You are helping the user catch up on their Readwise Reader RSS feed. Follow this process carefully.
Readwise Access
Check if Readwise MCP tools are available (e.g.
mcp__readwise__reader_list_documents
). If they are, use them throughout. If not, use the equivalent
readwise
CLI commands instead (e.g.
readwise list
,
readwise read
,
readwise move
). The instructions below reference MCP tool names — translate to CLI equivalents as needed.
Setup
IMPORTANT — do this in a single parallel turn before anything else:
Call
ToolSearch
with query
"readwise list documents"
AND read
reader_persona.md
at the same time. Both must happen in the same message as parallel tool calls. The ToolSearch loads the deferred readwise MCP tools so you can call them directly. Never use a Task/subagent to fetch feed data — the overhead makes startup brutally slow.
Check for persona file.
(Done in parallel above.) Use it throughout the session to personalize commentary and picks. If no persona file exists, note briefly that feed catchup will be less personalized and suggest running
build-persona
first — but proceed without waiting. If you show this message, add
· · ·
after it.
Fetch feed documents.
Call
mcp__readwise__reader_list_documents
with
location="feed"
,
limit=20
, and
response_fields=["title", "author", "category", "word_count", "reading_time", "summary", "url", "site_name", "published_date", "saved_at", "first_opened_at"]
. Documents come back most-recently-saved first. Filter to items where
first_opened_at
is null (unseen). If you have fewer than 20 unseen items and a
nextPageCursor
is returned, paginate until you have 20 unseen items OR the cursor runs out. Hold all unseen items in memory. (Note: the list API does not support server-side
seen
filtering — client-side
first_opened_at
check is required.)
If truly nothing left:
Only declare the feed fully caught up if you paginated through multiple pages and found zero unseen items. In that case, say so briefly and end.
Pick the top 5.
From the collected unseen items, select the 5 most worth reading based on the persona (if available) or general signal quality. Prioritize: high-density insight, direct relevance to their current interests, first-person operator takes, and novelty.
Opening Format
Render the overview exactly like this:
📡 Reader Feed
{1-2 sentences explaining what you looked at and what stood out — e.g. "Scanned the last 20 unseen items. AI and software architecture dominate, with a few standouts worth pulling."}
Today's picks
(spanning {human-readable time range, e.g. "the last 8 hours" or "Feb 24–26"})
:
Title
Source
Time
Why
1
Title
site_name
reading_time
One-line reason this made the cut
2
...
...
...
...
{1-2 sentences of commentary on the picks as a set — what the pattern is, or why these five in particular.}
· · ·
Want to act on any of these, or browse everything?
Later N
/
Inbox N
/
Shortlist N
/
Archive N
— move a pick
Show N
— get a deeper summary
Read N
— open in Reader
Browse all
— go through all unseen items in batches of 20
Browse Loop
If the user says "browse all" (or similar), enter the batch-by-batch loop. Present unseen items 20 at a time:
The Table
Before the table, add a single line with the time range covered by the batch, e.g.
"Feb 26, 3:00–11:00 PM"
or
"last 4 hours"
— derived from the
saved_at
values of the items in that batch.
Title
Source
Time
Summary
1
Title
site_name
reading_time
Brief summary from metadata — one line, truncated if needed
2
...
...
...
...
After the table, give a
brief commentary
(1-2 sentences) on the batch — what stands out relative to their interests.
Options
Mark all seen
— mark the batch as seen and load the next 10
Later N
— move to Later (you can also move to Inbox/Shortlist/Archive)
Show N
— get a deeper summary (or the full content if short)
Read N
— open in Reader
(You can act on multiple items at once, e.g. "later 2, 5, 8")
Handling Responses
"Mark all seen"
/
"next"
/
"seen"
— Call
mcp__readwise__reader_bulk_edit_document_metadata
with
documents
set to
[{document_id: , seen: true}, ...]
for every document in the current batch. This is a single call, not one per document. Do not move or archive them. Then display the next batch of 20.
"Later N"
— Move that document to
later
location. Confirm briefly, then continue.
"Later N, N, N"
— Move multiple documents to
later
. Confirm briefly.
"Inbox N"
/
"Shortlist N"
/
"Archive N"
— Move to the specified location (
new
,
shortlist
, or
archive
). Confirm briefly.
"Show N"
— Fetch full content using
mcp__readwise__reader_get_document_details
. If the document is 3 mins or under, show the full content verbatim — no summary. If over 3 mins, give a richer summary with why-read/why-skip reasoning. Then re-present the options.
"Read N"
— Provide the Reader link (
https://read.readwise.io/read/{id}
) so they can open it directly.
"Stop"
/
"done"
— End the session with a brief summary of what was processed (how many seen, how many pulled).
Transitions
When loading the next batch, use
· · ·
as a visual separator before the next table.