elfeed

name	elfeed
description	Query the local elfeed RSS database (Emacs) to screen, filter, and brief feed entries. Use when asked what is new or worth reading in feeds, to search entries by feed, date, tag, unread state, or title regex, or to read the stored content of an entry.

elfeed

scripts/elfeed-query runs an elfeed search filter against the database on disk and prints matches newest first. It uses elfeed's own filter compiler, so any filter string that works in the *elfeed-search* buffer works here. A running Emacs server is used when one answers; otherwise a batch Emacs loads the database, about one second per call.

scripts/elfeed-query [FILTER] [CHARS]

Output is one line per entry, DATE FEED TAGS TITLE LINK, tab separated. With CHARS > 0 each line is followed by an indented excerpt of the stored content rendered to plain text.

Steps

1. Survey. Run a wide filter with CHARS 0 to see volume per feed and the real tag state, for example @1-week-ago. Done when you know how many entries there are, which feeds dominate, and whether unread is tracked.
2. Narrow. Add feed, tag, and title terms until the list is a candidate set you can read in full. Title excludes (!Released) remove release-note churn; =feed isolates one source.
3. Read. Rerun the narrowed filter with CHARS 300 to 1500. Brief only from stored content; an entry whose excerpt is empty or just "Comments" has no body in the database, so say the pick is title-only.
4. Brief. For each pick give the feed, date, the specific claim or finding from the content, and the link. Group by theme when three or more picks share one. Name what you skipped and why in one line.

Filter syntax

Terms are space separated and all must match. Regexes are Emacs regexes, so alternation is \|, not |.

term	meaning
@2-days-ago	entries newer than this; @1-week-ago, @2026-09-01, @2-weeks-ago--1-week-ago for a range
+unread	has tag; -unread lacks tag
=lwn.net	feed URL or title matches regex
~phoronix	feed does not match regex
python	title matches regex (case-insensitive)
!Released	title does not match regex
#20	at most 20 results

Examples:

scripts/elfeed-query '@1-week-ago +unread'
scripts/elfeed-query '@1-week-ago =lwn.net' 350
scripts/elfeed-query '@2-weeks-ago agent\|security\|exploit'
scripts/elfeed-query '@1-week-ago =phoronix !Released !Benchmarks'

Gotchas

• Tags depend on the sync source. With elfeed-protocol (Fever, Miniflux, ttrss) the unread tag mirrors the server. An empty +unread result means everything is read there, not that the filter failed. Run the survey step before trusting tag counts.
• Aggregator feeds store links, not articles. Hacker News style feeds keep only a comments link as content. Excerpts for those are useless; fetch the linked page if the entry matters.
• Paywalled feeds store a lead paragraph. LWN [$] entries keep one paragraph. Enough to brief, not to summarise the article.
• Batch mode reads the database from disk. Entries fetched in a live Emacs since the last elfeed-db-save are not visible until saved. ELFEED_DB_DIR overrides the location; ELFEED_LOAD_PATH points at elfeed.el when neither package.el nor straight.el can find it.