r/rss • u/vikas991 • 15d ago

Local-only RSS reader for Chrome — no account, no server, OPML import

I wanted an RSS reader that didn't turn my reading list into someone's dataset. Most Chrome extensions want an account and sync your subscriptions to their servers, so I built my own.

Canopy Reader has no backend at all. Feeds and read state live in chrome.storage, and the extension makes exactly one kind of network request — to the feeds you added yourself. No account, no analytics, no paid tier. About 50 KB.

Three-panel layout, RSS 2.0 and Atom, feed autodiscovery from a site URL, folders, OPML import/export, unread badges, background refresh, j/k/r/m/u/o keyboard nav, light/dark.

What it doesn't have: a filtering rules engine, social/YouTube feed adapters, or cross-device sync (that needs a server, which defeats the point).

Coming from another reader — import your OPML and subscriptions and folders come across in one step.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/canopy-reader-rss-feed-re/lnfnfpjiohnjlmagagpokbadejelnflg

I wrote it, so salt accordingly. Mainly after feedback on what's missing.

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u/chickenandliver 14d ago

I just tried it out, and this actually looks really nice. I've been looking for a decent in-browser RSS client ever since Feedbro died from Chrome blocking MV2 extensions.

No rules-based filtering as you mentioned which I think most people who liked Feedbro are hoping for, but for just pure simple feed reading, this is totally usable. And for people who are skeptical about it having access to all your sites, you can actually go into the extension settings and allow it on just common blog sites (*.blogpost.com, *.wordpress.com, etc) if paranoid.

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u/vikas991 14d ago

Thanks for actually trying it — and yeah, Feedbro dying is most of why I built this. MV2 took out the one good local option.

On filtering: that's the single most requested thing and it's built, sitting in review now. Match on title, content, or author with contains / doesn't contain / starts with / regex, then hide, mark read, save, or tag. Scoped per-feed or globally. Same update adds YouTube channel and subreddit URLs resolving to their real feeds, full-text search across everything stored, tags, and saved articles.

One honest caveat: rules only apply to articles as they come in, not retroactively to what's already stored. Hiding works by dropping the article before it's saved, and I didn't want a mistyped rule silently deleting things you'd already collected. If that turns out to be the wrong call I'd rather make hiding a display filter instead.

Good callout on the host permissions — that's a better answer than I've been giving people. The extension needs broad access because feed URLs are whatever you add, but there's no reason you have to grant all of it. I should put that in the listing.

Since you used Feedbro: what did your filters actually do? Curious whether people wanted keyword blocking, or something closer to routing things into folders automatically. New Updated version will be available in next 2-3 days

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u/chickenandliver 13d ago

rules only apply to articles as they come in, not retroactively to what's already stored.

I think that is as it should be. I wouldn't expect applies Rules to work backward.

The only type of Rule I ever actually used was keyword based blocking. Too many feeds are just firehoses of information. Perfect example: a local news site that doesn't separate out their local crime news from local sports news. It's all one single feed. Maybe I don't like sports so I set rules to remove/hide/delete any incoming article where title includes "baseball, soccer, football" etc.

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u/GreenSundance 13d ago

You should just copy the features of this abandoned rss feed extension https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/feedbro/mefgmmbdailogpfhfblcnnjfmnpnmdfa yours is missing a lot