Release Notes — v1.2
Release date: 2026-04-06
Version 1.2 brings two new tools to rss-tools, major improvements to Markdown journal generation, and a broad set of fixes and robustness updates across the codebase.
rssjournal is also used on my personal website if you want to see the result at https://www.foo.be/journal/.
Highlights
New tools
- rssgraph: a new tool to generate a heatmap calendar from RSS data.
- rssjournal: a new tool to generate a Markdown journal from RSS feeds.
Improvements
rssjournal
rssjournal received the largest set of enhancements in this release, including:
- support for descriptions in generated output,
- an index with added statistics,
- the ability to bundle media directly in Markdown output, such as media from Flickr Atom feeds,
- improved rendering for large content,
- better structure by treating each entry as its own section,
- support for specifying the output format extension in the index,
- removal of unwanted summarization behavior,
- improved Markdown formatting overall.
Documentation
- Added a list of available tools to the documentation.
- Restored author provenance and the original README footnote.
- General README and script comment modernization.
Fixes
rssgraph
- Fixed warning messages.
rssjournal
- Added a proper Markdown header.
rssfind
- Fixed references and links.
- Improved feed discovery by:
- following HTTP redirects,
- recognizing Atom feeds,
- resolving relative Atom alternate links,
- combining standard discovery results with brute-force mode.
rsscluster
- Fixed a crash when the final clustered list is empty.
- Corrected timestamp typing for the final cluster.
Other notable changes
rssmerge
- Added an optional randomize flag to shuffle merged items.
- Added optional extended Markdown output support.
rssdir
- Added Atom feed output and related CLI options.
- Improved default feed titles using the directory name and hostname when no title is provided.
- Made the default output format explicitly RSS.
General
- Improved overall script robustness and option handling across the codebase.
Summary
Version 1.2 focuses on expanding the toolkit with new ways to visualize RSS activity and turn feeds into structured Markdown journals, while also improving interoperability with Atom feeds, strengthening discovery logic, and making the overall toolset more robust and easier to use.