# Adding author context to RSS (Coywolf)

Jon Henshaw's May 2026 note on [[coywolf-blog|Coywolf]] covering the [[byline-spec|Byline]] proposal — a new namespace for RSS / Atom / JSON Feed that adds structured identity for the people behind the posts. The spec is the work of [Terry Godier](https://terrygodier.com/), the developer behind two RSS reader apps ([Sourcefeed](https://www.sourcefeed.app/) and [Current](https://www.currentreader.app/)); Henshaw's contribution is mostly to surface it to a wider audience while it's still under consideration.

## What's actually in the proposal

Author definition lives once at the feed channel level, inside `<byline:contributors>`, and individual `<item>`s reference it by id. The four pieces Henshaw highlights:

- **Author definition.** A `<byline:person id="…">` with name, URL, avatar, profile links (Mastodon, GitHub, etc.), plus IndieWeb-style `now` and `uses` links.
- **Context.** A `<byline:context>` element — a one-sentence bio, capped at 280 characters, framed as "who you are, what you do, what readers can expect."
- **Perspective.** Per-item `<byline:perspective>` tag — `personal`, `review`, and (per bylinespec.org) `news`, `satire`, `official`, `sponsored`. Tells the reader app what *kind* of post this is.
- **Theme.** Author-specified `color`, `accent`, and `style` ("light"/"dark") for subtle visual customisation in the reader (author card borders, accent strips).

Sample shape from the article:

```xml
<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>
```

## Why this exists

The framing on bylinespec.org calls it "the context problem." A modern RSS reader pulls in personal blogs, corporate press releases, journalism, satire, sponsored posts — they all render with the same shape, and the reader has to remember from memory who someone is and what kind of post this is. Existing RSS already has `<author>` and Atom has `<atom:author>` with name/email/uri, but neither carries enough to render an author card or tell apart an opinion piece from a news report.

Byline's bet is that the way to fix that is the same way RSS solved everything else: a new namespace, progressively layered on, optional everywhere. Feeds without it keep working. Readers without it keep working.

## Status

> The spec is under consideration and is expected to be accepted and published for use before or by the end of this year.

Maintained on [bylinespec.org](https://www.bylinespec.org/), released under CC0 1.0. The site ships a validator and a generator. The publisher who'd most obviously benefit is the kind of multi-author personal-publishing surface that's grown back since the federated-fediverse turn — the same audience IndieWeb has been talking to for years.

## What's interesting about the design choices

A few details worth flagging beyond Henshaw's summary:

- **Decentralised identity, no registries.** A `<byline:person>` is identified by its URL (or any URI). No "claim your byline ID" account anywhere. This is straight out of the IndieWeb playbook — your domain is your identity.
- **`<byline:profile rel="…">` reuses link relations** rather than enumerating platforms. `rel="mastodon"`, `rel="github"`, etc. — extensible without touching the spec.
- **`<byline:now>` and `<byline:uses>`** are pointers to two long-running IndieWeb conventions (`/now` for what someone's doing currently, `/uses` for what they use). Embedding them in the feed pulls those into the reader without the reader having to know the conventions exist.
- **Theme is author-side, not feed-reader-side.** Visually, the author chooses the accent; the reader gets to decide whether to honour it. Mirrors how email clients negotiate sender colour hints.
- **Perspective is a controlled vocabulary**, not free-form tags. That's the load-bearing part if reader apps want to *do* anything with it (filter, group, render differently) — but the controlled list is also what the spec will get push-back on.

## Connections

Byline is one of a small set of recent attempts to push the syndication stack forward without abandoning RSS — adjacent in spirit to JSON Feed (2017), the IndieWeb Microformats stack, and the long-tail of `<podcast:*>` extensions for podcasts. The differentiator here is that it's coming from a reader-app developer, not a publishing-side proposal — Godier wants better data to render in his reader, then pulls the spec along behind it.

In the broader thread of the vault, this is in the same lineage as [[filesystem-is-graph-database]] (small-scale data formats grow when adjacent tools start needing them) and [[digital-garden]] (personal publishing patterns getting first-class tooling).

## Sources

- Article: [[coywolf-byline-rss]] — Jon Henshaw on Coywolf
- Spec: [bylinespec.org](https://www.bylinespec.org/) (Terry Godier, CC0)