Go Podcast Server

A simple, powerful podcast server written in Go. It automatically generates an RSS feed from a directory of audio files (.mp3 and .m4a) and serves them via HTTP.

It includes built-in support for Tailscale Funnel, allowing you to securely expose your podcast via HTTPS to the public internet with a single command-line flag, no port forwarding required. Basically a reverse proxy baked in.

Features

• Auto-Generated Feed: Scans a directory for audio files and builds a podcast RSS feed.
• Format Support: Supports .mp3 and .m4a files.
• Metadata Parsing:
  • Extracts duration automatically.
  • Uses file modification time for publication date.
  • Supports sidecar .md files for custom titles and descriptions (first line # Title, rest is description).
  • Supports per-episode images (same filename as audio, e.g., episode1.jpg).
• Flexible Sorting: Episodes can be sorted by date (newest first), filename/title (A-Z), or a custom order.
• Tailscale Funnel: Built-in support to expose your server publicly via Tailscale.
• State Persistence: Persists Tailscale identity and certificates in a local state directory.

Getting Started

1. Build from Source

You need Go installed (1.20+ recommended).

# Clone the repository
git clone {this repo}
cd go-podcast-server

# Build a static binary
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o go-podcast-server .

Configuration

The application uses a config.yaml file. A default one will be generated if it doesn't exist.

Example config.yaml:

port: "8080"
base_url: "http://localhost:8080"  # Overridden automatically when using -tailscale
audio_folder: "./audio"            # Path to your audio files
podcast:
  title: "My Awesome Podcast"
  description: "A podcast about cool things."
  author: "Jane Doe"
  email: "jane@example.com"
  language: "en-us"
  category: "Technology"
  sub_category: "Software"
  explicit: "no"

Usage

Local Mode

Serve the podcast on your local network (default port 8080).

./go-podcast-server

Access the feed at: http://localhost:8080/feed.xml

Tailscale Funnel Mode

Expose the podcast to the public internet using Tailscale Funnel.

./go-podcast-server -tailscale

• First Run: You will be prompted to authenticate with a URL.
• Access: The server will log the public URL, e.g., https://my-podcast-server.tailnet-name.ts.net/feed.xml.
• Requirements: You must enable Funnel for the node in your Tailscale Admin Console (Access Controls and Machine Settings).

Other Flags

• -verbose: Enable detailed logging for Tailscale debugging.

Content Management

1. Audio Files: Place .mp3 or .m4a files in your audio_folder.
2. Metadata:
   • By default, the filename is used as the title.
   • Create a markdown file with the same name (e.g., episode1.md) to define a custom title and description.
     • Title: The first line starting with # .
     • Description: The rest of the file content.
3. Images:
   • Channel Image: Name an image default.jpg (or png) in the audio folder.
   • Episode Image: Name an image matching the audio file (e.g., episode1.jpg).

License

MIT