---
name: add-feed-post
description: Add a new Feed post (short announcement / social-style update) to the Data Controller marketing site. Use when the user wants to publish a Feed post, add a /feed/ entry, or create a short announcement that also goes out via RSS.
---

# Add a Feed post

The **Feed** section (`/feed/`) is for short announcements and social-media style updates - things that don't warrant a full `content/blog/` article but are still worth publishing and syndicating via RSS. Feed posts work exactly like blog posts (one markdown file per post, in its own directory) but live under `content/feed/` and publish under `/feed/`.

Both Blog and Feed share a single combined RSS feed at `/rss.xml` (via `gatsby-plugin-feed` in `gatsby-config.js`), so a new Feed post appears in RSS automatically on the next build - no extra config.

## Steps

### 1. Create the post directory

Create a folder under `content/feed/`, named after the post slug (this becomes the URL):

```
content/feed/my-new-announcement/index.md
```

Pick a short, hyphenated, lowercase slug.

### 2. Write the front matter + content

```md
---
title: 'My New Announcement'
description: A one or two sentence summary used for SEO and RSS.
date: '2024-06-01 09:00:00'
author: 'Your Name'
authorLink: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourprofile/
tags:
  - Announcements
---

Your announcement content goes here, written in regular Markdown.
```

Front matter fields:

| Field         | Required | Notes                                                                 |
| ------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `title`       | Yes      | Used on the page, in the sidebar and in the RSS item.                 |
| `description` | Yes      | Short summary for SEO meta tags and the RSS item description.         |
| `date`        | Yes      | Format `'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'`. Controls sort order and the archive.  |
| `author`      | Yes      | Displayed under the post title.                                       |
| `authorLink`  | No       | If set, the author name links out (e.g. to a LinkedIn profile).       |
| `tags`        | Yes      | One or more tags. Drives the sidebar category list and RSS category.  |
| `previewImg`  | No       | Relative path to an image in the same folder (e.g. `'./cover.png'`). Feed posts usually omit this since they're short-form. |

Use regular dashes (`-`) in content, not em-dashes.

### 3. Add images (optional)

If you set `previewImg` or reference images in the body, place the image files in the same post directory and reference them with a relative path.

### 4. Build / preview

```shell
npm run develop
```

The post will be available at `/my-new-announcement/` and will appear on the `/feed/` listing page, in the site search index, and in `/rss.xml` alongside blog posts.

## How Feed differs from Blog

| Aspect            | Blog                          | Feed                              |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------- | --------------------------------- |
| Content directory | `content/blog/`               | `content/feed/`                   |
| Listing page      | `/blog/`                      | `/feed/`                          |
| Year archive      | `/{year}/`                    | `/feed/{year}/`                   |
| Category page     | `/category/{tag}/`            | `/feed/category/{tag}/`           |
| Template          | `src/templates/blog-post.tsx`, `src/templates/blog-list.tsx` | `src/templates/feed-post.tsx`, `src/templates/feed-list.tsx` |
| RSS               | Included in `/rss.xml`        | Included in `/rss.xml`            |

Feed archive/category routes are prefixed with `/feed/` to avoid colliding with the equivalent Blog routes, since both are rendered by the shared `src/templates/sidebar.tsx` component (via its `basePath` prop).

## Notes

- To add a **blog** post instead, follow the same steps but use `content/blog/` and the `/blog/` routes.
- The canonical human-readable version of this guide is `docs/adding-feed-posts.md`.