Feed Menus
draft-nottingham-feed-menu-01

Network Working Group                                      M. Nottingham
Internet-Draft                                              20 July 2026
Intended status: Standards Track                                        
Expires: 21 January 2027

                               Feed Menus
                     draft-nottingham-feed-menu-01

Abstract

   This specification defines Feed Menus, a simplified means of
   discovering the feeds (e.g., RSS or Atom) offered by a Web site.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   Status information for this document may be found at
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-nottingham-feed-menu/.

   information can be found at https://mnot.github.io/I-D/.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/mnot/I-D/labels/feed-menu.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 21 January 2027.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Feed Menu Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Menu Objects  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  Feed Items  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  Publishing Feed Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Processing Feed Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Appendix A.  JSON Schema  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Appendix B.  Implementation Status  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

1.  Introduction

   Automatic discovery of Web feeds (in formats such as RSS [RSS] and
   Atom [ATOM]) using link relations in HTML [DISCOVERY] is widely
   supported both by consuming software (e.g., feed readers) and Web
   sites (including in many content management systems).

   Deployment of autodiscovery has uncovered significant issues with
   this approach.

   Because feed links are specific to a page, they are only apparent to
   software that can take advantage of them (for example, to show a
   'subscribe' button) when that page is being viewed.  This means that
   sites need to repeat the relevant feeds in the headmatter of all
   pages on a site to assure that they are viewable, creating overhead
   both in effort (to organise the pages) and bandwidth (to serve them).

   Practically, this means that it is often necessary to hunt around the
   pages of a site to find all of the relevant feeds, since sites are
   unwilling to repeat them on every page.

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   Furthermore, because many content management systems automatically
   create this metadata, in practice many feeds that are advertised
   using autodiscovery are not actually functional -- site owners do not
   realise that the feeds are being advertised and do not check the
   feeds for quality and relevance.

   Finally, there are no existant best practices for naming or assigning
   metadata to feeds (for example, their format), leading to confusing
   user experiences.  For example, because many sites make both RSS and
   Atom feeds available, there are often duplicate entries in the
   autodiscovery metadata.

   This specification documents a different mechanism for discovering
   the feeds relevant to a Web site.  By defining a single, well-known
   location [WELL-KNOWN] that describes a site's feeds, it encourages a
   more curated, usable directory of the site's feeds for easy discovery
   and consumption by clients.

   Section 2 describes this format; Section 3 recommends practices for
   publishers that wish to use it, and Section 4 provides guidance to
   clients for processing it.

1.1.  Notational Conventions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Feed Menu Documents

   A feed menu document is a JSON [JSON] format whose root is an menu
   object (Section 2.1).

   For example, a minimal feed menu document:

   {
     "feed-menu": "The Astor Theatre",
     "items": [
       {
         "feed-title": "Upcoming Shows",
         "rss": "/shows/upcoming.xml"
       }
     ]
   }

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2.1.  Menu Objects

   A menu object is a JSON object with a "feed-menu" member.  Its
   potential members are:

   *  "feed-menu": A short human readable title for the menu (REQUIRED)

   *  "items": An array of menu objects and feed items.

   *  "lang": The natural language of the intended audience of the menu,
      expressed as a Language-Tag [RFC5646]The natural language of the
      intended audience of the feed item, expressed as a Language-Tag
      [RFC5646]

   Menu objects MAY contain other members, to be defined by updates to
   this specification.  Likewise, the items array MAY contain other
   types of objects, to be defined by updates to this specification.

   Menu objects can contain other menu objects to represent a nested
   structure.  For example:

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   {
     "feed-menu": "Analog:Shift",
     "items": [
       {
         "feed-title": "Analog:Shift News",
         "rss": "/news.xml"
       },
       {
         "feed-menu": "Watches for Sale",
         "items": [
           {
             "feed-title": "All Watches",
             "rss": "/collections/watches/all.xml"
           },
           {
             "feed-title": "Vintage Watches",
             "rss": "/collections/watches/vintage.xml"
           },
           {
             "feed-title": "Neo-Vintage Watches",
             "rss": "/collections/watches/neovintage.xml"
           },
           {
             "feed-title": "Contemporary Watches",
             "rss": "/collections/watches/contemporary.xml"
           }
         ]
       }
     ]
   }

2.2.  Feed Items

   A feed item is a JSON object with a "feed-title" member.  Its
   potential members are:

   *  "feed-title": A short human readable title for the feed item
      (REQUIRED)

   *  "description": A potentially longer human readable description of
      the feed item's purpose or content; can further explain or augment
      the title (OPTIONAL)

   *  "rss": A URL to retrieve a RSS [RSS] representation of the feed
      item (see below)

   *  "atom": A URL to retrieve an Atom [ATOM] representation of the
      feed item (see below)

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   *  "lang": The natural language of the intended audience of the feed
      item, expressed as a Language-Tag [RFC5646]

   One of "rss" or "atom" is REQUIRED; both MAY be present.

   URLs in "rss" and "atom" values MAY be relative, and MUST be resolved
   relative to the feed document's URL without a path.  For example, if
   a feed document is located at "https://example.net/.well-known/feed-
   menu.json" and the "rss" member contains "feed.xml", the resulting
   RSS feed URL would be "https://example.net/feed.xml".

   Feed items MAY contain other members, to be defined by updates to
   this specification.

   For example, a feed menu document with a more elaborate feed item:

   {
     "feed-menu": "Australian Senate",
     "items": [
       {
         "feed-title": "Upcoming Senate Committee Inquiries",
         "description": "Newly announced inquiries; includes calls for submissions",
         "lang": "en",
         "rss": "/inquiries/upcoming.rss",
         "atom": "/inquiries/upcoming.atom"
       }
     ]
   }

3.  Publishing Feed Menus

   Feed menu documents are published at the "feed-menu.json" well-known
   URI [WELL-KNOWN] for a given Web site.  For example:

   https://www.example.com/.well-known/feed-menu.json

   If the Web site supports multiple languages, its publisher can:

   1.  Use HTTP proactive negotiation Section 12.1 of [HTTP] to server
       different feed menu documents to clients depending upon the
       Accept-Language request header field, and/or

   2.  Publish a feed menu document with menu objects and/or feed items
       that declare their language.

   For example, the latter might look like:

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   {
     "feed-menu": "Special Broadcasting Service",
     "items": [
       {
         "feed-menu": "SBS - English",
         "lang": "en",
         "items": [
           {
             "feed-title": "News",
             "rss": "/en/news/feed.xml"
           }
         ]
       },
       {
         "feed-menu": "SBS - O'zbekcha",
         "lang": "uz",
         "items": [
           {
             "feed-title": "Yangiliklar",
             "rss": "/uz/news/feed.xml"
           }
         ]
       }
     ]
   }

   It is RECOMMENDED that feed-titles be no longer than 50 characters,
   and that descriptions be no longer than 140 characters.  However,
   processors SHOULD NOT strictly enforce these limits, although they
   may take measures to deal with long values.

   Publishing software (for example, content management systems) SHOULD
   NOT automatically create feed menu documents, unless they have a high
   degree of certainty that the publisher is aware and that doing so is
   intentional.

4.  Processing Feed Menus

   Processors MUST only request feed menu documents from the "feed-
   menu.json" well-known URI.

   When requesting feed menu documents, processors SHOULD negotiate for
   content language using proactive negotiation; see Section 12.5.4 of
   [HTTP].  If the languages understood by the user is known to the
   processor, it SHOULD suppress any menu objects and feed items that
   declare a "lang" member that does not match.

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   Processors SHOULD follow redirects when requesting feed menu
   documents, subject to limits on loop, abuse, and similar error
   handling.

   Processors MUST ignore unrecognised members of menu and feed items.
   Likewise, they MUST ignore unrecognised objects in the menu object's
   items array.

   Processors SHOULD make menu object items available to users in the
   order they appear in the array.  For example, a visual interface
   might make them available as a list.  In some cases, however, they
   may be made available in another ordering (for example, a search
   interface).

   Processors SHOULD NOT display feed items that do not have a link that
   they are able to follow -- for example, those using unsupported URI
   schemes.  In some cases, this may be difficult for implementations to
   conform to; for example, if feed links are dispatched to separate
   software.

5.  IANA Considerations

   IANA should register the following Well-Known URI:

   *  URI Suffix: feed-menu.json

   *  Change Controller: IETF

   *  Specification document(s): [this document]

6.  Security Considerations

   A malicious actor who gains write access to the well-known location
   can effectively hijack the subscription list for an entire site's
   audience.

   Clients that automatically fetch the feed menu document leak the fact
   that the user is interested in subscribing to feeds.  In some views
   this might be a feature; it creates evidence that providing feeds
   would be beneficial to a publisher's audience.  However, it is also a
   privacy risk.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

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   [ATOM]     Nottingham, M., Ed. and R. Sayre, Ed., "The Atom
              Syndication Format", RFC 4287, DOI 10.17487/RFC4287,
              December 2005, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4287>.

   [HTTP]     Fielding, R., Ed., Nottingham, M., Ed., and J. Reschke,
              Ed., "HTTP Semantics", STD 97, RFC 9110,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9110, June 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110>.

   [JSON]     Bray, T., Ed., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
              Interchange Format", STD 90, RFC 8259,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8259, December 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8259>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.

   [RFC5646]  Phillips, A., Ed. and M. Davis, Ed., "Tags for Identifying
              Languages", BCP 47, RFC 5646, DOI 10.17487/RFC5646,
              September 2009, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5646>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.

   [RSS]      "RSS 2.0 Specification", March 2009,
              <https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification>.

   [WELL-KNOWN]
              Nottingham, M., "Well-Known Uniform Resource Identifiers
              (URIs)", RFC 8615, DOI 10.17487/RFC8615, May 2019,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8615>.

7.2.  Informative References

   [DISCOVERY]
              WHATWG, "Feed Autodiscovery", December 2006,
              <https://blog.whatwg.org/feed-autodiscovery>.

Appendix A.  JSON Schema

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   {
     "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
     "title": "Feed Menu Document",
     "description": "Strict validation schema for draft-nottingham-feed-menu.md",
     "type": "object",
     "$ref": "#/$defs/menuObject",
     "$defs": {
       "menuObject": {
         "type": "object",
         "required": [
           "feed-menu",
           "items"
         ],
         "properties": {
           "feed-menu": {
             "type": "string"
           },
           "items": {
             "type": "array",
             "items": {
               "anyOf": [
                 {
                   "$ref": "#/$defs/menuObject"
                 },
                 {
                   "$ref": "#/$defs/feedObject"
                 }
               ]
             }
           }
         },
         "additionalProperties": false
       },
       "feedObject": {
         "type": "object",
         "required": [
           "feed-title"
         ],
         "anyOf": [
           {
             "required": [
               "rss"
             ]
           },
           {
             "required": [
               "atom"
             ]

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           }
         ],
         "properties": {
           "feed-title": {
             "type": "string"
           },
           "description": {
             "type": "string"
           },
           "rss": {
             "type": "string",
             "format": "uri-reference"
           },
           "atom": {
             "type": "string",
             "format": "uri-reference"
           }
         },
         "additionalProperties": false
       }
     }
   }

Appendix B.  Implementation Status

   A Web browser extension for presenting feed menus is available for
   Safari, Firefox, and Chrome here: https://github.com/mnot/feedmenu-
   extension

   The following Web site(s) have a demonstration feed menu:

   *  https://mnot.net/

   (other implementations can be listed as the appear; please contact
   me)

Author's Address

   Mark Nottingham
   Melbourne
   Australia
   Email: mnot@mnot.net
   URI:   https://mnot.net/

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