diff --git a/backend/src/services/feed_parser.rs b/backend/src/services/feed_parser.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd94e4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/src/services/feed_parser.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,278 @@
+//! RSS/Atom feed parser service.
+//!
+//! Discovers and parses RSS/Atom feeds from source URLs.
+//! Used in Phase 1 of the generation pipeline to extract article links
+//! sorted by publication date (newest first), before falling back
+//! to the HTML-based source_scraper.
+
+use chrono::{DateTime, Utc};
+use url::Url;
+
+use crate::errors::AppError;
+
+/// A single entry extracted from an RSS/Atom feed.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone)]
+pub struct FeedEntry {
+    pub url: String,
+    pub title: String,
+    pub published_date: Option<DateTime<Utc>>,
+}
+
+/// Result of attempting to detect and parse a feed for a source.
+pub enum FeedResult {
+    /// Feed found and parsed successfully.
+    Found {
+        feed_url: String,
+        entries: Vec<FeedEntry>,
+    },
+    /// No feed discovered or feed invalid.
+    NotFound,
+}
+
+/// Minimum number of feed entries to consider the feed useful.
+/// Below this threshold, the pipeline falls back to HTML extraction.
+pub const MIN_FEED_ENTRIES: usize = 3;
+
+/// Number of days before a cached feed URL is re-verified.
+pub const REDISCOVERY_DAYS: i64 = 30;
+
+/// Parse an RSS/Atom feed URL and return entries sorted by date (newest first).
+///
+/// Uses the `feed-rs` crate which handles RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom, and JSON Feed.
+/// Entries without a published date are placed last.
+pub async fn parse_feed(
+    http_client: &reqwest::Client,
+    feed_url: &str,
+    max_links: usize,
+) -> Result<Vec<FeedEntry>, AppError> {
+    let parsed_url = Url::parse(feed_url)
+        .map_err(|e| AppError::BadRequest(format!("Invalid feed URL: {}", e)))?;
+
+    if let Err(e) = crate::services::scraper::check_ssrf(&parsed_url).await {
+        tracing::warn!(url = feed_url, error = %e, "Feed URL failed SSRF check");
+        return Ok(Vec::new());
+    }
+
+    let response = http_client
+        .get(feed_url)
+        .send()
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| {
+            tracing::warn!(url = feed_url, error = %e, "Failed to fetch feed");
+            AppError::Internal(anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to fetch feed"))
+        })?;
+
+    if !response.status().is_success() {
+        tracing::warn!(url = feed_url, status = %response.status(), "Feed returned non-200");
+        return Ok(Vec::new());
+    }
+
+    let body = response.bytes().await.map_err(|e| {
+        AppError::Internal(anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to read feed body: {}", e))
+    })?;
+
+    let feed = feed_rs::parser::parse(&body[..]).map_err(|e| {
+        tracing::warn!(url = feed_url, error = %e, "Failed to parse feed");
+        AppError::Internal(anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to parse feed: {}", e))
+    })?;
+
+    let mut entries: Vec<FeedEntry> = feed
+        .entries
+        .into_iter()
+        .filter_map(|entry| {
+            // Get the article URL: prefer links, fall back to id if it looks like a URL
+            let url = entry
+                .links
+                .first()
+                .map(|l| l.href.clone())
+                .or_else(|| {
+                    if entry.id.starts_with("http://") || entry.id.starts_with("https://") {
+                        Some(entry.id.clone())
+                    } else {
+                        None
+                    }
+                })?;
+
+            let title = entry
+                .title
+                .map(|t| t.content)
+                .unwrap_or_default();
+
+            let published_date = entry
+                .published
+                .or(entry.updated);
+
+            Some(FeedEntry {
+                url,
+                title,
+                published_date,
+            })
+        })
+        .collect();
+
+    // Sort by published_date descending (newest first), entries without dates last
+    entries.sort_by(|a, b| {
+        match (&b.published_date, &a.published_date) {
+            (Some(db), Some(da)) => db.cmp(da),
+            (Some(_), None) => std::cmp::Ordering::Greater,
+            (None, Some(_)) => std::cmp::Ordering::Less,
+            (None, None) => std::cmp::Ordering::Equal,
+        }
+    });
+
+    entries.truncate(max_links);
+
+    Ok(entries)
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use wiremock::{Mock, MockServer, ResponseTemplate};
+    use wiremock::matchers::method;
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn parse_feed_rss2() {
+        let server = MockServer::start().await;
+        let rss_body = r#"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<rss version="2.0">
+  <channel>
+    <title>Test Blog</title>
+    <item>
+      <title>Article 1</title>
+      <link>https://example.com/article-1</link>
+      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
+    </item>
+    <item>
+      <title>Article 2</title>
+      <link>https://example.com/article-2</link>
+      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
+    </item>
+    <item>
+      <title>Article 3</title>
+      <link>https://example.com/article-3</link>
+      <pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
+    </item>
+  </channel>
+</rss>"#;
+
+        Mock::given(method("GET"))
+            .respond_with(ResponseTemplate::new(200).set_body_raw(rss_body, "application/rss+xml"))
+            .mount(&server)
+            .await;
+
+        let client = reqwest::Client::new();
+        let entries = parse_feed(&client, &server.uri(), 10).await.unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(entries.len(), 3);
+        assert_eq!(entries[0].title, "Article 1");
+        assert_eq!(entries[0].url, "https://example.com/article-1");
+        assert!(entries[0].published_date > entries[1].published_date);
+        assert!(entries[1].published_date > entries[2].published_date);
+    }
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn parse_feed_atom() {
+        let server = MockServer::start().await;
+        let atom_body = r#"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
+  <title>Test Feed</title>
+  <entry>
+    <title>Atom Article</title>
+    <link href="https://example.com/atom-1"/>
+    <updated>2026-04-03T12:00:00Z</updated>
+  </entry>
+</feed>"#;
+
+        Mock::given(method("GET"))
+            .respond_with(ResponseTemplate::new(200).set_body_raw(atom_body, "application/atom+xml"))
+            .mount(&server)
+            .await;
+
+        let client = reqwest::Client::new();
+        let entries = parse_feed(&client, &server.uri(), 10).await.unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(entries.len(), 1);
+        assert_eq!(entries[0].title, "Atom Article");
+        assert_eq!(entries[0].url, "https://example.com/atom-1");
+        assert!(entries[0].published_date.is_some());
+    }
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn parse_feed_respects_max_links() {
+        let server = MockServer::start().await;
+        let rss_body = r#"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<rss version="2.0">
+  <channel>
+    <title>Test</title>
+    <item><title>A1</title><link>https://example.com/1</link><pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item>
+    <item><title>A2</title><link>https://example.com/2</link><pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item>
+    <item><title>A3</title><link>https://example.com/3</link><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item>
+  </channel>
+</rss>"#;
+
+        Mock::given(method("GET"))
+            .respond_with(ResponseTemplate::new(200).set_body_raw(rss_body, "application/rss+xml"))
+            .mount(&server)
+            .await;
+
+        let client = reqwest::Client::new();
+        let entries = parse_feed(&client, &server.uri(), 2).await.unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(entries.len(), 2);
+        assert_eq!(entries[0].url, "https://example.com/1"); // newest first
+    }
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn parse_feed_entries_without_dates_come_last() {
+        let server = MockServer::start().await;
+        let rss_body = r#"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<rss version="2.0">
+  <channel>
+    <title>Test</title>
+    <item><title>No date</title><link>https://example.com/no-date</link></item>
+    <item><title>Has date</title><link>https://example.com/has-date</link><pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2026 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item>
+  </channel>
+</rss>"#;
+
+        Mock::given(method("GET"))
+            .respond_with(ResponseTemplate::new(200).set_body_raw(rss_body, "application/rss+xml"))
+            .mount(&server)
+            .await;
+
+        let client = reqwest::Client::new();
+        let entries = parse_feed(&client, &server.uri(), 10).await.unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(entries.len(), 2);
+        assert_eq!(entries[0].url, "https://example.com/has-date");
+        assert_eq!(entries[1].url, "https://example.com/no-date");
+    }
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn parse_feed_404_returns_empty() {
+        let server = MockServer::start().await;
+
+        Mock::given(method("GET"))
+            .respond_with(ResponseTemplate::new(404))
+            .mount(&server)
+            .await;
+
+        let client = reqwest::Client::new();
+        let entries = parse_feed(&client, &server.uri(), 10).await.unwrap();
+        assert!(entries.is_empty());
+    }
+
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn parse_feed_invalid_xml_returns_error() {
+        let server = MockServer::start().await;
+
+        Mock::given(method("GET"))
+            .respond_with(ResponseTemplate::new(200).set_body_string("not xml at all"))
+            .mount(&server)
+            .await;
+
+        let client = reqwest::Client::new();
+        let result = parse_feed(&client, &server.uri(), 10).await;
+        assert!(result.is_err());
+    }
+}
diff --git a/backend/src/services/mod.rs b/backend/src/services/mod.rs
index a0484e8..1956d4d 100644
--- a/backend/src/services/mod.rs
+++ b/backend/src/services/mod.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ pub mod csv;
 pub mod email;
 pub mod encryption;
 pub mod export;
+pub mod feed_parser;
 pub mod job_store;
 pub mod llm;
 pub mod prompts;