Automating Medium Reading List Syndication via Zenndra API

Curate and Republish Medium Reading Lists (Courses, Digests, Apps)

Sebastian Casvean introduces a workflow for leveraging Medium lists via the Zenndra API. This system allows developers to programmatically fetch ordered sequences of articles for external republication.

Why This Matters

Manual curation of reading paths is inefficient and prone to drift. By transitioning from manual link-sharing to an API-driven synchronization model using list_id, developers can maintain stable onboarding paths in LMS or newsletters without manual updates.

Key Insights

• Discovery is handled via /search/lists?query= or /recommended_lists/{tag} endpoints (Zenndra API, 2026).
• Ordered sequences are prioritized over search results for onboarding, as seen in course builder paths (Week 1–4).
• The Zenndra API provides specific metadata and member article endpoints to facilitate automatic upserts into external article tables.

Working Examples

Fetching list metadata and articles to render an ordered sequence.

const API = 'https://api.zenndra.com';
const headers = { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.ZENNDRA_API_KEY}` };
const listId = 'YOUR_LIST_ID';
const meta = await fetch(`${API}/list/${listId}`, { headers }).then((r) => r.json());
const { articles } = await fetch(`${API}/list/${listId}/articles`, { headers }).then((r) => r.json());
console.log(meta.title, articles.map((a, i) => `${i + 1}. ${a.title}`));

Discovering recommended lists based on a specific topic tag.

const tag = 'javascript';
const recommended = await fetch(`${API}/recommended_lists/${encodeURIComponent(tag)}`, {
headers,
}).then((r) => r.json());

Practical Applications

• ): Course builders utilizing stable ordering for Week 1–4 reading paths; Pitfall: Re-sorting API responses by date instead of preserving original order, which breaks the intended curriculum sequence.
• ): Newsletters implementing a “5 links from this list” weekly block; Pitfall: Failing to provide attribution when republishing curated lists in community apps.

References:

• https://dev.to/zenndraapi/curate-and-republish-medium-reading-lists-courses-digests-apps-2hlb