Use automatic feed generation

Automatic feed generation lets html2rss-web create a stable feed from just a page’s URL without you writing any YAML configs. It uses heuristics to find the main content list on a page.

How it Works

This flow depends on three components working together:

1. The Server: AUTO_SOURCE_ENABLED=true (default in development) must be set.
2. Access Control: The server expects HTML2RSS_ACCESS_TOKEN.
3. The Web UI: You provide the URL and the token in the browser.

When you click “Generate,” the server parses the page, identifies the items, and generates a unique, stable URL for that feed.

Input Quality Tips

Automatic generation is most successful when the input URL is a dedicated listing page.

• Prefer: Newsrooms, press releases, changelogs, or category archives.
• Avoid: Generic homepages, search results, or sites that require heavy JavaScript to show content.

If a generated feed’s quality is poor, try a more specific sub-page URL before switching to a custom config.

When to Switch to Custom Feeds

While automatic generation is fast, it is not a “set and forget” solution for complex sites. Move to Creating Custom Feeds when:

• You need to extract specific fields (like custom tags or authors).
• The heuristic picks the wrong content area.
• You want a reviewable, version-controlled scraping rule.
• The site structure changes and breaks the automatic extraction.