Guides
Feeds and Syndication
What feeds do in Cardmaniacs
Feeds are your incoming stream: blogs, newsletters, YouTube channels, podcasts, and other syndicated sources discovered through RSS or Atom. New entries become cards in feed collections—primarily Unread, All, Starred, and Archived articles.
Feeds answer: what published since I last looked?
Adding and discovering feeds
Add Feed
Use Add Feed… (⌘⌥N on macOS). Paste a site URL or direct feed URL. Cardmaniacs runs feed discovery against common patterns (RSS, Atom, JSON Feed where supported) and shows candidates before you subscribe.
Quick Add vs Add Feed
- Quick Add (
⌘N) saves a single URL—often to Read Later or Bookmarks - Add Feed… (
⌘⌥N) creates an ongoing subscription that refreshes on a schedule
OPML import and export
Migrate subscriptions in bulk:
- Import OPML… (
⌘⇧O) — merge subscriptions from another reader - Export (via File menu or settings, where exposed) — backup or move to another app
OPML imports preserve folder structure when the source file includes outlines.
Refresh and feed health
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌘R | Refresh feeds |
⌘⇧R | Mark all as read (current context) |
Background refresh respects system settings and Settings → Feeds preferences. When a feed fails repeatedly, feed health surfaces errors—broken URLs, SSL issues, or empty responses—so you can fix or unsubscribe without silent failure.
Source types
Cardmaniacs resolves specialized sources where possible:
- Standard RSS/Atom — articles with reader extraction
- YouTube — channel feeds map to playable entries
- Podcasts — enclosure-aware playback in the reader
- Social and alternate URLs — discovery may suggest the best available feed
Not every website exposes a reliable feed. When discovery fails, use Quick Add or the Share extension to save individual pages.
Triage workflow
A productive feed session in Triage layout (⌘⌥2):
⌘1→ Feeds → Unread- Skim cards;
⌘↩to open interesting items ⌘Emark read, palette Archive, or Save to Read Later for longer pieces⌘⇧Sstar must-keep articles⌘⇧Rwhen you want to clear remaining unread in the current view (confirm intent)
Archive removes clutter without deleting history—find archived articles via Go to Archived Articles in the palette.
Folders and organization
Organize subscriptions into folders in the sidebar. Drag feeds between folders, or use feed inspector actions. Folders sync through iCloud with the rest of your library.
Reader extraction for feed articles
Feed cards open in the reader with extracted article text when available. If extraction is poor, try Fix Content Issues from the reader or item actions palette, or Open in Browser (⌘⌥O).
Refresh Content (palette) re-fetches the article body without re-subscribing to the feed.
Feeds vs Read Later
| Feeds | Read Later |
|---|---|
| Publisher-driven updates | Your intentional queue |
| Unread counts per subscription | Collections like In Progress, PDFs |
| Archive when done skimming | Save for deep reading later |
Sending to Read Later does not unsubscribe you from the feed—the feed entry can still be marked read separately.
Settings
Feed-specific defaults—refresh interval, article limits, discovery behavior—live under Settings → Feeds. See Settings.
Next steps
- Read Later — queue habits
- Reading Tools — reader typography and media playback
- Keyboard and Commands —
⌘1,⌘R, and palette Go To routes