Mindful Reader
An RSS reader that respects your attention.
3 articles at a time, rotated daily across your interests. No infinite scroll, no unread counts, no inbox pressure. Works fully offline — AI features are optional.
$10 AUD
One-time purchase · macOS
14-day money-back guarantee
Most RSS readers quickly become overwhelming — hundreds of unreads, constant catching up, the feeling you're always behind. Mindful Reader takes a different approach. It gives you 3 articles at a time, rotated daily across your feeds. Read what's there, ask for more if you like, or just enjoy your day. An impact rating system tracks feed quality over time and gently suggests dropping feeds that aren't serving you.
What it does
Daily Curated Selection
Each day you get 3 articles drawn from across your subscriptions. Want more? Tap "Show more" for another 3. Priority categories are served first, then round-robin ensures every feed gets a turn before any feed gets two. Articles you don't reach simply fall away over time.
Impact Ratings
After reading, rate each article's impact from None to Strong. These ratings shape your feed's health score and surface which subscriptions are actually worth your time.
Feed Health Warnings
When a feed delivers too many low-impact articles in a row, Mindful Reader gently nudges you to reconsider the subscription. No guilt — just information.
AI Summaries (Optional)
Long articles can be summarised with one tap using your own AI key. Claude or OpenAI — you control the costs. Every core feature works without AI.
Auto-Scroll
Hands-free reading that scrolls at your pace. Choose from 5 speed levels, pause with spacebar, adjust with arrow keys. Enable it in Settings and it starts automatically when you open an article.
Save for Later
Come across an article worth revisiting? Save it with an optional note about why. Your saved articles live on their own page, with full content preserved even after the usual 30-day cleanup.
Category-Based Organisation
Group feeds by topic — Technology, Health, Business, whatever you read. The daily selection draws from across categories to keep your reading varied.
Your Data, Your Machine
Everything runs locally on your Mac. No account, no cloud sync, no tracking. API keys are encrypted at rest on your machine.
Who it's for
Tired of feeling like you're always behind? Mindful Reader replaces the endless unread count with a calm, rotating selection — 3 at a time, no pressure.
You want to read fewer, better articles. Impact ratings help you focus on content that actually moves the needle.
Keep up with your industry without losing hours to infinite feeds. A few quality articles a day, chosen for variety.
No account, no cloud, no tracking. Your reading habits stay on your machine.
Want to get back to RSS but don't want the old inbox-style experience? Mindful Reader is RSS without the overwhelm.
If you care about your relationship with technology and information, this is a reader designed with the same values.
14-day money-back guarantee
See it in action
Getting started
Screenshots
How impact ratings work
After you open an article to read, you'll be asked to rate its impact. This isn't about whether you liked it — it's about whether it was worth your attention. Did it teach you something? Change how you think? Give you something useful?
Ratings of 0 or 1 count as "low impact". Ratings of 2 or 3 count as "high impact". This distinction drives the feed health system below.
Feed health & unsubscribe prompts
Mindful Reader tracks consecutive low-impact ratings for each feed. When a feed consistently delivers articles you rate as None or Mild, the app will let you know — gently at first, more directly later.
Gentle prompt — 3 in a row
After 3 consecutive low-impact ratings from the same feed, a small indicator appears. It's a nudge to pay attention — this feed might not be serving you well. You can dismiss it and keep reading.
Strong prompt — 5 in a row
After 5 consecutive low-impact ratings, a stronger prompt suggests unsubscribing. At this point, the pattern is clear — the feed is consistently not worth your time. You can still choose to keep it.
The streak resets the moment you give any article from that feed a rating of Moderate or Strong. One good article is enough to show the feed still has value.
This system means you don't need to manually audit your subscriptions. The ratings you already give naturally surface which feeds deserve your attention and which don't.
Your daily reading
Each day, Mindful Reader builds a fresh selection of articles for you. You see 3 at a time, with the option to show more whenever you like. The selection is designed for variety and fairness:
The result: a small, varied selection that rotates across all your feeds over time. Every feed gets its turn, and no feed dominates. Articles you never reach are quietly pruned — there's nothing piling up behind the scenes.
Tips & shortcuts
Star your priority categories
On the Feeds page, tap the star next to a category to mark it as a priority (up to 3). Priority categories get first pick in your daily selection, so the topics you care about most always appear.
Look for the underlined letters
In the article reader, action buttons show an underlined letter — that's the keyboard shortcut. Press that key to trigger the action without reaching for the mouse.
Highlight to save a note
Select any text in an article and a prompt appears to save it as a note. Your highlights and typed notes are saved per article and visible in the category notes view.
Max 5 feeds per category
This is intentional — it prevents any single topic from overwhelming your reading. If you need more, consider splitting into sub-categories.
AI is optional
Every core feature works without an API key. AI adds summaries, search-by-name feed discovery, and note interpretation — but the reader, ratings, and feed health system are fully functional without it. You can always add feeds by pasting a URL directly.
Settings are in the corner
Look for the gear icon in the bottom-right of the screen. From there you can configure your AI provider, back up your data, or restore from a previous export.
Keyboard shortcuts
These work inside the article reader. The matching letter is underlined on each button as a visual hint.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| B | Go back to the article list |
| O | Open the original article in your browser |
| S | Summarise the article with AI (or toggle summary view) |
| T | Jump to the note input to type a thought |
| V | Save the article for later (or unsave if already saved) |
| F | Mark as finished reading (triggers impact rating) |
| Space | Pause or resume auto-scroll |
| ← → | Adjust auto-scroll speed |
What's included
- macOS desktop app (Intel + Apple Silicon)
- Unlimited feed subscriptions
- Category-based organisation
- Impact rating system
- Feed health tracking & prompts
- Insights dashboard with impact bar chart
- AI-powered article summaries (optional)
- AI feed suggestions per category
- Save articles for later with notes
- Reading notes per article
- Full data backup & restore
- Auto-scroll for hands-free reading
- Keyboard shortcuts for fast reading
- Automatic data cleanup & pruning
- Free updates
FAQ
Do I need an AI API key?
No. The app works perfectly without AI. You can add feeds manually by URL, rate articles, and get feed health prompts — all without an API key. AI adds optional features: article summaries, feed suggestions when adding new feeds, and smarter category recommendations during onboarding.
Do I need a subscription?
No. Mindful Reader is a one-time purchase. If you choose to use the AI features, you'll need your own API key from Anthropic or OpenAI, which you pay for based on usage — typically a few cents per summary.
How many articles do I see each day?
You start with 3, drawn from across your subscriptions. If you want more, tap "Show more" to get another 3. You can keep going as long as there are unshown articles available. The selection refreshes each day with a mix across your categories, and feeds you saw yesterday are rotated out in favour of others.
What if I don't finish today's articles?
Any unread articles from today are carried over to tomorrow's selection. After that, they make way for fresh content. There's no backlog to clear — just today's reading.
What happens to old articles?
Article content from articles read more than 30 days ago is automatically cleaned up to save space. Articles you've saved are excluded from cleanup, so the full text is always there when you revisit. The metadata and your ratings are kept for all articles. Each feed's backlog is also pruned to the 20 most recent articles.
Is my data stored in the cloud?
No. Everything stays on your Mac — feeds, articles, ratings, and notes. API keys are encrypted at rest on your machine. Article content is sent to your chosen AI provider only when you request a summary.
Can I back up my data?
Yes. The Settings page has a full backup and restore feature. Export your feeds, articles, ratings, notes, and saved articles as a JSON file. Import it on a new machine or after a reinstall. API keys are excluded from backups for security.
Does it work on Windows?
Currently macOS only (12 or later). A Windows version may follow based on demand.
How is payment processed?
Payments are processed by Gumroad in USD using the current exchange rate. Prices are displayed in AUD for reference. Your bank may apply a small foreign transaction fee.
What's changed in the latest version?
All updates are free for existing customers. You can see the full list of changes on the changelog page.
Built by David Tiong
Experience spanning product management, agency ownership, SaaS tech support, and product enablement — and the person behind davidtiong.com. I built Mindful Reader because every RSS app I tried turned into another inbox. I wanted something that gave me a few good articles and then let me get on with my day.