moccasin

A TUI feed reader for RSS, Atom, and (eventually) Podcasts. VIM keybindings. Ranger-inspired interface. Configurable.

Installation

cargo install moccasin

NetBSD

If you are on NetBSD, a pre-compiled binary is available from the official repositories. To install it, simply run:

pkgin install moccasin

Or, if you prefer to build from source:

cd /usr/pkgsrc/news/moccasin
make install

Usage

Since "moccasin" is hard to spell and has too many letters, the executable is just called mcsn.

mcsn [OPTIONS]

Options

Command line arguments will override any values set in your config file for that session.

Short	Long	Args	Description
-c	--config	<PATH>	Set a custom config file
-s	--color-scheme	<COLOR_SCHEME>	Set a color scheme, either built-in or a path to a custom theme file
-i	--interval	<INTERVAL>	Set a custom refresh rate in seconds
-t	--timeout	<TIMEOUT>	Set a custom request timeout in seconds
-n	--no-cache		Do not cache feeds in local file-backed database
-h	--help		Print help
-V	--version		Print version

Config

On first boot, Moccasin will create both a database and a config file in your default config directory, which varies by platform:

Platform	Value	Example
Linux	$HOME/.config/moccasin/	/home/alice/.config/moccasin/
macOS	$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.rektsoft.moccasin/	/Users/Alice/Library/Application Support/com.rektsoft.moccasin/
Windows	{FOLDERID_LocalAppData}\rektsoft\moccasin\config	C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Local\rektsoft\moccasin\config

The moccasin.toml file in this directory can be edited to customize app behavior, add feeds in bulk, change the color scheme, etc. Most of these properties can be changed from within the application as well, which will write to this file. Configuration options are as follows:

moccasin.toml

Table	Field	Type	Default	Description
[sources]		Table
	feeds	Array	[]	URLs of Atom/RSS feeds you wish to see in-app.
[preferences]		Table
	color_scheme	Enum | Table	"default"	Either a built-in color scheme name, one of "default" | "borland" | "darcula" | "focus" | "jungle" | "matrix" | "redshift" | "wyse", or a table of values described below.
	sort_feeds	Enum	"a-z"	Order in which to list feeds, one of "a-z" | "z-a" | "newest" | "oldest" | "unread" | "custom"
	cache_feeds	Boolean	true	Whether or not to write feeds to a local database for faster startup and access. When false, the app will use an in-memory database.
	refresh_interval	Integer	3600	How often to refetch feeds, in seconds.
	refresh_timeout	Integer	5	How long to wait for each feed before aborting, in seconds.

Color Schemes

To create a custom color scheme, the color_scheme field can be declared as a table in which the keys are interface elements and the values are either a built-in ANSI color (which will inherit from your terminal emulator), a HEX color, or in InlineTable with fg and bg properties of the same type.

[preferences.color_scheme]
base = { fg = "white", bg = "#000080" }
status = { fg = "gray", bg = "#000080" }
border = "gray"
selection_active = { fg = "#000080", bg = "#fefd72" }
scrollbar = { fg = "white", bg = "gray" }

The built-in color names are

• "white"
• "black"
• "red"
• "green"
• "yellow"
• "blue"
• "magenta"
• "cyan"
• "gray"
• "lightred"
• "lightgreen"
• "lightyellow"
• "lightblue"
• "lightmagenta"
• "lightcyan"
• "lightblack" | "darkgray"

The styleable properties are all optional, inheriting sensible defaults. Available properties are as follows:

Field	Default	Description
base	terminal default	Base foreground and background colors
overlay	base	Modal overlays
status	base	The top menu bar and bottom status bar colors
selection	~base	Selected list item
selection_active	selection	Selected list item of active panel
border	border_active*	Border and titles around panels
border_active	base	Border and title of active panel
scrollbar	base	Thumb (fg) and track (bg) of scrollbars

* NOTE: it is important to define border when the style it inherits (either base or border_active) is defined as a hex color, otherwise it will be difficult to know which panel is currently active.

Keybinds

The application uses VIM-style keybinds, but arrow keys can also be used for navigation. At the moment, the app has a NORMAL mode and a COMMAND mode. In future, you should also be able to tag and group feeds and items in GROUP mode.

NORMAL mode

Keys	Description
j/k	Focus next/previous item
h/l	Focus previous/next panel
Enter	Select current item
Esc	Deselect current item/mode
Tab	Cycle tabs
b/f/t	View Browse/Favorites/Tags tab
r	Refresh all feeds
o	Open current feed/item in browser
:	Enter COMMAND mode
,	Open config file
?	Show keybinds

COMMAND mode

Command	Args	Description
:a, :add	<URL>	Add a feed
:d, :delete	[URL]	Delete feed for URL, or current feed if not supplied. Removes this entry from config file and cache.
:s, :search	<TEXT>	Search for a feed, item, or text content

License

MIT © Tobias Fried