Feedscout

Headers Method ​

The Headers method extracts feed URLs from HTTP Link headers per RFC 8288.

How It Works ​

Some servers advertise feeds via HTTP headers instead of (or in addition to) HTML:

http
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Link: </feed.xml>; rel="alternate"; type="application/rss+xml"
Link: </atom.xml>; rel="alternate"; type="application/atom+xml"

The Headers method parses these headers and extracts feed URLs.

Configuration ​

Feedscout comes with reasonable defaults, but you can customize how headers are parsed if needed.

Control which Link headers are matched:

typescript
import { mimeTypes } from 'feedscout/feeds'

const feeds = await discoverFeeds(url, {
  methods: {
    headers: {
      linkSelectors: [
        { rel: 'alternate', types: mimeTypes },
        { rel: 'feed' },
      ],
    },
  },
})

Default Values ​

You can import the default Headers options:

typescript
import { defaultHeadersOptions } from 'feedscout/feeds'

Or import individual pieces like linkSelectors:

typescript
import { linkSelectors } from 'feedscout/feeds'

Using Directly ​

You can use the Headers discovery function directly:

typescript
import { discoverUrisFromHeaders } from 'feedscout/methods'

const uris = discoverUrisFromHeaders(headers, {
  baseUrl: 'https://example.com',
  linkSelectors: [{ rel: 'alternate', types: ['application/rss+xml'] }],
})

// ['/feed.xml']

URIs come back as written in the Link header, so they can be relative. discoverFeeds resolves them against the page URL.

Providing Headers ​

When using discoverFeeds(), you can provide headers from an existing response:

typescript
const response = await fetch('https://example.com')

const feeds = await discoverFeeds(
  {
    url: 'https://example.com',
    content: await response.text(),
    headers: response.headers,
  },
  { methods: ['html', 'headers'] },
)

When to Use ​

The Headers method is useful when:

  • The server doesn't include feed links in HTML.
  • You want to check for feeds without parsing the full HTML.
  • The feed URL is only advertised via headers.

Most websites use HTML <link> elements, so the Headers method is typically used as a secondary source.