User Guide
FeedElity is a personal-first, video-oriented RSS client for following creators across YouTube, Odysee, and PeerTube. This guide covers everything you need to browse content, manage subscriptions, organize playlists, and control your viewing experience.
The Three-Column Layout
FeedElity uses a high-density three-column interface designed for power users who want to scan and consume content quickly:
Left Column — Creators & Sources
Browse all creators in the global catalog or view only your subscribed creators. Search by name. Select a creator to load their content in the middle column. Use the add-source controls to subscribe to new channels.
Middle Column — Content List
Shows content items for the selected creator, subscription, or favorites view. Each item displays the title, thumbnail, duration, source indicator, and status badges (opened, played, favorite). Use search, filters, and the hide-played toggle to narrow the list.
Right Column — Content Viewer
Displays the selected content item with full metadata, video playback, description, source switching, and action buttons. Switch between available playback sources (YouTube embed, Odysee native, PeerTube embed) when multiple sources exist.
Browsing the Catalog
FeedElity maintains a global catalog of creators, feeds, and content items from all sources. You do not need an account to browse. Anonymous users can explore the full catalog, select creators, and view content details including playback.
- Creator list — Click any creator in the left column to load their content. The search field filters creators by display name.
- Content list — Browse content items for the selected creator. Items show title, thumbnail, publication date, duration, and source type indicator.
- Content detail — Click a content item to open it in the viewer. See full description, metadata, and playback options.
Subscription actions (subscribe, unsubscribe), status tracking (opened, played, favorite), and playlist management require a signed-in account. These actions are hidden or gated for anonymous browsers.
Managing Sources
Adding a Source
Paste a URL into the add-source input. FeedElity supports the following source types and URL forms:
- YouTube — Channel URLs and channel RSS feed URLs. The adapter normalizes channel identity, video metadata, thumbnails, and produces privacy-friendly no-cookie embed links for playback.
- Odysee — Channel URLs and RSS feed URLs. The adapter normalizes channel identity, video metadata, duration, and provides native media URLs for playback.
- PeerTube — Video URLs, channel URLs, and account URLs from any PeerTube instance. The adapter uses instance APIs for metadata and provides embed URLs for playback.
FeedElity auto-detects the source type from the URL. You do not need to specify whether a URL is YouTube, Odysee, or PeerTube.
Batch Adding Sources
Add multiple source URLs at once using the batch-add feature. Paste one URL per line. FeedElity processes each URL independently and reports per-item results: successful additions, duplicates (already subscribed), and failures with reasons.
Refreshing Content
FeedElity uses manual refresh. There is no automatic background refresh in the current version. You control when content is updated:
Normal Refresh
Respects stored refresh cadence metadata. Only fetches feeds that are due for a refresh based on their schedule. Use this for routine checks. Available for all sources, a single creator, or a single feed.
Force Refresh
Bypasses cadence metadata and fetches all feeds regardless of when they were last refreshed. Use this when you know new content is available or want a complete update.
- Refresh all — Triggers a refresh across every feed in your subscribed sources.
- Refresh creator— Refreshes only the feeds belonging to a specific creator.
- Refresh feed — Refreshes a single feed.
Refresh status and results are visible after each run. The report shows how many feeds were requested, skipped, succeeded, and failed, along with counts of discovered, created, and updated content items.
Subscriptions & Favorites
Subscriptions
Subscribing to a creator adds them to your personal subscription list. Your subscriptions appear in the left column, letting you quickly access content from creators you follow. Subscriptions are private to your account.
- Subscribe — Click the subscribe action on a creator card or from the content viewer.
- Unsubscribe — Remove a creator from your subscriptions. This does not delete the creator or their content from the global catalog.
- Subscribed content— Switch to the subscribed-content view to see items from all your subscribed creators in a unified list.
Favorites
Mark any content item as a favorite. Favorites are a separate status from opened and played, so you can favorite an item you want to return to without marking it as watched.
- Toggle favorite— Click the favorite action from the content list or content viewer. The toggle adds or removes the favorite status.
- Favorites view— Access the favorites-only view from the sidebar to browse all your favorited content in one place.
Content Status & History
FeedElity tracks three content statuses per item, scoped to your account:
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| opened | You selected and viewed the content item. Set automatically when you open an item in the viewer, or toggle manually. |
| played | You watched or consumed the content. Mark manually from the content list or viewer to track what you have completed. |
| favorite | You bookmarked the item for later. Independent of opened and played status. |
Use the hide played toggle in the content list to filter out items you have already marked as played. Status badges are displayed on each content item in the list.
Content Playback
FeedElity is video-oriented. When you select a content item, the viewer shows the video player along with metadata and actions.
- YouTube — Plays through a privacy-friendly YouTube no-cookie iframe embed. No tracking cookies from YouTube are set.
- Odysee — Plays through native media URLs provided by the Odysee RSS feed.
- PeerTube — Plays through PeerTube embed URLs from the originating instance.
Some content items have multiple sources (for example, a video mirrored on both YouTube and Odysee). When multiple sources are available, use the source switcher in the viewer to change the playback source without leaving the content item.
Playlists
Create playlists to organize content items into curated collections. Playlists are private to your account.
- Create a playlist— Provide a name and optional description. Choose a sort mode: manual ordering, publication date ascending or descending, or added-date ascending or descending.
- Add items — Add content items to a playlist from the content list or viewer. Items are appended at the end in manual sort mode.
- Reorder items — Drag or manually reorder items in a playlist when using manual sort mode.
- Remove items — Remove individual items from a playlist. This does not delete the content item from the catalog.
- Edit or delete — Rename a playlist, change its description or sort mode, or delete the entire playlist.
Account & Settings
Creating an Account
FeedElity uses local email and password authentication. Sign up with your email and a password. No external identity provider is required. Your account data (subscriptions, favorites, history, playlists, settings) is private and scoped to your user.
Settings
Account settings let you configure app-level preferences. Settings are stored as key-value pairs scoped to your account. Changes are saved immediately and persist across sessions.
Migrated Accounts
If you imported data from the previous version of FeedElity, your account will require a new password setup on first login. This is a security measure — old password hashes are not carried over during migration. Once you set a new password, your account works normally with all imported subscriptions, favorites, history, and playlists preserved.