Monfil
Monfil is a cross-platform desktop feed reader for anyone who wants to stay ahead. Keep track of what’s happening in your field across 10 kinds of sources, with more to come: RSS, Substack, Google Alerts, YouTube, GitHub and GitLab releases, Hacker News, arXiv, Bluesky, Mastodon…
Stay ahead of your competitors, search for your next job and learn about new trends and technologies without spending hours browsing, all in one unified interface.
Start with one of the many curated feedpacks, from Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, and AI to Sports, Science, Finance, and Video Games. Or submit your own!
“Mon fil” means “My feed” in French.
➡️ “We should bring back RSS” - Andrej Karpathy
➡️ “Hate “The Algorithm?” RSS Is One of the Tools You’ve Been Looking For”
Problem
Section titled “Problem”Keeping up with everything that’s happening around us is increasingly difficult.
Important information is scattered across blogs, social networks, release notes, changelogs, YouTube channels, GitHub repositories, and security advisories. Job postings are spread across many boards. Social networks make discovery easier, but their algorithms can narrow what you see.
Monfil gives you a transparent alternative: choose your sources, organize them into workspaces, and read them in one focused place.
Solution
Section titled “Solution”Monfil combines:
- A distraction-free desktop feed reader
- Supported sources: RSS, Substack, Google Alerts, YouTube, GitHub and GitLab releases, Hacker News, arXiv, Bluesky, Mastodon (no signup needed!) and ATS (the “job postings” format).
- Feedpacks: curated source packs for specific fields
- Workspaces, search and read/unread tracking
- Advanced search and queries
- Keyboard shortcuts
- OPML import/export support
Paste a link, Monfil finds the feed
Section titled “Paste a link, Monfil finds the feed”You do not need to find a feed URL. Paste the link of the page that you read, and Monfil tries to find the feed behind it. When a page has more than one feed, you pick the one you want.
| Source | Paste | You follow |
|---|---|---|
| Websites and blogs | Any page on the site | Its posts |
| GitHub | A repository, a user, or an organization | Releases, or public activity |
| GitLab | A project, also on a self-hosted GitLab | Releases |
| Hacker News | news.ycombinator.com |
The front page, stories with 100+ or 300+ points, Show HN, or Ask HN |
| arXiv | A category listing, such as arxiv.org/list/cs.AI/recent |
New papers in that category |
| Bluesky | A profile link or a handle | A person’s posts |
| Mastodon | A profile link, a tag link, or @user@server |
A person’s posts, or the posts with a tag |
| YouTube | A channel, a video, or a playlist | New videos |
| Substack and Google Alerts | The publication, or the alert feed | New posts, or new alerts |
| Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and other job postings providers | A company job board, such as jobs.lever.co/spotify |
New job postings from that company |
Guides
Section titled “Guides”- Install Monfil
- Use Monfil
- Supported sources
- Search and saved searches
- Jobs
- Use cases
- Contribute to Monfil
Why does this exist? Don’t RSS readers already exist?
- Monfil supports many sources other than RSS.
- You choose the sources: No opaque recommendation algorithm decides what deserves your attention.
- Start with a pack: You do not need to spend hours discovering and configuring sources. Begin with a curated pack, then customize it.
- Own your information diet: Monfil’s source is available for review and built around transparency, portability, and control.
Is my data private? Monfil has no account, Monfil server, or usage analytics. Your feeds, read state, and saved articles stay on your device. Fetching feeds and articles, showing remote images, and loading embeds make requests to other sites. See the privacy notice for details.
Is there a mobile app? Not currently. Monfil is a desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) built with Electron. There’s no mobile version planned right now.
Is Monfil free? Yes. Monfil has no ads. See the license terms for permitted uses.
How do I report a bug or request a feature? Open an issue on GitHub. Read CONTRIBUTING.md first if you’re planning to send a pull request — small, focused PRs are easiest to review.
License
Section titled “License”Monfil is source-available under Business Source License 1.1 from v0.0.6 onward. Releases and tags before v0.0.6 remain under the original MIT license.
BUSL 1.1 permits copying, modification, redistribution, and non-production use. The Additional Use Grant also permits internal business and personal use, including modified versions. It does not permit use to offer a product or service that competes with Monfil. Only releases published by Théo Penavaire through the official repository are official Monfil releases. Contributions intended for the official project must go through that repository.
Each BUSL-licensed version automatically changes to the MIT License four years after its first release. Read the full license for the terms. Third-party code keeps its own licenses, listed in NOTICE.
All new contributors must sign the Contributor License Agreement through CLA Assistant before a pull request can be merged. For licensing questions, contact hello@monfil.app.