Summary

NewsBlur is a self-hostable personal news reader and social network designed to aggregate RSS feeds, facilitate discussions, and intelligently filter content. It offers a free hosted service and allows users to maintain full control over their data via a self-hosted instance, benefiting individuals seeking a customizable and community-oriented news consumption experience.

How It Works

This project is a Django (Python 3.7+) application with a Backbone.js frontend, leveraging PostgreSQL for relational data, MongoDB for stories, Redis for caching, and Elasticsearch for optional full-text search. Background tasks like feed fetching are managed by Celery, while Node.js handles text extraction and image processing. Its core approach emphasizes real-time story delivery, an "original site view" for context, and a powerful user-driven training system to highlight or hide preferred content.

Quick Start & Requirements

Self-hosting requires Docker and Docker Compose. Installation involves cloning the repository (git clone https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur.git), navigating into the directory (cd NewsBlur), and running make to start/update the instance and apply migrations. Access is typically via https://localhost. Detailed development guidelines are available in AGENTS.md.

Highlighted Details

• Features real-time RSS feed ingestion and story pushing.
• Provides an "original site view" and a robust training mechanism for content filtering.
• Supports native iOS, macOS, and Android applications, alongside integration with popular third-party readers like Reeder and ReadKit.
• Offers IFTTT integration for workflow automation.
• Includes advanced Git worktree support for developing multiple features concurrently, ideal for AI coding assistants.

Maintenance & Community

NewsBlur is authored by Samuel Clay. Support, questions, and bug reports are primarily handled through the forum.newsblur.com community forum. Contribution guidelines are detailed in the AGENTS.md file.

Licensing & Compatibility

The project is released under the MIT License, which is permissive and generally allows for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects.

Limitations & Caveats

The provided README does not explicitly detail any specific limitations, alpha status, known bugs, or unsupported platforms for the self-hosted version.