Unique id for feed items to avoid unread on permalink change

[zachleat]

If you change a post’s permalink (output URL), it will cause the feed item to be unread in feed readers:

Lives:

• eleventy-plugin-rss/src/virtualTemplate.js

  Line 29 in a639e44

  <guid>{{ absolutePostUrl }}</guid>

• eleventy-plugin-rss/src/virtualTemplate.js

  Line 58 in a639e44

  <id>{{ absolutePostUrl }}</id>

• eleventy-plugin-rss/src/virtualTemplate.js

  Line 84 in a639e44

  "id": "{{ absolutePostUrl }}",

WordPress stores a guid for each post set to the original short url at time of publication (eg example.org?p=123), which RSS use as unique ID. This means even if you change the title/url of the post, or move WP to a different directory, or even if you move domains and export/import, this won't change and won't be seen as new posts.

However I have yet to see a static site generators that doesn't cause this problem on a regular basis, even more so when people switch between SSGs.

via https://fosstodon.org/@krinkle/114396465811825616

[bobmonsour]

Here is how I solved it:

Ok, this is my 'final' final word on RSS entry IDs

Hope it helps.

[EllyLoel]

More posts related to this:

• https://darthmall.net/2025/on-the-importance-of-stable-ids/
• https://bobmonsour.com/blog/creating-permanently-unique-entry-id-for-rss/
• https://bobmonsour.com/blog/even-more-on-rss-ids/
• https://bobmonsour.com/blog/final-final-word-on-rss-entry-ids/

Edit: I took so long to type this that bob already added his above comment, oops! 😅