Byline (RSS/Atom/JSON Feed extension)

Byline is an open specification by Terry Godier that adds structured author context to syndication feeds. It's a new XML namespace (https://bylinespec.org/1.0) layered on top of RSS 2.0, Atom, or JSON Feed — feeds without it keep working, readers without it keep working.

The framing on bylinespec.org calls the gap it fills "the context problem": once a reader pulls personal blogs, journalism, corporate posts, and satire into the same timeline, every item renders identically and the human has to remember who's who. Existing <author> (RSS) and <atom:author> carry name/email/uri at most — not enough to render an author card or tell an opinion piece apart from a news report.

Elements

• <byline:contributors> — channel-level container holding one or more author definitions.
• <byline:person id="…"> — an author, addressable by id from items.
  • <byline:name> — display name.
  • <byline:context> — one-sentence bio, ≤ 280 chars.
  • <byline:url> — the canonical URL for this person.
  • <byline:avatar> — profile image URL.
  • <byline:profile href="…" rel="…"/> — external profile links keyed by rel (mastodon, github, …).
  • <byline:now>, <byline:uses> — pointers to IndieWeb /now and /uses pages.
  • <byline:theme color="…" accent="…" style="light|dark"/> — author-side hints for reader visual customisation.
• <byline:author ref="…"/> — per-item reference to a defined person.
• <byline:perspective> — per-item content-type tag from a controlled vocabulary: personal, news, review, satire, official, sponsored.

Example

<rss xmlns:byline="https://bylinespec.org/1.0">
  <channel>
    <byline:contributors>
      <byline:person id="annie">
        <byline:name>Annie Park</byline:name>
        <byline:context>Designer and photographer based in Portland. Previously design lead at Figma. I write about creative tools, process, and the indie web.</byline:context>
        <byline:url>https://annie.example.com</byline:url>
        <byline:avatar>https://annie.example.com/avatar.jpg</byline:avatar>
        <byline:profile href="https://mastodon.social/@annie" rel="mastodon"/>
        <byline:profile href="https://github.com/anniepark" rel="github"/>
        <byline:now>https://annie.example.com/now</byline:now>
        <byline:uses>https://annie.example.com/uses</byline:uses>
        <byline:theme color="#4A90A4" accent="#FF6B6B" style="light"/>
      </byline:person>
    </byline:contributors>
    <item>
      <byline:author ref="annie"/>
      <byline:perspective>personal</byline:perspective>
      …
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

Design principles

From bylinespec.org:

• Progressive enhancement — feeds and readers without Byline support keep working.
• Decentralised identity — URIs and IndieWeb conventions, no central registry to "claim your byline."
• Format-agnostic — same data model maps to RSS 2.0, Atom, and JSON Feed.
• Privacy-respecting — no tracking, pseudonymous identities supported.

The decentralised identity is the key political choice — there's no Bluesky-shaped DID layer, no namespace authority, no account anywhere. Your domain is your identity, the same way rel="me" works in HTML.

The controlled-vocabulary <byline:perspective> is the load-bearing part for reader behaviour: a free-form tag would let a reader display the value but not act on it; a closed list lets the reader filter, group, or restyle by category. Also the part most likely to attract spec push-back ("where's interview? where's tutorial?").

Status

Under consideration, expected to be accepted and published by the end of 2026 per Henshaw's writeup. Maintained at bylinespec.org, released under CC0 1.0. Companion tools include a validator and a generator.

The spec is coming from a reader-app developer (Godier ships Sourcefeed and Current) rather than a publisher coalition — the same shape as how <podcast:*> extensions arrived through podcast-app developers needing better data to render.

Related

• coywolf-byline-rss — the article that brought this into the vault.
• digital-garden — the publishing surface most likely to want richer author context.
• filesystem-is-graph-database — small data formats grow when adjacent tools start needing them; same pattern.