RSS Automation

What RSS automation is for

Instead of checking your blog RSS feed manually and posting to social, connect it once and Aidelly watches for new articles automatically. Within 15 minutes of publication, every new post appears in Aidelly with a platform-tuned caption ready to review or publish to Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Threads.

Use it to:

• Repurpose blog content without manual copy-paste
• Ship consistent social presence without daily reminders
• Test different caption tones per platform before auto-publish
• Feed content to your entire team in one draft queue

RSS automation is part of Aidelly's Auto-Post engine, which also handles podcasts, newsletters, and YouTube channels.

Before you start

• Have at least one blog or CMS with an RSS feed (WordPress, Ghost, Notion, Medium, any site with RSS output).
• Connect at least one social account you want to post to (Workspace Settings → Social Connections).
• (Optional) Fill out your Brand Profile so AI captions match your voice.
• Check your plan: Launch plan does not include Auto-Post; Scale allows 3 feeds; Agency allows unlimited.

Step 1 — Open Auto-Post

1. In the left sidebar, click ⚙️ Automations → Auto-Post.
2. If you've never set up a feed, the page shows an empty state with Connect source button.
3. If you have existing feeds, they appear in a list with status indicators (active, paused, error).

Step 2 — Connect your RSS feed

1. Click Connect source.
2. Pick RSS from the source-type menu (options: RSS, Podcast, Newsletter, YouTube).
3. Paste your blog's RSS feed URL:
   • WordPress: yoursite.com/feed/ or yoursite.com/feed.xml
   • Ghost: yoursite.com/rss/
   • Notion: copy the "Export as RSS" URL from your database
   • Medium: medium.com/@yourhandle/feed
   • Substack: substack.com/@yourhandle/feed
   • Any site: check /rss, /feed, /feed.xml, or right-click an RSS button
4. Click Fetch preview.
5. Aidelly pulls the latest 5 articles and shows them so you can confirm the feed is correct.
6. Click Connect.

Backfill note: Aidelly imports articles published in the last 24 hours only (avoids dumping your entire archive). After that, only new articles trigger posts.

Step 3 — Choose a publish mode

Pick how Aidelly handles new articles:

Start with Auto-draft only until you've seen a few results and trust the captions. Auto-publish is powerful but risky for unfamiliar feeds.

Step 4 — Pick target platforms

1. Check the platforms you want to post to:
   • All platforms — fans the article to every connected social account
   • Selected — pick specific ones (e.g., tech blog → LinkedIn + X only)
   • Skip a platform — explicitly exclude one (e.g., never post to TikTok)
2. Each platform gets its own AI caption tuned for length, tone, and format.

Step 5 — Review the caption preview

1. For each source you connect, Aidelly shows a preview of how captions will look.
2. LinkedIn: full-text, thought-leadership angle, ends with a question
3. X: hook-first, fits 280 characters, includes link
4. Instagram: hashtag-heavy, line-breaks for readability, includes link
5. Facebook: conversational, link-friendly, mentions article
6. Threads: short, native tone, links in comments

Captions use your Brand Memory if you've filled it in. Edit individual captions before publish if you want variations.

Step 6 — Set posting schedule

1. Immediate — post as soon as the article is detected (within 15 minutes of RSS publish)
2. Next slot — respect your workspace's default posting schedule (includes cooldowns between posts)
3. Custom delay — e.g., "post 2 hours after the article publishes" to catch a later audience

Step 7 — Monitor and manage

The Auto-Post list shows:

• Feed name and source URL
• Status — Active, Paused, or Error
• Last checked — how recently Aidelly polled the feed
• Posts this month — count of articles processed
• Edit — change settings anytime
• Pause / Resume — temporarily stop or restart

If a feed fails 3 times in a row (404, timeout, malformed XML), Aidelly auto-pauses it and emails you. Click Resume when you've fixed the issue.

Smart dedup

If the same article appears twice in the feed (edited on your blog, re-shared, slug changed), Aidelly dedupes by canonical URL + content hash — you never re-post the same piece.

Integration with other Aidelly features

• Crosspost Routes — auto-post articles fan through your routes, so one RSS feed can hit 12 destinations
• Queues — assign the RSS source to a queue and new articles drop into the queue tail instead of publishing immediately
• Campaigns — automatically tag auto-posted articles with a campaign label for tracking
• Post Signatures — auto-post appends your signature (e.g., "— Posted via Aidelly") just like composer posts
• Cooldowns — respected on every auto-post, so articles don't overwhelm your schedule

Common pitfalls

• The feed URL is wrong. If Aidelly can't fetch it, double-check the URL ends in /feed, /rss, or .xml. Try it in your browser first.
• No articles appear. The feed may not have published anything in the last 24 hours, or Aidelly is still polling (first poll is up to 15 minutes after connection).
• Articles appear twice. Usually means the feed has duplicate entries (your CMS issue, not Aidelly). Dedup catches exact duplicates, but edited versions post separately.
• Captions are generic. Empty or thin Brand Profile means generic AI output. Fill in your brand voice, audience, and main offer in Brand Profile.
• Auto-publish is posting at the wrong time. Check your workspace timezone in Workspace Settings → General. Auto-Post uses workspace time, not feed time.

What to do next

• Set auto-draft mode for your first week while you review caption quality
• Review generated drafts in Content Calendar before scheduling
• Switch to auto-publish once you trust the captions
• Use Repurpose for one-off manual variations of important articles
• Track performance in Analytics with a campaign tag

Related guides

• Auto-Post — full Auto-Post guide (includes podcasts, newsletters, YouTube)
• Brand Profile — set the voice and tone for AI captions
• Content Calendar — review and reschedule auto-drafted articles
• Repurpose — manually create alternate versions of articles
• Crosspost Routes — fan one article to 12 destinations
• Troubleshooting — help if feeds aren't updating