FreshRSS MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for FreshRSS, the self-hosted RSS feed aggregator. This server allows LLMs and other MCP clients to interact with your FreshRSS instance to manage feeds, read articles, and organize your RSS content.

Features

• 🔐 Authentication: Secure connection to your FreshRSS instance
• 📁 Folder Management: List and organize feeds in folders
• 📰 Article Reading: Fetch articles with advanced filtering options
• ✅ Article Management: Mark articles as read/unread, star/unstar
• 🏷️ Label System: Add labels to articles for organization
• 📡 Feed Management: Subscribe/unsubscribe from RSS feeds
• 📊 Unread Counts: Get unread statistics by feed and folder

Installation

Using pip

pip install freshrss-mcp

From source

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/freshrss-mcp.git
cd freshrss-mcp
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .

Configuration

Environment Variables

Create a .env file or set these environment variables:

FRESHRSS_URL=https://your-freshrss-instance.com
FRESHRSS_EMAIL=your-email@example.com
FRESHRSS_API_PASSWORD=your-api-password

Important: The FRESHRSS_API_PASSWORD is NOT your regular FreshRSS password. You need to:

1. Enable API access in FreshRSS Settings → Authentication
2. Set an API password in your Profile settings

Running the Server

Transport Modes

The FreshRSS MCP server supports multiple transport protocols:

1. Stdio Mode (Default - for Claude Desktop)

# Activate virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Run with stdio transport (silent, for MCP clients)
freshrss-mcp

# Or explicitly
freshrss-mcp --stdio

2. HTTP Mode (for web integration)

# Activate virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Run streamable HTTP server on port 8000
freshrss-mcp --http

Output:

INFO:freshrss_mcp.server:🚀 FreshRSS MCP Server starting on http://localhost:8000
INFO:freshrss_mcp.server:📋 13 MCP tools loaded for FreshRSS management
INFO:     Uvicorn running on http://localhost:8000 (Press CTRL+C to quit)

Available endpoints:

• 🌐 HTTP: http://localhost:8000
• 🔌 WebSocket: ws://localhost:8000/ws
• ❤️ Health Check: http://localhost:8000/health

3. Server-Sent Events Mode

freshrss-mcp --sse

4. Help

freshrss-mcp --help

Claude Desktop Configuration

For Stdio Mode (Recommended)

Add the FreshRSS MCP server to your Claude Desktop configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "freshrss": {
      "command": "freshrss-mcp",
      "env": {
        "FRESHRSS_URL": "https://your-freshrss-instance.com",
        "FRESHRSS_EMAIL": "your-email@example.com",
        "FRESHRSS_API_PASSWORD": "your-api-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

For HTTP Mode

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "freshrss": {
      "command": "freshrss-mcp",
      "args": ["--http"],
      "env": {
        "FRESHRSS_URL": "https://your-freshrss-instance.com",
        "FRESHRSS_EMAIL": "your-email@example.com",
        "FRESHRSS_API_PASSWORD": "your-api-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Authentication

freshrss_authenticate

Authenticate with your FreshRSS instance. Can use environment variables or explicit parameters.

# Using environment variables
await freshrss_authenticate()

# Using explicit parameters
await freshrss_authenticate({
    "base_url": "https://freshrss.example.com",
    "email": "user@example.com",
    "api_password": "your-api-password"
})

Folder Management

freshrss_list_folders

List all folders/categories in your FreshRSS instance.

result = await freshrss_list_folders()
# Returns: {"folders": [{"name": "Tech", "id": "user/-/label/Tech", "type": "folder"}], "count": 1}

freshrss_list_subscriptions

List all subscribed feeds with their folder assignments.

result = await freshrss_list_subscriptions()
# Returns detailed subscription information including folders

Article Reading

freshrss_get_articles

Fetch articles with various filtering options.

# Get unread articles from all feeds
await freshrss_get_articles({"show_read": false, "count": 50})

# Get articles from specific folder
await freshrss_get_articles({"folder": "Tech", "count": 20})

# Get starred articles
await freshrss_get_articles({"starred_only": true})

# Get articles from specific feed
await freshrss_get_articles({"feed_url": "https://example.com/feed.xml"})

# Pagination
await freshrss_get_articles({"count": 50, "continuation": "continuation_token"})

freshrss_get_unread_count

Get unread article counts organized by feed and folder.

result = await freshrss_get_unread_count()
# Returns total unread count plus breakdowns by feed and folder

Article Management

freshrss_mark_read

Mark one or more articles as read.

await freshrss_mark_read({
    "article_ids": ["tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/..."]
})

freshrss_mark_unread

Mark one or more articles as unread.

await freshrss_mark_unread({
    "article_ids": ["tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/..."]
})

freshrss_star_article

Star one or more articles.

await freshrss_star_article({
    "article_ids": ["tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/..."]
})

freshrss_unstar_article

Unstar one or more articles.

await freshrss_unstar_article({
    "article_ids": ["tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/..."]
})

freshrss_add_label

Add a label to one or more articles.

await freshrss_add_label({
    "article_ids": ["tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/..."],
    "label": "Important"
})

Feed Management

freshrss_subscribe

Subscribe to a new RSS feed.

# Basic subscription
await freshrss_subscribe({
    "feed_url": "https://example.com/feed.xml"
})

# With custom title and folder
await freshrss_subscribe({
    "feed_url": "https://example.com/feed.xml",
    "title": "Example Blog",
    "folder": "Tech"
})

freshrss_unsubscribe

Unsubscribe from a feed.

await freshrss_unsubscribe({
    "feed_url": "https://example.com/feed.xml"
})

Example Usage

Here's a complete example of using the FreshRSS MCP server:

# 1. Authenticate
await freshrss_authenticate()

# 2. List folders
folders = await freshrss_list_folders()
print(f"You have {folders['count']} folders")

# 3. Get unread counts
counts = await freshrss_get_unread_count()
print(f"Total unread: {counts['total_unread']}")

# 4. Fetch unread articles from Tech folder
articles = await freshrss_get_articles({
    "folder": "Tech",
    "show_read": false,
    "count": 10
})

# 5. Mark first article as read
if articles['articles']:
    await freshrss_mark_read({
        "article_ids": [articles['articles'][0]['id']]
    })

# 6. Star an interesting article
await freshrss_star_article({
    "article_ids": [articles['articles'][1]['id']]
})

Development

Quick Start in Virtual Environment

# Clone and setup
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/freshrss-mcp.git
cd freshrss-mcp

# Create and activate virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install in development mode
pip install -e .

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your FreshRSS credentials

# Test the installation
python test_direct.py

# Run HTTP server
freshrss-mcp --http

Running Tests

pytest tests/

Code Style

This project uses Black for code formatting and Ruff for linting:

black src/
ruff check src/

Development Commands

# Test all transport modes
freshrss-mcp --help
freshrss-mcp --stdio    # For MCP clients
freshrss-mcp --http     # HTTP server on port 8000
freshrss-mcp --sse      # Server-Sent Events

# Test API client directly
python test_direct.py

# Install development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

API Implementation

This MCP server implements the Google Reader API as supported by FreshRSS. The implementation includes:

• Authentication via ClientLogin
• Stream contents for article fetching
• Edit tag operations for marking read/starred
• Subscription management
• Tag/folder listing

Troubleshooting

Authentication Issues

1. "No auth token in response": Make sure you're using the API password, not your regular password
2. HTTP 404 errors: Check that your FreshRSS URL is correct and includes the protocol (https://)
3. API not enabled: Ensure API access is enabled in FreshRSS Settings → Authentication

Performance Tips

• Use pagination with continuation tokens for large article lists
• Filter by folder or feed to reduce response size
• Set appropriate count values (max ~1000 per request)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Acknowledgments

• FreshRSS for the excellent RSS reader
• Model Context Protocol for the MCP specification
• The FreshRSS community for API documentation