[GH-ISSUE #1475] Topic browser / list #1040

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opened 2026-05-07 00:29:48 +02:00 by BreizhHardware · 4 comments

BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:48 +02:00

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Originally created by @Alloc86 on GitHub (Oct 26, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/1475

💡 Idea
I was wondering if maybe some kind of list of all topics that the server knows about could be shown. Maybe limited to admins or users with a specific permission.
I think for private instances it would be quite helpful as you might often just want to subscribe to everything/most of the topics you used.

Actually, looking at #159, it would be less of an issue for myself if full on sync of subscriptions was supported, as it would mean only having to subscribe to new topics once on one device instead of the at least three I am running clients on now (ideally would want it to be seven clients, but without the sync that's just getting time consuming now ;) ).

💻 Target components
Frontends (apps, web UI) mainly, but would probably also require support in the ntfy server to provide the list.

Originally created by @Alloc86 on GitHub (Oct 26, 2025). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/1475 :bulb: **Idea** I was wondering if maybe some kind of list of all topics that the server knows about could be shown. Maybe limited to admins or users with a specific permission. I think for private instances it would be quite helpful as you might often just want to subscribe to everything/most of the topics you used. Actually, looking at #159, it would be less of an issue for myself if full on sync of subscriptions was supported, as it would mean only having to subscribe to new topics once on one device instead of the at least three I am running clients on now (ideally would want it to be seven clients, but without the sync that's just getting time consuming now ;) ). :computer: **Target components** Frontends (apps, web UI) mainly, but would probably also require support in the ntfy server to provide the list.

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2026-05-07 00:29:48 +02:00

BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:48 +02:00

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@simonwiles commented on GitHub (Dec 18, 2025):

I could really use this; I run a private instance and I just want to be subscribed to all the topics. I find ntfy really useful but I'm always concerned I've forgotten something somewhere happily publishing to topics that nothing's subscribed to...

@simonwiles commented on GitHub (Dec 18, 2025): I could really use this; I run a private instance and I just want to be subscribed to all the topics. I find ntfy really useful but I'm always concerned I've forgotten something somewhere happily publishing to topics that nothing's subscribed to...

BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:49 +02:00

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@Batwam commented on GitHub (Apr 17, 2026):

not sure if there is a native solution but this works for me (adjust based on your actual database location)
sudo sqlite3 /var/cache/ntfy/cache.db "SELECT DISTINCT topic FROM messages ORDER BY topic;"

if you put the url in front of each and click on the links it will autosubscribe (need to be one one by one though, can't seem to be possible to subscribe too multiple topics at once)

@Batwam commented on GitHub (Apr 17, 2026): not sure if there is a native solution but this works for me (adjust based on your actual database location) `sudo sqlite3 /var/cache/ntfy/cache.db "SELECT DISTINCT topic FROM messages ORDER BY topic;"` if you put the url in front of each and click on the links it will autosubscribe (need to be one one by one though, can't seem to be possible to subscribe too multiple topics at once)

BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:49 +02:00

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@simonwiles commented on GitHub (Apr 18, 2026):

/var/cache/ntfy/cache.db is empty for my installation (I think because I'm not using enable-login: true?) :(

@simonwiles commented on GitHub (Apr 18, 2026): `/var/cache/ntfy/cache.db` is empty for my installation (I think because I'm not using `enable-login: true`?) :(

BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:49 +02:00

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@Batwam commented on GitHub (Apr 19, 2026):

Just checked my server.yml. I haven't set this option. This said, I'd be surprised if that's the issue as the command above literally reads the database file using sqlite3 so, nothing to do with the ntfy API or server access really.

Note that it won't list all topics ever used but only active one with messages in them so it could depend in whether you actually have received messages within the period set by cache-duration. Ntfy will let you send messages to any topic and subscribe to any topic too so I suspect that there may not be a "list of topics" but merely a list of messages each of them with corresponding topics (which is what the sqlite command above extracts)

@Batwam commented on GitHub (Apr 19, 2026): Just checked my server.yml. I haven't set this option. This said, I'd be surprised if that's the issue as the command above literally reads the database file using sqlite3 so, nothing to do with the ntfy API or server access really. Note that it won't list all topics ever used but only active one with messages in them so it could depend in whether you actually have received messages within the period set by `cache-duration`. Ntfy will let you send messages to any topic and subscribe to any topic too so I suspect that there may not be a "list of topics" but merely a list of messages each of them with corresponding topics (which is what the sqlite command above extracts)