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Managing Feeds

Add, list, and remove podcast feeds in Inkwell.

Adding Feeds

Basic Feed

inkwell add <RSS_URL> --feed-name <FEED_NAME>

Example:

inkwell add https://feeds.example.com/tech-podcast.rss --feed-name tech-show

Feed names can be human-readable. Inkwell stores a slug as the config key and keeps the original as the display name:

inkwell add https://feeds.example.com/show.rss --feed-name "Oren Meets World"

That feed is stored as oren-meets-world, but you can fetch or remove it with either the slug or the display name.

Output:

✓ Feed 'tech-show' added successfully

Feed with Category

Organize feeds with categories for automatic template selection:

inkwell add https://example.com/feed.rss --feed-name startup-podcast --category business

Common categories:

Category Description Auto-selected Templates
tech Technology podcasts summary, quotes, tools-mentioned
business Business & entrepreneurship summary, quotes, key-concepts
interview Interview shows summary, quotes
education Educational content summary, key-concepts

Feed with Extra Templates

Use --extra-templates when a feed should always run additional templates beyond its category defaults:

inkwell add https://example.com/feed.rss \
  --feed-name founder-interviews \
  --category interview \
  --extra-templates books-mentioned,step-by-step-plan

Extra templates are additive. A feed with category interview still gets the interview defaults, then Inkwell adds books-mentioned and step-by-step-plan.

Change or clear them later:

inkwell config feed founder-interviews --extra-templates books-mentioned
inkwell config feed founder-interviews --extra-templates ""

Private/Paid Feeds

For premium podcasts requiring authentication:

inkwell add https://private.com/feed.rss --feed-name premium-show --auth

Inkwell prompts for credentials:

Authentication required
Auth type (basic/bearer): basic
Username: user@example.com
Password: ********

✓ Feed 'premium-show' added successfully
  Credentials encrypted and stored securely

Authentication types:

  • Basic Auth - Username + password (most common)
  • Bearer Token - API token or key

Security

All credentials are encrypted using Fernet symmetric encryption before storage.

YouTube Channels

Inkwell accepts any standard YouTube URL in inkwell add — paste a video URL, channel URL, @handle, /c/, or /user/ link and inkwell resolves the right media-RSS endpoint for you:

# Any of these work — inkwell figures out the channel's RSS feed
inkwell add https://www.youtube.com/@orenmeetsworld --feed-name oren-meets-world
inkwell add https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKeZ5XK2vp4 --feed-name oren-meets-world
inkwell add https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_tSQ6UQy2pROm-I0J7UBoA --feed-name oren-meets-world

If you just want to process one video without tracking the channel, use inkwell fetch <video-url>. You'll see a hint at the end inviting you to save the channel:

Want to track this channel? Re-run with --save-feed to save it as a feed.

To take it up on the offer, re-run with --save-feed — the feed name is auto-derived from the channel name, so you don't have to invent one:

inkwell fetch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKeZ5XK2vp4 --save-feed
# → ✓ Saved channel as feed 'oren-meets-world'
#     Auto-named from channel metadata. To rename: inkwell rename oren-meets-world <new-name>.

Pass --feed-name if you want a specific name:

inkwell fetch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKeZ5XK2vp4 --save-feed --feed-name oren

Playlist URLs

Playlist URLs (?list=…) aren't supported yet — inkwell add rejects them with a clear error. Use the channel URL instead.

Listing Feeds

View all configured feeds:

inkwell list

Output:

╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│           Configured Podcast Feeds                      │
├────────────────┬───────────────────┬──────┬─────────────┤
│ Name           │ URL               │ Auth │ Category    │ Extra Templates │
├────────────────┼───────────────────┼──────┼─────────────┤
│ tech-show      │ feeds.example...  │ —    │ tech        │ books-mentioned │
│ premium-show   │ private.com/...   │ ✓    │ —           │ -               │
╰────────────────┴───────────────────┴──────┴─────────────╯

Total: 2 feed(s)

Removing Feeds

With Confirmation

inkwell remove my-podcast

Feed: my-podcast
URL:  https://example.com/feed.rss

Are you sure you want to remove this feed? [y/N]: y

✓ Feed 'my-podcast' removed

Skip Confirmation

inkwell remove my-podcast --force

Renaming Feeds

Rename a saved feed without losing its URL, category, or encrypted authentication settings:

inkwell rename old-name new-name

Feed names are normalized to lowercase slugs, so inkwell rename old-name "New Name!" becomes new-name. The human-readable name is kept as the feed's display name in inkwell list.

Use --force only when you intentionally want to replace an existing destination feed:

inkwell rename old-name new-name --force

Feed Organization Strategies

By Category

inkwell add https://tech1.com/feed.rss --feed-name tech-podcast-1 --category tech
inkwell add https://tech2.com/feed.rss --feed-name tech-podcast-2 --category tech --extra-templates step-by-step-plan
inkwell add https://biz.com/feed.rss --feed-name business-show --category business

By Priority (Naming Convention)

inkwell add https://example.com/feed.rss --feed-name 1-daily-podcast
inkwell add https://example.com/feed.rss --feed-name 2-weekly-podcast
inkwell add https://example.com/feed.rss --feed-name 3-archive-podcast

Batch Operations

Add multiple feeds from a script:

#!/bin/bash

inkwell add https://feed1.com/rss --feed-name podcast-1 --category tech
inkwell add https://feed2.com/rss --feed-name podcast-2 --category business
inkwell add https://feed3.com/rss --feed-name podcast-3 --category interview

echo "All feeds added!"

Naming Best Practices

  • Use lowercase and hyphens: tech-podcast, startup-stories
  • Keep names short but descriptive
  • Special characters are normalized automatically: my_podcast! → my-podcast

Troubleshooting

"Feed already exists"

✗ Feed 'my-podcast' already exists. Use update to modify it.
  Use 'inkwell remove my-podcast' first, or choose a different name

Solution: Remove the existing feed first or use a different name.

"Feed not found"

✗ Feed 'non-existent' not found

Available feeds:
  • my-podcast
  • tech-show

Solution: Check feed name with inkwell list.

Next Steps