSS/Atom feeds inside VS Code or Cursor, get notified (in the editor and in macOS
Notification Center) when new posts land, and keep one read/unread state across every window and editor.
Why this exists
Release notes, changelogs, security advisories and blogs you care about are scattered across sites, and a separate
RSS app is one more window you forget to check. Some feeds matter everywhere (Hacker News, your favourite blogs);
others only matter while you're working on a particular project (that framework's releases, the upstream repo's
Atom feed). This keeps both next to your code and taps you on the shoulder when something new arrives.
Features
- Feeds view in the activity bar: feeds → posts, newest first; unread posts marked with a blue dot, plus an
unread badge and status bar count.
- Global + project sources. Global feeds live in
~/.rss-feed-curator/feeds.json; project feeds in
<workspace>/.vscode/rss-feeds.json (commit it to share with your team). Both are watched and schema-validated.
- Add Feed… accepts a feed URL or a website URL (auto-discovers
<link rel="alternate"> feeds).
- Background refresh every 2 hours (configurable). Fetching is coordinated through a lock file, so ten open
windows still fetch each feed once and notify once. Uses ETag / Last-Modified to save bandwidth.
- Notifications in VS Code/Cursor (Open / Mark Read / Show Feeds) and as macOS system notifications.
Install
terminal-notifier (brew install terminal-notifier) and
clicking a notification opens the post.
- Global read state stored in
~/.rss-feed-curator/read.json, shared by every window and by both VS Code and
Cursor. Mark read/unread per post, per feed or everything; toggle Show Only Unread.
- RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 (RDF), Atom and JSON Feed.
Usage
- Open the RSS Feeds view in the activity bar and click + (or run RSS Feed Curator: Add Feed…).
- Paste a feed or website URL, optionally name it, and choose Global or Project: <folder>.
- Click a post to open it (marks it read). Hover for a summary. Right-click for more.
Or edit the sources files directly (Edit Global Feeds / Edit Project Feeds in the view's … menu):
// ~/.rss-feed-curator/feeds.json or <workspace>/.vscode/rss-feeds.json
{
"feeds": [
{ "name": "Hacker News", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss" },
{ "name": "TypeScript releases", "url": "https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/releases.atom" },
"https://code.visualstudio.com/feed.xml"
]
}
If the same URL appears in both, it's shown once as global.
Commands
| Command |
|
| Add Feed… |
Add a feed (with auto-discovery) to global or project sources |
| Refresh All Feeds |
Fetch every feed now, ignoring the interval |
| Show Only Unread / Show All Posts |
Filter the tree |
| Mark All as Read |
Mark every visible feed's posts read |
| Open Next Unread Post |
Open the newest unread post |
| Edit Global Feeds / Edit Project Feeds |
Open (and create) the sources file |
| Show Log |
Fetch results and errors |
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
rssCurator.refreshIntervalMinutes |
120 |
How often each feed is fetched (min 5). Failed feeds retry after 15 min. |
rssCurator.notifications.editor |
true |
In-editor notification for new posts |
rssCurator.notifications.system |
true |
macOS Notification Center / Linux notify-send |
rssCurator.notifications.systemSound |
"" |
macOS sound name, e.g. Glass |
rssCurator.openIn |
browser |
browser or editor (Simple Browser tab) |
rssCurator.maxItemsPerFeed |
200 |
Posts kept per feed |
rssCurator.statusBar |
true |
Unread count in the status bar |
rssCurator.dataDirectory |
~/.rss-feed-curator |
Global feeds, cache and read state |
Notes
- The first fetch of a newly added feed doesn't notify (its backlog shows as unread instead).
- Without
terminal-notifier, macOS notifications are sent via osascript and appear as coming from
Script Editor; allow notifications for it in System Settings › Notifications if they don't show.
- Only the window that performs a fetch shows the notification; all other windows update their tree and counts.
Development
npm install
npm run build # bundle to dist/
npm test # unit tests (node:test)
npm run test:integration # runs inside a real VS Code
./install.sh # package + install into VS Code and Cursor
./publish.sh # publish to the Marketplace
Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.
