Readstow's fetcher

What it is

Readstow is a read it later app and feed reader. Its server reads two kinds of thing from the web, and only because a person using Readstow asked for it:

• Feeds (RSS, Atom and JSON Feed) that someone follows in the app.
• Pages that someone saves to read later, with the images in them.

It doesn’t crawl. It doesn’t follow links from one page to the next, and it only reads the addresses people give it.

How it identifies itself

Every feed request sends this user agent:

Readstow/1.0 (+https://readstow.com/bot; feed reader)

The string stays the same from one release to the next, so you can match Readstow/ in a rule.

When someone saves a page, Readstow fetches that one page once, as their browser would see it, because many sites show unknown clients a different page.

How often it reads a feed

Each feed is read once for everyone who follows it, not once per person.

• At most every 15 minutes, and less often when the feed asks for that (its sy:updatePeriod).
• Requests are conditional: Readstow sends the ETag and Last-Modified values you gave it, so an unchanged feed costs you a 304 Not Modified.
• After repeated failures it waits a day before trying that feed again.

When someone first adds a feed, Readstow reads it once to check that it is a feed, and again within a minute to fetch its first items.

Letting Readstow read your feed

If your site uses bot protection, such as Cloudflare, Vercel or a similar firewall, it may turn Readstow away with a challenge page. People who try to follow your feed then see that your site blocks Readstow.

To let them follow it, add a rule that allows requests whose user agent starts with Readstow/ to your feed addresses (for example /feed, /rss or /feed.xml). Your pages can stay protected.

Contact

If Readstow is reading your site too often, or you want it to stop, email abuse@readstow.com with your site’s address and we aim to reply within two working days. For anything else, email support@readstow.com.