RSS

Briefleaf RSS and EPUB

Reviewed multi-publisher RSS selection, bounded server fetching, browser reading and attributed EPUB generation.

Reviewed feed directory

Briefleaf combines up to four reviewed publisher-controlled feeds into one browser edition or EPUB. The registry covers the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and a global selection. It records exact HTTPS feed URLs, publisher pages, terms pages and permitted article hostnames.

Users select registry entries; they cannot supply an arbitrary server-side URL. This keeps the fetch boundary auditable and avoids turning the service into an unrestricted RSS proxy or SSRF surface.

Content boundary

Briefleaf uses only content present in RSS or Atom: headline, date, summary, publisher-supplied full-content fields, source name and original article link. It strips markup and active content, caps text and media, and never fetches article pages or bypasses publisher access controls.

Some feeds contain a short summary only. Reader mode and the EPUB must say that honestly rather than presenting it as a full article. The original publisher link and attribution remain attached to every item.

Fetch and cache controls

  • Exact static HTTPS feed registry; redirects are not followed.
  • 2.5-second deadline and 256 KiB streamed-body limit per source.
  • DTD and entity declarations are rejected; article links are hostname-allowlisted.
  • At most four feeds, 30 parsed entries per feed and 24 emitted items per request.
  • Source failures are isolated with five-minute fresh cache and one-hour stale-on-error fallback.

EPUB and handoff

The generated file is an EPUB 3 container with escaped XHTML, navigation and no JavaScript or remote assets. It preserves selection, attribution and original links. Browser reader mode supports warm/dark and serif/sans preferences locally.

The generated File can be handed directly to LibreSend from an explicit user action or saved locally. That handoff does not require uploading the EPUB to LibreLeaf. A separate self-hosted LibreSend relay is optional and off on the public site.

References