GitHub Action: Feed to Social Media

This GitHub Action selects latest item from RSS / Atom feed and posts it to one or more social media sites.

Supported platforms:

• Mastodon (posting to account + updating profile metadata)
• Twitter
• Slack
• Discord
• Bluesky

This GitHub Action is heavily inspired by Any Feed to Mastodon GitHub Action by Nicolas Hoizey. However, there are significant scope and use case diffences between the two:

• this Action employs naively straightforward algorithm for determining whether new items should be posted or not. You can choose between 3 different strategies (top of the item array, bottom of the item array, latest publication date).

• only one feed item is posted each time. This Action isn't suitable for fast-moving feeds that burst multiple new items on each check and that's intentional.

• published posts can use custom formatting. Example: New article: {article} {link} #someHashtag

Usage

Below is a action workflow that uses all available options:

name: Feed to social media
on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  Feed2SocialMedia:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Feed to social media
        uses: lwojcik/github-action-feed-to-social-media@v2
        with:
          feedUrl: 'https://offbeatbits.com/excerpts.xml'
          newestItemStrategy: 'latestDate'
          postFormat: "New post: {title}\n\n{link}"
          # Mastodon settings
          mastodonEnable: true
          mastodonPostFormat: "New post: {title}\n\n{link}"
          mastodonInstance: 'https://mas.to'
          mastodonAccessToken: 'MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN'
          mastodonPostVisibility: 'unlisted'
          # Mastodon metadata settings
          mastodonMetadataEnable: true
          mastodonMetadataInstance: 'https://mas.to'
          mastodonMetadataAccessToken: 'MASTODON_METADATA_ACCESS_TOKEN'
          mastodonMetadataFieldIndex: 0
          # Twitter settings
          twitterEnable: true
          twitterPostFormat: "New post: {title}\n\n{link}"
          twitterApiKey: 'TWITTER_API_KEY'
          twitterApiKeySecret: 'TWITTER_API_SECRET'
          twitterAccessToken: 'TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN'
          twitterAccessTokenSecret: 'TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET'
          # Discord settings
          discordEnable: true
          discordPostFormat: "New post: {title}\n\n{link}"
          discordWebhookUrl: 'DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL'
          # Slack settings
          slackEnable: true
          slackPostFormat: "New post: {title}\n\n{link}"
          slackWebhookUrl: 'DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL'
          # Bluesky settings
          blueskyEnable: true
          blueskyPostFormat: "New post: {title}\n\n{link}"
          blueskyHandle: 'user.bsky.social'
          blueskyAppPassword: 'APP_PASSWORD'
          blueskyOwnerHandle: 'owner.bsky.social'
          blueskyOwnerContact: 'owner@example.org'

Before running the Action, make sure it has write permissions in your repository so that it can create and update feed cache. Go to your repository settings, select Actions > General, look for Workflow permissions section and make sure you have Read and write permissions selected.

Internally, the Action uses actions/checkout and basic Git features (committing and pushing changes to the repo it's run on) to restore and update the feed cache. This allows the Action to avoid posting duplicates.

The Action won't post anything if cache is empty (i.e. on first run or when you delete cache from the directory).

To store sensitive information (e.g. access tokens) use Encrypted Secrets so that you can keep your action workflow public in a safe way:

 - name: Feed to social media
    uses: lwojcik/github-action-feed-to-social-media@v2
    with:
      feedUrl: 'https://example.org/your-feed-url.xml'
      # Mastodon settings
      mastodonEnable: true
      mastodonInstance: 'https://your-mastodon-instance-url.example.org'
      mastodonAccessToken: ${{ secrets.MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

Settings (aka GitHub Action Inputs)

Required minimum settings

• feedUrl (required) - URL of RSS / ATOM feed. Example: https://offbeatbits.com/excerpts.xml
• newestItemStrategy - the way newest item is determined. Defaults to latestDate. The following strategies are available:
  • latestDate - item with the latest publication date regardless of its position in the entry array
  • first - first item in the feed in order of appearance
  • last - last item in the feed in order of appearance
• postFormat - format string for new posts used across all channels. Example: New article: {article} \n\n {link} \n\n #someHashtag. Default setting: {title} {link}

Post formatting

You use either of the following tags for your custom post format (as long as your feed items contain those properties):

• {title}
• {link}
• {description}
• {category}
• {pubDate}
• {enclosure.url}
• {enclosure.type}
• {enclosure.length}
• {itunes:subtitle}
• {itunes:image}
• {itunes:explicit}
• {itunes:keywords}
• {itunes:episodeType}
• {itunes:duration}
• {itunes:episode}

Found a missing property I should add? Submit an issue!

Per-channel post formats

All channels (except Mastodon metadata) can use custom post format that overrides global postFormat setting. Thanks to that, it is possible to make better use of platform-specific features or increased character limits.

For example, it is reasonable to use hashtags on Mastodon and Twitter: New article: {title} {link} #some #hashtags

but skip them on Discord or Slack: New article: {title} {link}

or alter the message altogether on channels that offer generous character limit: New article: {title} {link} {description}

See the sections below on how to use this.

Mastodon settings

Posting to Mastodon is done by masto library.

To use this feature, create a new application in Development section of your profile settings and note down your access token.

• mastodonEnable - enables / disables posting to Mastodon. Default: false
• mastodonPostFormat - custom Mastodon post format. Optional. If used, it overrides customPostFormat setting
• mastodonInstance - instance URL. Example: https://mastodon.social
• mastodonAccessToken - access token for your Mastodon API app
• mastodonPostVisibility - visibility setting for your posts. Defaults to public. Available options:
  • public - visible for all
  • unlisted - visible for all but opted-out of discovery features like local / federated feeds
  • private - followers only
  • direct - visible only to the posting account and mentioned people

Mastodon metadata settings

Updating Mastodon profile metadata is done by masto library.

Setting this up enables you to update your account's profile metadata with a link to your latest RSS item.

Note: if you set mastodonMetadataEnable to true and leave other settings in this section empty, the Action will update profile metadata on the same account as the one used for posting - you don't have to provide the same data twice.

Provide an instance and access token in this section only if you want to update profile metadata on a different profile than the one you post to.

The Action will only update the value of an existing metadata entry and it will not create a new one if it fails to find it. Before running the Action for the first time, make sure the metadata field you want to update already exists.

• mastodonMetadataEnable - enables / disables updating Mastodon accouns metadata. Default: false
• mastodonMetadataInstance - Mastodon instance. Example: https://mastodon.social
• mastodonMetadataAccessToken - access token for your Mastodon API app
• mastodonMetadataFieldIndex - which metadata field should be updated? 0 is the first item

Shoutout to Sammy and their Mastodon Field Changer for inspiring me to research this feature. Thanks!

Twitter settings

Posting to Twitter is done by twitter-api-v2 library. Authentication is done via Oauth 1.0a protocol.

To post an update to a Twitter account you need to set up an app through Twitter Developer Portal and obtain the following set of credentials:

• API key
• API secret
• access token
• access token secret

The Action was tested and confirmed to work against free tier of Twitter API v2 in June 2023.

• twitterEnable - enables / disables posting to Twitter. Default: false
• twitterPostFormat - custom Twitter post format. Optional. If used, it overrides customPostFormat setting
• twitterApiKey - Twitter API key
• twitterApiKeySecret - Twitter API key secret
• twiiterAccessToken - Twitter access token for your app
• twitterAccessTokenSecret - Twitter access token secret for your app

Discord settings

Posting to Discord is done by a custom wrapper around Discord webhook mechanism.

To obtain a webhook URL follow the steps below:

1. Click on Server settings on the server you want to add a webhook for
2. Select Integrations.
3. Click Create webhook.
4. Adjust available webhook settings. When done, click Copy Webhook URL - that's the URL you have to provide for the Action to post on your channel.

• discordEnable - enables / disables posting to Discord. Default: false
• discordPostFormat - custom Discord message format. Optional. If used, it overrides customPostFormat setting
• discordWebhookUrl - webhook URL to use for posting. Example: https://discordapp.com/api/webhooks/123456

Slack settings

Posting to Slack is done by a custom wrapper around Slack Incoming Webhooks mechanism.

To obtain a webhook URL follow the steps below:

1. Log in to the workspace of your choice, then open Apps page.
2. Click Create an App and select From scratch.
3. Fill in the app name and select correct workspace to integrate with.
4. Click Create an app.
5. On the page you see, click Incoming Webhooks. Click the toggle next to Activate Incoming Webhooks to enable it.
6. Click Add New Webhook to Workspace.
7. In the permission window, select a channel for the Action to post to and click Allow.
8. You'll be redirected back to the Incoming Webhooks page. Copy the webhook URL from the table - that's the URL you provide to the Action.

• slackEnable - enables / disables posting to Slack. Default: false
• slackPostFormat - custom Discord message format. Optional. If used, it overrides customPostFormat setting
• slackWebhookUrl - webhook URL to use for posting. Example: https://hooks.slack.com/services/123/456

Bluesky settings

Posting to Bluesky is done by easy-bsky-bot-sdk.

• blueskyEnable - enables / disables posting to Bluesky. Default: false
• blueskyService - Bluesky server to communicate with. Default: bsky.social
• blueskyHandle - Bluesky account used to post
• blueskyAppPassword - Bluesky app password. Obtain it from Settings > App passwords
• blueskyOwnerHandle - your handle as an owner of the posting account. Together with blueskyOwnerContact, this information is used in bot's user-agent string, so it will be visible to the server owner (but it won't be displayed publicly)
• blueskyOwnerContact - your contact information as an owner of the posting account

Output

The Action sets the output in a following format of a stringified JSON object:

{
  [SocialService]: PostSubmitStatus,
}

SocialService is the name of a social media service that has been updated. The following values are possible:

• mastodon
• mastodonMetadata
• twitter
• discord
• slack

See also SocialService enum.

PostSubmitStatus is the status of the last update. The following values are possible:

• URL string - new item was detected and the update was posted successfuly - the URL points to a published status (for services that expose status URLs, like Twitter and Mastodon)
• disabled - posting to the selected service is disabled by workflow configuration
• notConfigured - posting to the selected service is enabled, but configuration is incomplete (e.g. missing access key)
• updated - new item was detected and the update was posted successfully (for services that don't expose post URLs, e.g. Mastodon metadata or Discord webooks),
• errored - new item was detected and the update was posted, but it resulted in an error,
• skipped - no new item was detected or posting was skipped for a different reason - see the log for information.

See also PostSubmitStatus enum.

Sample status:

{
  "mastodon": "https://mastodon.social/url-to-status",
  "mastodonMetadata": "updated",
  "twitter": "https://twitter.com/twitter/status/123456",
  "discord": "updated",
  "slack": "updated"
}

Infrequently Asked Questions

1. Can this Action support posting to [insert platform name here]?

General answer to this question is: yes, as long as the platform offers publicly available API for posting text messages. The architecture of the Action makes it possible to extend it with new services in a consistent way.

But.

If the platform is Pixelfed, Instagram, TikTok or any other platform focused on visuals rather than text - I'm not sure how to post text content to them.

If the platform is any ActivityPub-based platform other than Mastodon - see the first paragraph and consider submitting an issue if you want to see it added.

If the platform is Kbin - I'm not aware of posting API being available (I only know of read-only APIs which are irrelevant for this Action). I like Kbin and do use Kbin myself. I don't exclude revisiting this in the future.

If the platform is Lemmy - so far I didn't have personal interest in supporting it but that seems to be doable. Consider submitting an issue if you want to see it added.

If the platform is LinkedIn - I explored LinkedIn API and at some point I had a nearly complete implementation of automated posting to a company page. However, some crucial features of their API (such as generating OAuth access tokens) are locked behind manually approved request forms or vague "Contact your local salesperson" statements. I cannot offer a feature if I can't give it full testing. Getting through approval stage consumes time and thus it's a bit out of my personal interest scope. If you're interested in seeing this feature, consider sponsoring its development.

If the the platform wasn't mentioned above - I either didn't consider it (I didn't know of its existence?) or it doesn't offer API to send posts. Want to see it? Consider opening an issue.

License

Licensed under MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.