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Publish posts in the built-in feeds

Include articles and share a subscription address

Use this guide on an existing site to let readers subscribe in a feed reader. The theme supplies Atom at /atom.xml and RSS 2.0 at /rss.xml; you do not need to install jekyll-feed for these addresses.

Include your posts

In _config.yml, find the existing defaults list. For an existing scope with path: "" and type: posts, add include_on_feed: true under its values, preserving the other values. If that scope is missing, append the following list item under defaults. Create the complete section only if it is absent:

defaults:
  - scope:
      path: ""
      type: posts
    values:
      include_on_feed: true

Use the YAML boolean true, without quotes. An explicit value in a post’s front matter takes precedence over the default. To keep a particular post out, set include_on_feed: false in its existing front matter.

The built-in feeds select posts and collection documents with include_on_feed: true and a date. Posts get their date from the filename; for a collection document, first ensure its existing entry under collections in _config.yml has output: true so its article URL is published. Preserve the other collection settings. Then set date explicitly in its front matter to control its publication date and ordering. Jekyll 4 can infer a date when none is set; do not rely on that behavior across Jekyll versions. An ordinary standalone page outside a collection is not selected just by adding these settings. See the field reference.

Publish and share the address

Commit to the publishing branch, wait for Actions to succeed and open /atom.xml on your published site, including its repository path if it has one: for example, https://example.github.io/my-blog/atom.xml. Check /rss.xml too. Open the feed in a feed reader and confirm that a recent, published post appears and its link opens the expected article. A browser may display XML or download the file; that alone is not a failure.

Follow Edit footer links to add a labelled subscription link using url: /atom.xml or url: /rss.xml. Keep other footer links and omit the repository prefix in this setting; the theme adds baseurl.

If a post is missing, check its explicit include_on_feed value and date, any more-specific defaults, and whether the publishing build included it. Use Find missing changes before changing feed addresses. If a collection entry appears but its article returns 404, check that the collection has output: true, rebuild, and open that article URL directly. Opting a document into the feed does not enable collection output. If a feed returns 404, check the URL, latest deployment and any local file that overrides the theme’s feed asset.

Already have subscribers at /feed.xml? Keep that address working; use Keep a jekyll-feed subscription address instead of silently switching readers to another URL.