Delivering Hacker Noon’s top homepage stories to your inbox at noon each day can be done with a simple RSS‑to‑email workflow.

Set Up the Hacker Noon RSS Feed

This feed provides the latest articles in a machine‑readable format, allowing any automation platform to pull fresh content.

• Locate the official RSS URL for Hacker Noon’s homepage (e.g., https://hackernoon.com/feed).
• Validate the feed with an online validator to ensure proper XML structure.
• Test retrieval using curl or a browser extension to view sample items.
• Store the URL in a secure note for reuse in automation tools.
• Reference the Web Interoperability guide for handling cross‑origin requests.

Create an Email Formatting Routine

Each story must be turned into a readable email body, with titles, short excerpts, and direct links.

• Use a lightweight script (Node.js, Python, or a cloud function) to parse the RSS XML.
• Extract title, summary, and link for the top 5 items.
• Assemble an HTML template that highlights each entry with a heading and a call‑to‑action button.
• Include an SMTP send block configured with your mail provider (Gmail, Outlook, etc.).
• Review the Rate‑Limiting article to protect the endpoint from abuse.

Schedule the Delivery for Noon

Automation platforms can trigger the script at a specific time, guaranteeing arrival around 12 PM.

• Choose a scheduler: cron on a VPS, Google Cloud Scheduler, or the built‑in timer in IFTTT/Zapier.
• Set the cron expression to 0 12 for daily noon execution.
• If using IFTTT, pair the RSS trigger with the “Send email” action and specify the time zone.
• For Zapier, use “Schedule by Zapier” → “Every Day” → “12:00 PM” and connect the RSS fetch step.
• Log each run’s success/failure to a file or monitoring service for quick troubleshooting.

Monitor, Test, and Refine

Regular checks ensure the inbox continues receiving accurate story digests without gaps.

• Enable email delivery receipts or use a read‑tracking pixel to confirm receipt.
• Schedule a weekly test run that sends a dummy email to a secondary address.
• Review the script’s error logs and adjust parsing rules if the RSS structure changes.
• Update the list of top stories count or formatting style based on reader feedback.
• Consult the Service Worker guide if you want offline caching for future enhancements.