Podcast app feeds

Every podcast in PodVault gets its own RSS feed, built from the episodes you’ve downloaded and served from your own copies. Subscribe to it in any podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, AntennaPod…) to listen to the archive from your phone, including episodes the publisher has since removed from their feed.

Find the feed URL

Each podcast’s page in the web interface shows its PodVault feed URL with a Copy button. The URL looks like this:

http://<your-podvault>:8000/podcasts/<podcast_name>/feed.xml

With the login on, the URL also carries an access token: …/feed.xml?token=…. Always copy it from the podcast page so you get the token too.

Subscribe to the whole archive

Archive feeds (OPML) on the Library page (/feeds.opml) is a single OPML file listing the PodVault feed of every podcast. Import it into a podcast app to subscribe to the whole archive in one step.

What’s in a feed

• Only episodes whose file is actually on disk. New downloads appear the next time your app refreshes the feed.
• The original episode GUIDs, so an app that already knows an episode matches it.
• Publication dates, file sizes and the right audio type for each file, plus season and episode numbers.
• Local artwork when PodVault has it.
• The feeds are marked <itunes:block>, so podcast directories won’t list them.

Feed tokens

Podcast apps can’t fill in a sign-in page, so when the login is on, feed URLs carry a ?token=…:

• The token only opens the feeds and the audio and artwork they link to, never the rest of the web interface.
• By default it’s derived from your password, so changing the password revokes every feed URL handed out before. To keep URLs stable across password changes, set a fixed token with PODVAULT_FEED_TOKEN.
• Feed URLs can end up in logs and in your podcast app’s sync service. Treat them like a password.

Reaching PodVault from your phone

Your phone has to be able to reach PodVault:

• On your home network, use the server’s LAN address (for example http://192.168.1.20:8000), not localhost or 127.0.0.1.
• Away from home, connect through a VPN such as WireGuard or Tailscale. Don’t open PodVault to the internet to make feeds work; see Security.
• If PodVault sits behind a reverse proxy or is reached at a different address, set PODVAULT_BASE_URL (for example https://podvault.example.com) so the links inside the feed use that address.

If an app can’t load a feed, see Troubleshooting.