Tiny Tiny RSS fetcher
Tiny Tiny RSS (TT-RSS) is a free, self-hosted RSS/Atom feed reader that individuals run on their own servers to follow feeds privately. Each TT-RSS instance polls the feeds its owner subscribes to and fetches new posts. Because it is self-hosted, requests originate from many independent installations rather than one central service, and it appears in logs as feed polling, not search indexing.
What this means
Tiny Tiny RSS is an open-source feed reader people install on their own server or hosting, giving them a private feed reader they fully control. Each instance polls the feeds its owner has subscribed to and downloads new items.
Because it is self-hosted, there is no single TT-RSS service IP; requests come from many independent installations worldwide. Each is delivering your feed to one user's reader, not indexing your site for search.
How it identifies itself
Tiny Tiny RSS uses a TT-RSS-identifying user-agent by default, though self-hosted operators can change it. Match on the TT-RSS identity for routine feed traffic, and expect it from varied IPs because each installation is independent.
As with any client, the user-agent is a claim and can be copied or customised. Treat consistent TT-RSS feed polling as ordinary feed-reader traffic.
- Software: Tiny Tiny RSS (self-hosted feed reader)
- Behaviour: each instance polls its owner's subscribed feeds
- Origin: many independent installations, no central service
robots.txt considerations
As with other feed readers, TT-RSS fetches the feed URL its owner subscribed to, so robots.txt is usually not the right control. Conditional requests and caching headers (ETag, Last-Modified) are the effective way to reduce polling load.
robots.txt is honoured by compliant crawlers and is not an access control. Self-hosted instances vary in configuration, so behaviour is not perfectly uniform.
How it appears in analytics and logs
A Tiny Tiny RSS request means a self-hosted feed reader polled your feed for new posts on behalf of its owner. It is feed-fetch bot traffic from an independent installation, not a human visit and not a search-index crawl.
Diagnostic use case
Recognise Tiny Tiny RSS feed polling in logs, understand that it comes from independent self-hosted instances, and distinguish feed reading from search crawling.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID classifies Tiny Tiny RSS fetches server-side as feed-reader bot traffic and surfaces them on the bot-intelligence surface, so self-hosted feed polling stays separate from human analytics.
Common mistakes
- Expecting all Tiny Tiny RSS traffic from one IP, when each instance is independent.
- Blocking feed polling and breaking updates for self-hosted subscribers.
- Counting feed-poll requests as human readers in analytics.
Privacy and accuracy notes
Identification uses only the request user-agent. Because TT-RSS is self-hosted, requests come from independent installations and carry no central identity. WebmasterID records the fetch as a bot event, separate from human analytics, and never attaches it to a profile.
Related pages
- NewsBlur feed fetcher
NewsBlur is a personal RSS/Atom feed reader that polls subscribed feeds on a schedule and fetches new posts for its users. Its fetcher requests your feed (and sometimes the linked page) to deliver fresh items to people who subscribed in NewsBlur. It is a feed-reader fetcher, not a search engine, and its traffic scales with how many NewsBlur users follow your feed.
- Feedfetcher-Google — feed fetcher
Feedfetcher-Google is the user agent Google uses to fetch RSS and Atom feeds for Google products. Google documents that Feedfetcher is not used for indexing, and that because feed fetches are user-requested subscriptions, it is handled differently from indexing crawlers.
- Feedbin feed reader fetcher
Feedbin is a hosted RSS/Atom feed reader that polls feeds on behalf of its subscribers so they can read new items. It fetches your feed URLs to detect updates, not your pages for search ranking. Its activity appears in logs as repeated feed fetches from Feedbin infrastructure, with a self-identifying client.
- Bot intelligence
Deterministic categorisation of feed readers and crawlers.
Sources and verification notes
- Tiny Tiny RSS — self-hosted feed readerOpen-source self-hosted RSS/Atom reader; requests originate from independent installations.
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.