RSS Polling

[Discourse]

	Summary	Allows you to automatically import content from RSS/ATOM feeds into your Discourse site as topics
	Install Guide	This plugin is bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately.

As this is an official plugin maintained by the Discourse team, Support, Bug, UX, and Feature requests can be made in the respective categories here on Meta, and tagged with the appropriate plugin tag. Click on a link below to get one started.

 Support  Bug  UX  Feature

This guide explains how to configure and use the RSS Polling plugin to automatically import content from RSS/ATOM feeds into your Discourse site as topics.

Required user level: Administrator

Summary

This documentation will cover enabling the RSS Polling plugin, configuring feed URLs, managing settings, and troubleshooting common issues. You’ll learn how to set up feeds to post to specific categories, assign authors, and control how content appears on your site.

Enable the RSS Polling plugin

Self-hosted sites

Navigate to your admin panel at Admin > Plugins panel and locate the RSS Polling plugin. Enable it using the toggle switch:

Hosted by Discourse

If your site is hosted by Discourse, contact the support team to request activation of the RSS Polling plugin. The plugin is available on all hosted plans.

Configure RSS feeds

Once the plugin is enabled, access the RSS Polling configuration page by visiting Admin > Plugin > RSS Polling panel directly, or by navigating to /admin/plugins and selecting “RSS Polling” from the sidebar menu.

Add a new RSS feed

1. Enter the RSS or ATOM feed URL in the “Feed URL” field
2. Select an existing user from your site as the “Author” - this user will own all posts created from the feed
3. Choose a Discourse category where the feed’s topics will be published
4. Click the save button.

Optional: Add tags that will be applied to all topics from this feed and/or enter a feed category filter to limit which feed items get imported

Feed category filter

The feed category filter setting allows you to limit which feed items get published based on the item’s category metadata. When you enter a category term in this field, only feed items matching that specific category will be imported into Discourse.

For example, if you examine the feed at https://blog.discourse.org/feed.xml, you’ll see that each entry has category information. You would enter the value of the category’s term property to filter for specific categories.

YouTube feeds configuration

common examples

YouTube is one of the most common platforms used with RSS Polling, but it’s also easy to misconfigure. Below are the recommended and supported feed URL formats for the most common YouTube use cases.

Import a YouTube playlist

To import videos from a YouTube playlist, you must use YouTube’s RSS feed endpoint for playlists.

The correct format is:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=<PLAYLIST-ID>

Where <PLAYLIST-ID> is the token found in the playlist URL.

For example, given this playlist URL:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxYzA1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8I9JkLmNoPqR

The correct RSS feed URL would be:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=PLxYzA1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8I9JkLmNoPqR

Import a YouTube channel

To import videos from a YouTube channel, use the channel RSS feed format:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=YOUR_CHANNEL_ID

You can find the channel_id in YouTube under Advanced settings for the channel.

Using a channel URL, username URL, or custom channel URL directly will not work. The RSS Polling plugin requires the explicit channel_id feed URL.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Using standard YouTube page URLs instead of RSS feed URLs
• Using playlist or channel URLs without extracting the correct ID
• Mixing playlist and channel parameters in the same feed URL

If a YouTube feed is misconfigured, the RSS Polling plugin may fail silently or stop importing new topics.

Configure polling frequency

The rss polling frequency site setting controls how often Discourse checks RSS feeds for new content. The default value is 30 minutes, with a minimum allowed value of 10 minutes and maximum of 180 minutes (3 hours).

Self-hosted sites

To adjust the polling frequency:

1. Go to /admin/site_settings
2. Search for “rss polling frequency”
3. Set your desired interval in minutes

Hosted sites

Contact the support team to request an adjustment to the rss_polling_frequency site setting.

Manage feed settings

Change feed author

You can change the author of all topics associated with a specific RSS feed by updating the “Author” field on the RSS Polling settings page. This will automatically update all existing topics from that feed with the new author. These changes appear as system post edit events in your admin logs.

Change feed category or tags

Changing the category or tags of an RSS feed URL will not automatically update existing topics. You’ll need to:

1. Use Administrative Bulk Operations to manually move existing topics to the new category or update tags
2. Update the RSS feed settings so new topics use the correct category and tags

Feed URL limitations

Each unique RSS feed URL will only be imported once into Discourse. When you first configure an RSS feed, Discourse imports the entire feed. Deleting and re-adding the same feed URL will not cause re-import of previously processed items.

Control topic visibility

Prevent topics from being unlisted

By default, embedded topics are unlisted until they receive a reply. This behavior doesn’t make sense for RSS-imported topics. To prevent RSS topics from being unlisted:

1. Go to /admin/site_settings
2. Search for “embed unlisted”
3. Disable this setting

Show full post content

If the embed truncate site setting is enabled (default), feed topics will only display an excerpt. Users can view the full content by clicking the “Show Full Post” button.

To always show full content:

1. Go to Admin > Site Settings
2. Search for “embed truncate”
3. Disable this setting

If full post content isn’t displaying correctly, configure the embed whitelist selector site setting to specify which HTML elements should be imported.

Common issues and solutions

Feed not updating

Check that:

• The RSS feed URL is valid and accessible
• The polling frequency hasn’t been set too high
• There are actually new items in the RSS feed since the last poll

Plugin interface not responding

Some users report issues with the RSS Polling configuration interface not responding. This is often caused by browser ad-blockers interfering with the admin interface. Try:

• Disabling ad-blockers for your Discourse site
• Using a different browser
• Hard refreshing the page

Topics creating with wrong dates

By default, RSS topics use the current date when imported. If you want to use the original publication date from the RSS feed, enable the rss polling use pubdate setting.

FAQ

How often can I poll RSS feeds?
The minimum polling frequency is 10 minutes, maximum is 180 minutes (3 hours).

Can I import replies from RSS feeds?
No, the RSS Polling plugin only imports the main feed items as individual topics. It doesn’t import comments or replies.

Will deleting and re-adding a feed cause duplicate topics?
No, each RSS feed item is only imported once. Re-adding a feed will not create duplicates.

How do I debug RSS polling issues?
Currently, the plugin has limited logging. Check your Discourse logs at Admins > Security > Logs panel for any error messages related to RSS polling.

Additional resources

• Configuring allowed embed selectors
• Administrative Bulk Operations
• Embed Discourse comments on another website via Javascript

Last edited by @dax 2026-01-07T18:37:25Z

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