Adding a News Source

How do I add a news source in m18t? Paste a feed URL and let the create flow fill in the name and slug. Learn the feed types and what source health means.

A news source is a feed that News Manager polls for new articles. Adding one starts with pasting its feed address and letting the create flow fill in the rest.

What you'll learn

  • Which feed types work today and which are on the roadmap.
  • How the URL-first create flow fills in the name and slug for you.
  • How to classify a source and what source health means.

The concept: sources belong to a brand

Every source you add is tied to the brand you're working in. Its articles only appear in that brand's queue, and nothing it brings in is visible to your other brands. Adding a source is brand-gated — you pick the brand as part of the flow, and it counts against that brand's source quota.

The fastest way to add a source is to start with its feed address and let News Manager derive the details.

Feed types

News Manager works with two standard feed formats today, both auto-detected by the parser:

  • RSS Feed — the most common feed format across blogs and news sites. Look for a /feed, /rss, or /atom.xml path, or search "site name rss".
  • Atom Feed — an XML feed format similar to RSS.

The source-type picker also shows JSON API and Page Scrape, each carrying a "Soon" badge and shown disabled. These need per-source adapters that aren't built yet — they're on the roadmap, not available now. Choose RSS or Atom.

How to add a source

  1. Open News Manager in the Studio sidebar and confirm the right brand is selected in the top navigation.
  2. Click Add Source. The guided create flow opens with a source-type picker — pick RSS Feed or Atom Feed.
  3. In Feed URL, paste the feed's link. When you move off the field, News Manager suggests a name and slug from the address, so you rarely type them by hand. Edit either if you want something more recognizable.
  4. Optionally add the Site URL (Homepage) for the publication.
  5. Under Classification, set a Category (your brand's topic tags — labelling a source here makes its articles easy to filter later), plus Language, Priority, and Poll Interval (hours).
  6. Leave Active on so Scout will poll it, add any internal Notes, and click Add Source.

The source is now active and will be picked up the next time Scout runs, whether you run it by hand or leave it on a schedule.

Previewing and editing

Select any source to preview its feed in the side panel — you'll see recent items, with each marked New or showing its processing status if News Manager already knows it. That's a quick way to confirm a feed is live and returning articles before you rely on it.

To change a source later, use its edit action. On edit you can adjust the name, slug, feed URL, category, language, Feed Type (RSS or Atom), priority, poll interval, active state, and notes.

Source health

Feeds break sometimes — a site moves, a feed URL retires, or a server goes quiet. News Manager watches for this.

If a source fails repeatedly, it is automatically disabled (you'll see an "auto" marker) so it stops slowing your runs, and a health indicator flags what happened. A disabled source is never deleted on its own — it pauses until you decide. When you've confirmed the feed works again, re-enable it (this resets the failure streak) and it rejoins the next Scout run.

FAQ

Why are the Scrape and API source types disabled? JSON API and Page Scrape need per-source adapters that aren't built yet. They're shown with a "Soon" badge so the roadmap is visible. Use RSS or Atom today.

How do I find a site's feed URL? Try the site's /feed, /rss, or /atom.xml path, or search "site name rss". You can paste the feed link into the Feed URL field and News Manager will suggest a name and slug.

My source got disabled on its own. Why? It failed to fetch repeatedly, so News Manager auto-disabled it to keep your runs fast. Check the feed in a browser; once it's working, re-enable the source to reset its failure streak.

Can two brands follow the same feed? Yes. Sources are per-brand, so each brand keeps its own copy and its own dedup record. The same feed in two brands doesn't cross-link.

Does adding a source count against a limit? Yes — sources count against the brand's source quota, which is why the create flow is brand-gated and shows a quota meter.

What's next

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