skier. v1.0.0

generateFeedTask

Generate RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds from your content.

When to Use

✅ Use generateFeedTask when you have:

  • Blog posts subscribers should follow
  • News or announcements
  • Podcast episodes

Quick Start

generateFeedTask({
  articles: '${posts}',
  outDir: 'public',
  site: {
    title: 'My Blog',
    link: 'https://example.com',
    author: { name: 'Jane Doe' },
  },
})

Output:

  • public/rss.xml (RSS)
  • public/atom.xml (Atom)
  • public/json.json (JSON Feed)

Configuration

Option Type Required Description
articles string/array ✅ Items array or ${varName} reference
outDir string ✅ Output directory
site object ✅ Feed metadata (see below)

Site Metadata

{
  title: 'My Blog',                  // Feed title
  description: 'Tech thoughts',      // Feed description
  id: 'https://example.com/',        // Unique ID (often same as link)
  link: 'https://example.com/',      // Site URL (MUST be absolute)
  language: 'en',                    // ISO language code
  favicon: 'https://example.com/favicon.ico',
  copyright: '© 2024 Jane Doe',
  author: {
    name: 'Jane Doe',
    email: 'jane@example.com',
    link: 'https://example.com/about',
  },
  feedLinks: {
    json: 'https://example.com/json.json',
    atom: 'https://example.com/atom.xml',
  },
}

Type signature

The exact GenerateFeedConfig interface, transcluded from source so it stays in step with the shipping code:

export interface GenerateFeedConfig {
  articles: SkierItem[];
  outDir: string;
  site: {
    title: string;
    description: string;
    id: string;
    link: string;
    language: string;
    favicon: string;
    copyright: string;
    feedLinks: {
      json: string;
      atom: string;
    };
    author: {
      name: string;
      email: string;
      link: string;
    };
  };
}

Every task's config type together: API Reference → Config Interfaces.

Article Format

Each article needs these fields:

{
  title: 'Post Title',           // Required
  link: '/posts/my-post/',       // Required (relative or absolute)
  body: '<p>HTML content</p>',   // Required (for feed content)
  dateObj: new Date('2024-01-15'), // Required (Date object)

  // Optional
  excerpt: 'Short summary',    // Used as feed description fallback
  author: 'Jane Doe',
  image: 'https://example.com/image.jpg',
}

Integration with generateItemsTask

The items task produces data compatible with feeds:

generateItemsTask({
  itemsDir: 'src/items/posts',
  outputVar: 'posts',
  // ...
}),

generateFeedTask({
  articles: '${posts}',
  outDir: 'public',
  site: { /* ... */ },
}),

Add feed discovery to your templates:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
      title="RSS Feed" href="/rss.xml">
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml"
      title="Atom Feed" href="/atom.xml">
<link rel="alternate" type="application/json"
      title="JSON Feed" href="/json.json">

Common Mistakes

❌ Using relative site.link:

site: { link: '/blog' }  // ❌ Feed readers need absolute URLs
site: { link: 'https://example.com' }  // ✅

❌ Invalid dates:

// Item date must be a Date object
dateObj: '2024-01-15'           // ❌ String
dateObj: new Date('2024-01-15') // ✅ Date object