mcpbeat

Blogwatcher

hezaohezao/blogwatcher

Monitor blogs and RSS/Atom feeds via blogwatcher-cli.

853 tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
1
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
117
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository 
npx skills add https://github.com/HezaoHezao/poirot --skill blogwatcher

The instruction itself

10 sections, as written by the author

Blogwatcher

Track blog and RSS/Atom feed updates with the blogwatcher-cli tool. Supports

automatic feed discovery, HTML scraping fallback, OPML import, and read/unread

article management.

Prerequisites

blogwatcher-cli must be installed. Pick one method:

# Go install
go install github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/cmd/blogwatcher-cli@latest

# Binary (Linux amd64)
curl -sL https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases/latest/download/blogwatcher-cli_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin blogwatcher-cli

# Docker
docker run --rm -v blogwatcher-cli:/data ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli scan

All releases: https://github.com/JulienTant/blogwatcher-cli/releases

Verify installation:

blogwatcher-cli --version

When to Use

  • User wants to monitor blog updates
  • User wants to track RSS/Atom feeds
  • User wants to import OPML subscriptions
  • User wants a digest of new articles from tracked blogs

Common Commands

# Add a blog to track
blogwatcher-cli add https://example.com/blog

# Add with explicit feed URL
blogwatcher-cli add https://example.com/blog --feed https://example.com/feed.xml

# Scan for new articles
blogwatcher-cli scan

# List tracked blogs
blogwatcher-cli list

# List unread articles
blogwatcher-cli articles --unread

# Mark article as read
blogwatcher-cli read <article-id>

# Import OPML
blogwatcher-cli import subscriptions.opml

# Export OPML
blogwatcher-cli export > subscriptions.opml

Workflow

Setup (first time)

# Install blogwatcher-cli (see Prerequisites)
# Add blogs to track
blogwatcher-cli add https://blog1.com
blogwatcher-cli add https://blog2.com

# Or import existing OPML
blogwatcher-cli import my-subscriptions.opml

Daily check

# Scan for new articles
blogwatcher-cli scan

# Show unread
blogwatcher-cli articles --unread

# Read an article (marks as read)
blogwatcher-cli read <article-id>

Automated monitoring

Set up a cron job to scan periodically:

# Scan every morning at 8am
echo "0 8 * * * blogwatcher-cli scan" | crontab -

Docker with persistent storage

The database lives at ~/.blogwatcher-cli/blogwatcher-cli.db by default. In

Docker, use a volume to persist:

# Named volume
docker run --rm -v blogwatcher-cli:/data -e BLOGWATCHER_DB=/data/blogwatcher-cli.db ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli scan

# Host bind mount
docker run --rm -v /path/on/host:/data -e BLOGWATCHER_DB=/data/blogwatcher-cli.db ghcr.io/julientant/blogwatcher-cli scan

Pitfalls

  • blogwatcher-cli not installed: this skill requires the external tool.

Install first (see Prerequisites).

  • Feed discovery fails: some sites don't expose <link rel="alternate">

tags. Use --feed to specify the feed URL explicitly.

  • Rate limiting: scanning many feeds rapidly may get you blocked. The tool

handles this, but don't run scan too frequently.

  • Database location: if using Docker, always set BLOGWATCHER_DB to a

volume-mounted path, or data is lost on container exit.

  • OPML encoding: ensure OPML files are UTF-8 encoded for proper import.

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take hezaohezao/blogwatcher from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.

Install what it needs

The instructions reference go, docker. Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.