# Build brief — a focused alternative to Feedly

> **Verdict:** Yes, for personal use · **Buildability:** 67/100 · **Category:** RSS Research
> **Source:** https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/feedly
> Independent editorial assessment from Can It Be Vibe Coded? Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from Feedly. Verify current pricing and capabilities before acting.

## Context

**Feedly** — RSS reader and research feed for websites, newsletters, and alerts. It currently costs $7/mo.

Core RSS reading, folders, search, and saved articles are very buildable; Feedly's paid moat is polished feed discovery, mobile, AI features, and reliability.

This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Feedly that is genuinely reproducible. It is deliberately narrower than the product it replaces, and it says so in writing. Build the useful core; do not pretend to have rebuilt the rest.

## What you are building

Parse RSS feeds on a schedule, store items, mark read/saved, expose folders and search, and optionally summarize articles.

- Build a focused single-user workflow with real persistence, search, and export.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.

## Requirements

### Functional

- Hosted cron or local daemon.
- RSS parser.
- Database.
- Web UI.

### Data and integrations

- Optional LLM API.

Each of these needs a real account, credential, or quota. Set them up before writing feature code.

### Non-functional

- Accessibility: semantic markup, labelled controls, visible focus, and reduced-motion support.
- Security: server-side secrets, validated input, and no credentials in the client bundle.
- Reliability: retries with backoff on external calls, and a clear failure state when a provider is down.
- Portability: the operator can export their data and leave without losing it.

## Implementation brief

Build me a personal RSS reader to replace Feedly. Requirements:

- Node + Express + better-sqlite3, server-rendered pages, binds to localhost.
- Feeds live in feeds.opml with folders; import my Feedly OPML export on first
  run so nothing is retyped.
- Poll every 30 minutes with node-cron, parse with rss-parser, dedupe items by
  GUID then link.
- Reader UI: unread counts per folder, an article list with j/k keyboard
  navigation, one-key mark-read, and s to star.
- Starred view, plus full-text search over titles and content via SQLite FTS5.
- Optional summarize button per article using an LLM key from .env; hide the
  button entirely when no key is set.
- Keep read items 90 days, starred forever, pruned nightly.
- No accounts, no telemetry, local-first.
- Out of scope: mobile apps and feed discovery/suggestions. Adding feeds means
  editing the OPML, that is fine.
- README: setup, where the DB lives, and how to export my OPML back out.

## Delivery standard

- Inspect the repository first, then write a short implementation plan before writing code.
- Deliver the smallest complete end-to-end workflow first; every primary control must work against persisted data.
- Use real validation and storage; never substitute fake dashboards, decorative controls, hard-coded success states, or mock integrations.
- Include responsive layouts plus genuine empty, loading, success, validation, and failure states.
- Keep secrets server-side in environment variables, provide .env.example, and never commit credentials or user data.
- Add structured logs around every external call and return actionable errors without leaking sensitive details.
- Write unit tests for the core logic and one automated test of the main user journey.
- Finish with a README covering setup, architecture, data location, backups, tests, deployment, and known limitations.

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] A clean install starts the app using only the README and .env.example.
- [ ] The primary journey works from first visit through saved result, reload, edit, export, and deletion where applicable.
- [ ] Invalid input, missing configuration, provider failure, and an empty database each have a usable state.
- [ ] The interface works at 390px and 1440px, is keyboard navigable, and shows visible focus on every control.
- [ ] Tests, type checking, linting, and a production build all pass with no ignored failures.
- [ ] No part of the interface implies a live integration, security guarantee, or scale capability that was not actually built and verified.

## Non-goals

Do not build these, and do not claim to have replaced them:

- Mobile apps.
- Feed discovery.
- Integrations.
- Leo/AI filtering.
- The last 20 percent is sync, migration fidelity, speed, and edge cases.
- Reliability at the vendor's scale is an operations problem, not a prompt.

## What you still own after launch

- Secure credentials, rotate secrets, and handle provider rate limits.
- Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
- Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
- Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.
- Maintain every third-party integration as APIs and OAuth rules change.

## Risk

**Operational risk.** The code is achievable; dependable data, integrations, and ongoing operations are the real cost.

Editorial confidence in this assessment: high. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.

## Prior art

Working open-source software you can read, fork, or borrow from before starting:

- [FreshRSS](https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS) — Mature self-hosted RSS aggregator and reader

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