OpenFeed

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Installation ​

Requirements ​

  • Node.js 18 or later
  • A persistent process host — see deployment (not serverless)
  • A writable filesystem for SQLite storage

OpenFeed is not compatible with serverless/edge runtimes (Cloudflare Workers, Vercel Edge, AWS Lambda). Deploy to Railway, Fly.io, DigitalOcean App Platform, or a VPS.

Install ​

bash
npm install -g open-feed

Create an open-feed.yaml config file (see configuration), then start the server:

bash
open-feed

Open http://localhost:3000 to browse your feed.

CLI options ​

bash
open-feed                                # start server (default port 3000)
open-feed --port 8080                    # override port
open-feed --config /path/to/config.yaml  # custom config path
open-feed --db /path/to/data.db          # custom database path
open-feed fetch                          # run a manual fetch and exit

Deployment ​

  1. Push your project (with open-feed.yaml, without .env) to GitHub
  2. Create a new project at railway.app and connect your repo
  3. Set environment variables in Settings → Variables (e.g. FIRECRAWL_API_KEY)
  4. Set start command: open-feed

Railway auto-deploys on every push. Note: Railway's filesystem is ephemeral — use a persistent volume if you want to preserve read history across redeploys.

Fly.io ​

  1. Install the Fly CLI: brew install flyctl
  2. Create a Dockerfile in your project directory:
dockerfile
FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
RUN npm install -g open-feed
COPY open-feed.yaml .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["open-feed"]
  1. Deploy:
bash
fly launch
fly secrets set FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=your_key_here
fly deploy
  1. For persistent SQLite storage, create a volume:
bash
fly volumes create open_feed_data --size 1

Then use open-feed --db /data/open-feed.db and mount the volume at /data.

DigitalOcean App Platform ​

  1. Push to GitHub
  2. Create a new App at cloud.digitalocean.com/apps
  3. Connect your repo, set run command: open-feed
  4. Add environment variables and deploy

VPS (Ubuntu/Debian) ​

bash
# Install Node.js
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Install open-feed
npm install -g open-feed
mkdir ~/open-feed && cd ~/open-feed

# Create config (edit as needed)
cat > open-feed.yaml << 'EOF'
port: 3000
schedule: "0 7 * * *"
feeds:
  - name: Main
    sources:
      - name: Example
        url: https://example.substack.com
EOF

# Create a systemd service
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/open-feed.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=open-feed
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=YOUR_USERNAME
WorkingDirectory=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/open-feed
ExecStart=/usr/bin/open-feed
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl enable open-feed
sudo systemctl start open-feed

Cloudflare Pages (docs only) ​

The OpenFeed docs site can be hosted on Cloudflare Pages. In your Cloudflare Pages project settings, configure:

  • Build command: pnpm --filter open-feed docs:build
  • Build output directory: open-feed/docs/.vitepress/dist
  • Root directory: / (repo root, so pnpm can resolve workspaces)
  • Node.js version: 18 or later

Cloudflare Pages will automatically rebuild and redeploy whenever you push to your connected GitHub branch.

Version updates ​

bash
npm update -g open-feed

The SQLite database schema is backwards-compatible across patch and minor versions.

Accessing from your phone ​

Once the server is running, navigate to its URL in Safari or Chrome. To install as a PWA on iOS: tap Share → "Add to Home Screen".

For local access on the same network, find your computer's local IP (ipconfig getifaddr en0 on macOS, hostname -I on Linux) and open http://192.168.x.x:3000.