Precis (properly Précis, pronounced "pray-see") is a extensibility-oriented RSS reader that can use LLMs to summarize and synthesize information from numerous different sources, with an emphasis on timely delivery of information via notifications.

The following components of the app are extensible:

1. LLMs - LLMs including Ollama and OpenAI, used for functions such as summarization
2. Content Retrieval - requests or playwright
3. Notification - matrix, slack, jira, and ntfy
4. Storage - At this time, we support two reasonable embedded DBs - tinydb or lmdb - defaults to tinydb. We also support a hybrid storage handler that uses LDMB for most things, but stores entry content offline, in the filesystem, as pickled objects (which helps to keep the database size manageable). You can add support for your database of choice if you can implement about 20 shared transactions.

For production use, I recommend the hybrid storage handler.

The LLM and Notification handlers also support a null handler that does nothing. Good for testing or if you don't care about notifications and summaries. The null handler is the default.

Precis also supports themes.

For an extended overview of why this project exists, see my blog.

Architecture

Precis is a FastAPI monolith that serves fully static pages styled by Tailwind CSS using DaisyUI components. It uses some query-parameter and redirect chicanery to fake interactivity. We'll probably add actual interactivity at some point.

Deployment and Development

Environment

Precis uses the following environment variables to define its instance. It is, therefore, possible to have multiple instances of Precis running at the same time, as long as you maintain separation between their storage and config directories.

These are expected to be set as environment variables.

CONFIG_DIR - the directory where config files live, if you use them
DATA_DIR - the directory where the database should live
RSS_BASE_URL - the base url (without trailing slash of the Precis application - used for linking)
PRECIS_STORAGE_HANDLER - the name of the storage handler to use.

Different features may require different environment variables. Developers should strive to set reasonable defaults and document the full range of them in the docker-compose.yml

Deployment via Docker-Compose:

The easiest way to run Precis is via docker-compose:

docker compose up

Feel free to edit the docker-compose.yml as needed to fit your environment.

Pre-Requisites

• Python 3.11 (for dev, we recommend you use pyenv)
• Node 20 or higher (use nvm)

Development Instructions

Application

To install the RSS application, create a fresh venv and then:

make dev

Then to develop, in one terminal start tailwind by doing make tw. Then, in other start the main app by doing make run.

If you use nix or nixos, do nix develop to assumme a dev shell and then follow the install instructions above (including creating and activating the venv).

Unit Tests

Precis has unit tests written against pytest. They are automated to run during the pull request pipeline, but you can also run them locally.

Simply do make unit-test to run unit tests.

Integration Tests

Precis has integration tests that are written in Go. They are automated to run during the pull request pipeline, but they also be run locally.

First, install the version of Go specified in go.mod. I recommend to use a Golang version manager such as gvm or g.

Then, start the application using make run. Finally, run the integration tests with make integration-test.

Features

OPML Import/Export

Precis supports exporting your current set of feeds as OPML, as well as importing feeds from other OPML files. You can find options on the /feeds/ page, or use the CLI as described below.

A couple caveats:

1. When importing an OPML file, if the feed already exists then it will be upserted. Any properties that differ from the OPML file will change to match.
2. When importing an OPML file, Precis will take the first category as the category of the feed. You may always change the category at a later time.
3. When importing and exporting, we the map the feed name, feed url, and category to the outline item text, xml_url, and categories[0] attributes, respectively. Please ensure that your input file uses the same conventions.

Backups

Precis supports exporting and importing point-in-time backups of the entire application state. You can find these options on the /about/ page, or use the CLI as described below. One of the design goals of this functionality is supporting the ability to combine two different Precis instances, so the default behavior of the import functionality is to upsert.

Users should be careful about potentially importing the same backup twice, and importing backups that have overlapping content may cause unexpected behavior.

Finally - the backups will contain any API keys or other secrets that you've configured Precis to use, so they should themselves be treated as secrets.

Composable Configurations

Precis supports reading configurations from YML files that are stored in the CONFIG_DIR as an alternative to manually configuring them in the UI. This lets you bootstrap your configuration and/or manage configurations in source control. Of course, even if you use composable configurations, you can still add additional feeds or change settings in the UI.

Composable configurations can be used to configure feeds, settings, and handlers, and each of these can be ingested from the source file using the cli. Below are links to the example configs off of which you can base your own, as well as the command to import those configurations in the CLI.

• Settings are configured in ${DATA_DIR}/settings.yml and imported using precis load-settings
• Handlers are configured in ${DATA_DIR}/handlers.yml and imported using precis load-handlers
• Feeds are configured in ${DATA_DIR}/feeds.yml and imported using precis load-feeds

CLI

Precis includes a CLI tool that can be used to manage the application. Currently, it supports exporting and importing JSON backups and OPML files and loading Composable Configurations (as described above). It should be available if you start a shell in the docker container, or if you activate the virtualenv where Precis is installed. It respects the DATA_DIR and CONFIG_DIR that you configured, if any.

❯ precis --help
Usage: precis [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  backup         Write a json-format backup of the current Precis state...
  check-feeds    Check for new entries in the configured feeds
  export-opml    Write a opml-format list of the feeds configured in...
  import-opml    Import an opml-formatted feed list into Precis
  load-feeds     Load feeds from a YML-formatted feeds.yml file in the...
  load-handlers  Load global handlers from a YML-formatted handlers.yml...
  load-settings  Load global settings from a YML-formatted settings.yml...
  restore        Restore a json-format backup of the Precis state

Content Ownership

Precis is meant for use as a personal RSS reader. The content retrieval methodology is basic at best, and I do not have much interest in refining it. So, I think it is unlikely that Precis will become a nuisance content scraper.

Furthermore, we pass a unique user agent of the form Precis/{version} so if as a content owner you feel that Precis is acting disruptively, feel free to block that user agent. It will not have destructive impact on users; Precis should detect the rejection and display a link to your website instead of its content.

Finally:

1. If you'd like to opt-out of content retrieval by Precis, this file contains a set of globs that should return as banned. Feel free to send a PR with your site, but I reserve final say as to whether your request will be accepted. Expect a more understanding and lenient decision making process for small, independent media/publishers.
2. If you're of the opinion that Precis should respect robots.txt, please thumbs up this issue

UI Tour

After initial onboarding, you'll be brought to the feeds page.

You can then view the feed entries for each feed.

When you read a feed entry you'll get the full text of the article, as well as a summary if you have a LLM handler configured.

Global settings can be configured in the UI

Configuring individual handlers is as simple as following an JSON Schema spec. (At some point we'll make a real UI)