# RSS Feed Merger & Smart Deduplicator (`bene123/rss-feed-merger-deduplicator`) Actor

Merge up to 100 RSS, Atom, or RDF feeds into one JSON/CSV dataset with keyword filters, tracking-parameter cleanup, smart cross-feed deduplication, and duplicate-source provenance.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bene123/rss-feed-merger-deduplicator.md
- **Developed by:** [Ben E](https://apify.com/bene123) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 unique merged feed items

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## RSS Feed Merger & Smart Deduplicator

Merge up to 100 public RSS 2.0, Atom, and RDF/RSS 1.0 feeds into one normalized dataset. Filter by date or keywords, remove repeat coverage deterministically, preserve source provenance, and export the result from Apify as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS-compatible downstream data.

### What this Actor does

- fetches only the public feed URLs you provide
- supports RSS 2.0, Atom, and RDF/RSS 1.0 XML
- normalizes titles, URLs, dates, authors, categories, enclosures, and short summaries
- removes common tracking parameters from deduplication URLs
- merges repeated items across feeds while preserving every source-feed URL
- filters by include keywords, exclude keywords, and publication date
- sorts dated rows newest first
- writes one row per unique item and a run summary to `OUTPUT`

The Actor does not crawl linked articles. It uses feed-provided metadata and limits summary text to 500 characters.

### Input

```json
{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://feeds.npr.org/1001/rss.xml",
    "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 100,
  "maxTotalItems": 1000,
  "deduplicateBy": "smart",
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": [],
  "publishedAfter": "",
  "fetchTimeoutSecs": 15
}
```

`smart` deduplication uses the normalized article URL first, then the RSS GUID or Atom ID, then a normalized title plus publication date. Choose `canonical-url`, `guid`, or `title` when one field should control matching. Missing selected fields use a unique fallback instead of collapsing unrelated rows.

### Output

Each dataset row includes:

- title and normalized article URL
- publication and update timestamps
- author, categories, short summary, and enclosure metadata
- original feed URL, feed title, and format
- deterministic deduplication key
- number of occurrences merged
- every feed URL that supplied the duplicate item
- merge timestamp

The `OUTPUT` record reports feed successes and failures, parsed and filtered items, duplicates removed, emitted rows, and truncation state.

### Pricing

Pay per event:

- `$0.00005` per Actor start
- `$0.001` per unique item emitted (`$1 per 1,000 unique items`)

Failed feeds, filtered rows, and duplicates removed before output are not charged as unique items.

### Standards

- [RSS 2.0 specification](https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification)
- [RFC 4287 — The Atom Syndication Format](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4287)

### Network and content safety

The Actor rejects credentials, private/local/reserved IP space, non-standard ports, oversized responses, redirect loops, and XML containing DTD or entity declarations. DNS is resolved before each request, only a public address is accepted, and the request is pinned to that address while HTTPS certificate validation still uses the requested hostname. Every redirect is revalidated.

Only feed XML is fetched. Linked article pages, images, audio, and video are not downloaded. Output is feed-provided metadata, not a license to republish source content. Follow each publisher's terms, attribution rules, and applicable law.

### Boundaries

Deduplication is deterministic but heuristic. Review the dedupe key and source list before using the output to delete records or make compliance, financial, legal, medical, or safety-critical decisions. Feed availability and metadata can change between runs.

# Actor input Schema

## `feedUrls` (type: `array`):

Public HTTP or HTTPS RSS, Atom, or RDF feed URLs. Private/local addresses, credentials, and non-standard ports are rejected.

## `maxItemsPerFeed` (type: `integer`):

Read at most this many entries from each source feed.

## `maxTotalItems` (type: `integer`):

Emit at most this many unique rows after filtering and deduplication.

## `deduplicateBy` (type: `string`):

Smart prefers normalized article URLs, then GUIDs, then normalized title plus publication date. Other modes prioritize one field and use a unique fallback when it is missing.

## `includeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional case-insensitive keywords. An item is kept when its title, summary, or categories contain at least one keyword.

## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional case-insensitive keywords. Matching items are excluded after the include filter.

## `publishedAfter` (type: `string`):

Optional ISO date or date-time. When set, items with no parseable publication date are excluded.

## `fetchTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Seconds to wait for each public feed request.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://feeds.npr.org/1001/rss.xml",
    "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 100,
  "maxTotalItems": 1000,
  "deduplicateBy": "smart",
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": [],
  "publishedAfter": "",
  "fetchTimeoutSecs": 15
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Normalized, filtered, deduplicated RSS, Atom, and RDF metadata rows.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Feed success, failure, filter, deduplication, item, and truncation counts.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bene123/rss-feed-merger-deduplicator").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("bene123/rss-feed-merger-deduplicator").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call bene123/rss-feed-merger-deduplicator --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=bene123/rss-feed-merger-deduplicator",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/iReRDT7PtyhDIIFS1/builds/1doyoOkIrJ2LMe3Rq/openapi.json