# RSS feeder auto-discovery can miss topic-specific feeds

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/rss-feeder-auto-discovery-can-miss-topic-specific-feeds/392890
**Category:** Bug
**Tags:** rss
**Created:** [January 7, 2026, 3:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/rss-feeder-auto-discovery-can-miss-topic-specific-feeds/392890 "2026-01-07T15:45:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

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### Author: ![Thefacto](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/thefacto/32/537948_2.png) [@Thefacto](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Thefacto)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2026, 3:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/rss-feeder-auto-discovery-can-miss-topic-specific-feeds/392890/2 "2026-01-07T15:54:39Z")

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Hi Arya,

Yes — this is indeed a result of how Discourse currently handles topic-specific RSS feeds, not a bug in your feed reader. The root cause is that Discourse adds `rel="nofollow"` to the `<link>` element for topic/category RSS feeds. Many feed readers ignore links with `nofollow`, which prevents automatic discovery, even though the feed itself is valid and works if accessed directly.

A practical workaround is to use a **Theme Component** to add topic-specific RSS links **without `nofollow`**. Here’s a simple example:

```html
<!-- Add topic-specific RSS links without nofollow -->
<script type="text/discourse-plugin" version="0.8">
  api.onPageChange((url, title) => {
    document.querySelectorAll('link.custom-rss').forEach(e => e.remove());
    document.querySelectorAll('link[title^="RSS feed of"]').forEach(link => {
      const newLink = document.createElement('link');
      newLink.rel = "alternate";
      newLink.type = "application/rss+xml";
      newLink.href = link.href;
      newLink.title = link.title;
      newLink.classList.add('custom-rss');
      document.head.appendChild(newLink);
    });
  });
</script>

```

This scans for all topic/category RSS links and injects new elements without nofollow into the .

Feed readers should now detect topic-specific feeds automatically.

Alternatively, for a simpler approach, you can just share the feed URL directly with users, e.g. [Cascade - NLnet Labs Community](https://community.nlnetlabs.nl/c/cascade/10.rss).

This method avoids modifying the core of Discourse and works across updates. Hopefully this helps feed autodiscovery work as expected!

Cheers!

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/rss-feeder-auto-discovery-can-miss-topic-specific-feeds/392890)._