Sources

Sources are where rasa.io pulls articles for your newsletter. The dashboard continuously fetches new content from your sources several times a day, building up your Content Pool so your AI-personalized newsletter has fresh material to choose from for each subscriber.

This article covers what types of sources you can add, how to find and add each type, and how to manage sources over time.

Source types

rasa.io supports six source types:

RSS feeds — the most common; any publisher with an RSS feed
YouTube — pull the latest videos from a YouTube channel
LinkedIn — pull URLs posted to your organization's LinkedIn page
Podcasts — pull episodes from a podcast feed
Topics / Keyword News — let rasa.io aggregate news from various APIs around a topic or keyword
Facebook — pull URLs posted to a public Facebook page

A note on copyrights: rasa.io takes copyright seriously. We pull content from publicly available feeds and direct traffic back to publishers to support and credit them. This helps your newsletter stay compliant while delivering rich content to your subscribers.

Two ways to add sources

You can add sources in two ways:

Manually — add a source you already know about (an RSS feed URL, a YouTube channel, a LinkedIn page, etc.)
AI Sourcing (with Scout) — let our AI agent discover sources for you based on a topic or area of interest

If you have a list of publishers you want to pull from, manual is fastest. If you're starting fresh or looking to expand into a new topic area, try Scout.

Adding sources manually

Go to Content → Sources and choose Add Source. Pick the source type and follow the prompts.

The specific info you need to provide depends on the type:

Adding an RSS feed

Paste the RSS feed URL. rasa.io will validate it and start pulling articles.

How to find an RSS feed: RSS feeds aren't always obvious. Here are the three most reliable ways:

Look for the RSS icon on the website. Many sites display the RSS icon (an orange square with white sound waves) near the bottom or top of the page, often with their social icons. Larger news sites often have multiple feeds for different categories (World News, Business, etc.) — pick the one most relevant to your audience.
Try /feed, /rss, or /atom.xml at the end of the URL. Many WordPress and CMS-based sites expose their feed at a predictable URL. For example, https://example.com/feed or https://example.com/rss.
Use a browser extension. Tools like RSS finder extensions for Chrome will detect feeds on any page you visit. This is especially useful for sites that don't surface their feed obviously.

If a site genuinely doesn't have an RSS feed, you may need a different source type (or to skip that publisher).

Adding a YouTube channel

To add a YouTube channel, you'll often need the channel ID (not just the channel URL).

Where to find the channel ID:

Sometimes the channel ID is right in the URL. For example, in https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBcRF18a7Qf58cCRy5xuWwQ/videos, the ID is UCBcRF18a7Qf58cCRy5xuWwQ.

If the URL uses a custom handle (like youtube.com/@channelname) instead of a channel ID, take these steps:

Open the YouTube channel in your browser
Press Ctrl+U (or Cmd+Option+U on Mac) to view the page source
Press Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F) and search for channel_id
Copy the channel ID that appears

Then go to Content → Sources → Add Source → YouTube and paste the channel ID.

Adding LinkedIn

LinkedIn requires connecting your own LinkedIn account with admin access to the page you want to pull from. We'll pull URLs posted to your organization's LinkedIn page.

Note: This only works for pages you administer. We can't pull from other organizations' or individuals' LinkedIn pages.

Adding a podcast

You'll need the podcast's RSS feed URL. Many podcasts expose this prominently, but some make you dig a bit. Here's how to find it:

Visit the podcast's official website. Most podcasts have a dedicated site with subscription info.
Look for an RSS icon or "Subscribe via RSS" link. Some podcast sites surface the feed URL directly.
Check podcast directories. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts often list the feed URL in the podcast details.
Use a podcast RSS finder tool. Castos' Podcast RSS Feed Finder and AllFeeds.ai let you search by podcast title or author and return the RSS feed URL.
Inspect the page source. If you can't find the feed elsewhere, right-click the podcast site and select "View Page Source," then search for "RSS" or "XML."

Once you have the feed URL, go to Content → Sources → Add Source → Podcast and paste it in.

Adding Topics / Keyword News

This is the easiest source type to add — no URL needed. Just enter a topic, keyword, or phrase, and rasa.io will pull news from various APIs around that topic.

Topic-based sourcing is great for staying on top of a subject area without having to identify specific publishers. Examples: "AI in healthcare," "association management," "sustainable energy."

Plan limits on Topic sources:

Plus plans — up to 1 topic source
Pro plans — up to 3 topic sources
Enterprise plans — up to 6 topic sources

Pro tip: Niche topics work better than broad ones. "Generative AI in education" will pull more focused, valuable content than just "AI."

Adding a Facebook page

Enter the URL of the public Facebook page you want to pull content from. We'll pull URLs posted to that page.

Note: The Facebook page must be public for us to pull content.

Adding a source with Scout (AI Sourcing)

If you're not sure which sources to add, or want to expand into a new topic area, Scout can help you discover them.

Go to Content → AI Sourcing in the sidebar. You'll see a conversational interface with Scout, along with pre-filled "Newsletter Ideas" prompts to help you get started.

Tell Scout what you're looking for — a topic, a niche, a question — and Scout will suggest sources. Once Scout creates a source for you, it appears in your Sources list with a Scout icon and an "AI Discovered" label.

You can revisit any AI-discovered source by clicking Edit with Scout, which returns you to the AI Sourcing conversation with the history preserved.

Browsing your sources

The Sources page shows all your sources with filter chips at the top:

Active (#) — currently pulling articles
Inactive (#) — disabled but kept for reference
Filters for each source type you have in use (e.g., RSS Feed, YouTube, Podcast)

Each source card shows:

Name
Description
Tags
Articles per week
Last checked
Star icon — mark this source as Featured (auto-features all its articles)
Refresh icon — manually fetch new articles now
Active toggle

Click a source to open the Source Details panel for more info, or click into edit it.

Editing a source

Open the Edit Source modal to change:

Name
Section — auto-assign articles from this source to a section
Active toggle
Featured Source toggle — when on, all articles from this source are automatically featured
Newsbrief Count — for RSS sources
Date Filters — pull only articles published within a date range (niche feature, most clients don't need)
Content Filters — set Whitelist and Blacklist terms for this source specifically

Filters at the source level vs newsletter level

You have two layers of content filters:

Source filters (set per source, here)
Newsletter filters (set in the Content tab of your newsletter)

Both apply at content selection time. An article must pass all filters from both layers to be included.

Featured sources and featured articles

Featured Source — every article from this source is automatically featured. Useful for "always include" content.
Featured Article — set on individual articles in the Content Pool. Useful for one-off promotions.

Featured articles get priority placement in newsletters and are available as the Featured Article option in your subject line source.

How often sources are fetched

The dashboard pulls content from your sources several times per day, automatically. You can also force a fresh pull by clicking the Refresh icon on any source card.

Source pulls pause once your cutoff window opens (typically a few hours before send). After your newsletter sends, any articles published during the cutoff window will appear in your Content Pool and new pulls resume normally.

Managing sources over time

Use the Active toggle to deactivate sources without losing them
Use Whitelist/Blacklist terms to keep low-quality content out of your newsletter while keeping the source overall
Use Refresh if a source seems stuck or you want to force a fetch

When a source isn't working

If a source stops pulling articles:

Check that the Active toggle is on
Click Refresh to force a fetch
Visit the source's website or account to confirm it's still publishing
For RSS sources, check that the feed URL still works (paste it in your browser to see)
Check the Last checked timestamp on the source card

Reach out to support@rasa.io if a source has been failing for more than a day or two — we can usually help diagnose the issue.

What's next

Curating content — how to pick what makes it into your newsletter
AI personalization explained — how rasa.io picks the right articles for each subscriber