A smart WordPres RSS feed engine that works inside your site architecture so your content and automation tools always stay in sync.
Why this matters
If you’re building a modern WordPress site using siloed architecture (for example: SILO Pages, Category Pages as Pages, and Posts under those) you face a recurring problem: feed and sitemap output that doesn’t reflect your real site structure. That leads to missed opportunities in SEO, automation workflows, content syndication and agent-based publishing.
The plugin, SignalStream, solves this by aligning your feeds rules and automation endpoints with your actual content hierarchy.
What does the plugin do?
Here are the major features:
Creates custom feed endpoints for each Silo and Category-Page, e.g.
/signalstream/silo/silo-slug/feed/and/signalstream/category-page/cat-slug/feed/.Cleans up your global feed (
/feed/) so it can include Pages as well as Posts (if you want).Sanitises your RSS output (safe markup, content encoded if needed) so automation tools (like AI agents, feed importers, n8n) can consume it without error.
Auto-syncs your Category Page → WordPress Category terms so you don’t end up with broken feed queries.
Handles rewrite rule regeneration (“self-heal”) so feeds stay valid even if you change permalinks or move hosts.
Real-World Use-Cases
1. Automation & AI workflows
If you run an AI agent or automation pipeline (in tools like n8n, Zapier or custom scripts) you need stable, reliable feed endpoints that reflect your publishing structure—not a generic /feed/ with content jumbled together. With SignalStream you can point your automation at Silo-level feeds or Category-level feeds and ensure the logic downstream matches your content architecture.
2. SEO & content hierarchy
Search engines reward clear topical structure. If your site uses Pages for SILOs and Category Pages, but your feed output is generic, you lose signal. SignalStream preserves your hierarchy in the feed layer so you get better alignment for SEO, core web vitals, schema and internal linking.
3. Syndication & content partners
If you syndicate content or deliver feeds to third-party tools / platforms, you want version-control (how many items, which types of items) and clean markup. The plugin lets you specify “Max items”, content source, whether to include Pages, etc. That gives you full control over what gets pushed out.
Things to be aware of
External reader tools may limit what you see. Some feed readers (browser extensions, desktop apps, mobile apps) only display a default number of items (e.g., 20) even if the feed contains many more.
WordPress core
/feed/vs. custom feeds. The built-in feed endpoint is subject to the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” setting under WP Settings → Reading. If that’s low (e.g., 15), you may only see that many items even though SignalStream is configured for 100.Caching layers. If you use caching or a CDN, make sure feed endpoints are excluded or cleared, otherwise you may see old versions of the feed with fewer items.
Slug alignment required. For Category-Page feeds to function, the Category Page slug must match the WordPress Category term slug (or you must have auto-sync enabled). Otherwise you’ll get empty feeds or 404s.
Permissions & visibility. Ensure the user role and site visibility settings allow feeds to be accessed. If you “Discourage search engines” or hide posts, feed output may be restricted.
How to get started
Install and activate the plugin in your WordPress site.
Visit Settings → Reading and verify “Syndication feeds show the most recent” is set high enough (for example 100).
In SignalStream Settings, set your desired “Max items”, decide whether global feed should include Pages, enable custom feeds, set content source (Excerpt / Content / Meta field).
Go to Settings → Permalinks → Save to flush rewrite rules.
Visit the Feed Directory tab in the plugin admin to see all your feed endpoints. Copy/validate each one (there’s a “Validate” button).
If you use an external tool (feed reader, automation agent, syndication service) point it to the specific feed endpoint you want (for example Silo feed or Category-Page feed) rather than just
/feed/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why don’t I see 100 items in /feed/ even though Max Items is 100?
> Because /feed/ uses the WordPress core “Syndication feeds show the most recent” limit. You can raise that setting or enable the enforcement hook in the plugin (see advanced setup).
Q: My Category-Page feed is empty or returns 404. What gives?
> Make sure the Page slug equals a Category term slug (or that auto-sync is on). Then flush permalinks once (Settings → Permalinks → Save). If still empty, check caching layers.
Q: Can I exclude Posts or Pages from the feed?
> Yes. Under Settings → Max items you can also toggle “Include Silo Page item”, “Include Category Page item”, “Include Posts”. So you can tailor each feed output.
Q: Will this slow down my site or add overhead?
> No — the plugin uses WP core query logic and adds minimal overhead. Custom feeds are only queried when someone hits that URL (or your automation), not on every page load.
SignalStream gives you full control over how your WordPress site broadcasts content via feeds and sitemaps—so that your architecture, your automations, and your content strategy all stay aligned.
Want to see it in action in the bigger system?
Check out how it meshes with the broader Digital Marketers Toolbox: GALAXIS workflow and how your site becomes a machine for SEO, content syndication and automation.
How signalStream prevents (and fixes) index errors
Index problems often come from messy feeds, mismatched structures, or robots rules that fight your intent. signalStream cleans the layer Google and feed consumers read first—your feeds—so crawlers see a consistent, crawlable map of your siloed site.
What typically breaks indexing
- Feeds that exclude key page types (your Silo/Category **Pages** aren’t in the stream).
- Post-level feeds creating thin, duplicate URLs (`/post-name/feed/`).
- Comment feeds ballooning crawl waste.
- Robots.txt lines that accidentally block valid feed paths.
- Silo architecture built with **Pages**, but categories live in **taxonomy**—so posts don’t line up.
- Invalid or dirty RSS markup (nested anchors, unsafe HTML).
- Rewrite rules missing after moves/migrations.
What signalStream does about it
- Emits the right feeds for your architecture: Custom Silo and Category-Page feeds that match your PAGE-based silo model, plus a global feed that can include Pages Posts.
- Auto-maps Category Pages to taxonomy: Syncs Category Page slugs to real Category terms so related posts automatically flow into the right feeds.
- Removes crawl-waste endpoints: Optionally disables post-level feeds and comment feeds, or 301s them to the canonical URL.
- Robots.txt alignment: Writes Allow/Disallow lines that match your toggles so valid feeds are crawlable and junk endpoints stay out.
- Sanitizes RSS safely: Cleans broken anchors and strips unsafe tags while preserving useful formatting; can include <content:encoded> when you want full text.
- Self-heals rewrites: Detects missing rules after deploys/migrations and repairs them so feed URLs resolve.
The result
Fewer “Indexed, though blocked”, “Duplicate without user-selected canonical”, and “Crawled – currently not indexed” cases.
- Clear, consistent discovery paths that mirror your silo plan.
- Faster, cleaner ingestion in feed readers, automation agents, and search crawlers.
- Quick validation checklist
- Open /feed/ and confirm you see Pages Posts (if enabled).
- Open a Silo feed: /signalstream/silo/{silo-slug}/feed/.
- Open a Category-Page feed: /signalstream/category-page/{cat-slug}/feed/.
- Hit a post feed like /example-post/feed/ and confirm it 301s (if you’ve disabled post feeds).
- Review robots.txt—feeds you use are Allowed, noise endpoints aren’t.
- In Search Console: Inspect a URL → “View crawled page” → make sure the referring sitemaps/feeds are the ones above.
Using SignalStream with Agentic Automation Systems
Modern automation agents thrive on structured, predictable data.
That’s exactly what SignalStream delivers.
Every feed it emits — whether global, silo, or category-page — is a machine-readable snapshot of your site’s content hierarchy. It’s not just for browsers or feed readers; it’s a clean, semantic signal channel that AI and workflow agents can process in real time.
Why this matters
When you connect an agentic system (like n8n, Make, or a custom LLM pipeline) to WordPress, you usually hit the same wall:
Dirty or incomplete RSS output
Missing category context
URLs that break when silos use pages instead of taxonomy
Crawlers that don’t know what to index first
SignalStream fixes all of that before your automations even start.
It transforms your WordPress structure into stable data endpoints that any intelligent agent can consume confidently — whether it’s a scraper, content-updater, SEO auditor, or AI summarizer.
Practical examples
n8n workflows:
Poll the
/signalstream/silo/{slug}/feed/endpoint to detect new posts under a silo. Send summaries to Slack, post teasers on LinkedIn, or trigger an indexing API call automatically.LLM assistants:
Feed category-page XML directly into a language model as a contextual dataset for generating content briefs, meta-descriptions, or schema.
Monitoring & reporting bots:
Track feed diffs daily to detect changes in modified content — useful for editorial quality checks or freshness scoring.
External aggregators:
Build unified feeds across multiple domains while preserving silo structure and canonical URLs.
The result
Instead of forcing your automations to “figure out” how your content is organized, SignalStream broadcasts that logic in perfect order.
It gives your AI or workflow agents the one thing they crave most — clarity.
Find Out More!