NewsBlur
A personal news reader bringing people together to talk about the world.
A new sound of an old instrument.
www.newsblur.com
About
NewsBlur is a personal news reader with intelligence. It's an RSS feed reader and social news network that shows the original site while giving you powerful filtering tools. Train NewsBlur to learn what you like and dislike, and it will automatically highlight and hide stories.
NewsBlur is free to use at newsblur.com (up to 64 sites) with premium plans available, or you can self-host your own instance using this repository.
Features
- Real-time RSS - Stories are pushed directly to you, so you can read news as it comes in
- Original Site View - Read the content in context, the way it was meant to be seen
- Training - Hide the stories you don't like and highlight the stories you do
- Shared Stories - Reading news is better with friends. Share stories on your public blurblog
- Full Text Search - Quickly find stories across all of your subscriptions
- Story Tagging - Save stories with custom tags for fast references
- Blurblog Privacy - Share stories with the world or only with your friends
- Saved Searches - Regularly used searches are conveniently given their own feeds
- Read the Full Story - The original story from truncated RSS feeds is seamlessly expanded
- Track Changes - See how a story evolved since it was first published
- Email Newsletters - Read your email newsletters where they belong, in a news reader
- Multiple Layouts - Grid, List, Split, or Magazine view for each site
- Dark Mode - Easy on the eyes and built into the web, iOS, and Android
- YouTube Channels - Even sites that don't publish RSS feeds can be followed
- Third-party Apps - Supports Reeder, ReadKit, Unread, and many more
- IFTTT Integration - Hook NewsBlur up to nearly every service on the web
- MCP Server - Connect AI agents to your feeds, stories, and classifiers
- Native Mobile Apps - Free iOS, macOS, and Android apps jam-packed with features
Technology
NewsBlur is a Django application (Python 3.7+) with a Backbone.js frontend. It uses:
- PostgreSQL for relational data (feeds, subscriptions, accounts)
- MongoDB for stories and read states
- Redis for story assembly and caching
- Elasticsearch for search (optional)
- Celery for background tasks (feed fetching)
- Node.js services for text extraction and image processing
Self-Hosted Installation
This repository contains everything you need to run your own NewsBlur instance with complete control over your data.
Prerequisites: Docker and Docker Compose
git clone https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur.git
cd NewsBlur
make
Visit https://localhost (type thisisunsafe to bypass the self-signed certificate warning).
Common commands:
make - Start/update and apply migrations (run after git pull)make log - View web and node logsmake logall - View all container logsmake shell - Django shell with auto-imported modelsmake bash - Bash shell in web containermake test - Run testsmake lint - Format code (isort, black, flake8)make down - Stop containers
Bootstrap discover feeds (without fetching):
docker exec -t newsblur_web python manage.py bootstrap_popular_feeds --skip-fetch
This creates PopularFeed records from the curated fixtures file without fetching any feed content. You can filter by type with --type youtube, --type reddit, --type podcast, --type newsletter, or --type rss.
Database access:
make mongo - MongoDB shellmake redis - Redis CLImake postgres - PostgreSQL shell
See AGENTS.md for detailed development guidelines.
Configuration
To customize your NewsBlur installation, create newsblur_web/local_settings.py to override settings from docker_local_settings.py.
Settings for self-hosted installations:
NEWSBLUR_URL - Your domain (default: https://localhost). Also used for Archive browser extension OAuth.SESSION_COOKIE_DOMAIN - Cookie domain for authenticationAUTO_PREMIUM - Give new users premium features (default: True)AUTO_ENABLE_NEW_USERS - Auto-activate new accounts (default: True)ENFORCE_SIGNUP_CAPTCHA - Require captcha on signup (default: False)OPENAI_API_KEY - AI features and Discover for related storiesDAYS_OF_UNREAD - Story retention for premium users in days (default: 30)DAYS_OF_UNREAD_FREE - Story retention for free users in days (default: 14)HOMEPAGE_USERNAME - Username shown on homepage to unauthenticated users (default: "popular")
Uncommon settings (for running full newsblur.com):
EMAIL_BACKEND - Email delivery methodSTRIPE_SECRET / STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE - Stripe payment processingPAYPAL_API_CLIENTID / PAYPAL_API_SECRET - PayPal payment processingS3_* settings - AWS S3 bucket configuration for backups, icons, avatarsFACEBOOK_APP_ID / TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY / YOUTUBE_API_KEY - Social API keys
See the full list in docker_local_settings.py and settings.py.
Development with Worktrees
NewsBlur supports Git worktrees for working on multiple features simultaneously, with each worktree running on its own set of ports. This is ideal when working with AI coding assistants like Claude Code.
Create and start a worktree:
git worktree add .worktree/feature-name
cd .worktree/feature-name
make worktree
Each worktree automatically gets unique ports based on its directory name:
- Main repo:
https://localhost (ports 80/443)
- Worktree:
https://localhost:XXXX (unique ports)
View your worktree's URLs:
make worktree
Follow the worktree logs:
make worktree-log
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
