OpenRunner/clash-freenode: A Free Clash and V2Ray Subscription Feed

What clash-freenode actually ships

The repository is a distribution point for subscription data, not software. Its top level contains README.md and featured.jpg, and the README describes the project as a free node subscription for Clash and V2Ray clients. There is no client code, no server, no build system and no configuration generator in the repository layout. What a user consumes is a subscription URL that a proxy client imports, and the README's own instruction is to get that URL from an external page. The audience is therefore narrow: people who already run a Clash, SSR or V2Ray client and want a free source of nodes to paste into it. Anyone looking for a self-hosted proxy, a tunnelling tool, or a way to run their own exit node is in the wrong place, because nothing here creates or hosts a node.

The subscription URL lives off-repo, and that is the whole design

The most consequential detail in the README is that the latest subscription address is not in the repository. It directs readers to free.datiya.com for the current URL, and repeats that instruction under troubleshooting: if your subscription link stops working, go back to that page for a new address. The repository README also carries a dated table of node counts, and every row from 2026-09-12 through 2026-09-22 shows 14 nodes. That table is the only quantitative signal the project publishes, and it says the pool is small and flat rather than growing. The separation between the repository and the live address is a deliberate-looking choice: the repo can stay static or be mirrored while the actual endpoint moves, which is common for feeds that get blocked. The cost is that the repository alone is not enough to use the thing. Cloning it gives you a README, not a subscription.

Getting a subscription into a client

There is no installer, because there is nothing to install. The README's new-user path has three steps: visit free.datiya.com for the latest subscription address, download the matching client software, and import the address. The repository itself is only useful for people who cloned it, and the README tells them to refresh with git pull or the GitHub sync button.

git clone https://github.com/OpenRunner/clash-freenode.git
cd clash-freenode
git pull

After pulling, the directory still contains only README.md and featured.jpg. The pull keeps the node-count table current; it does not deliver a working subscription file, so the next step is still to open free.datiya.com in a browser and copy the address shown there into your client's subscription field. Expect the client to report the number of imported nodes after the update, and expect that number to be in the low teens based on the table. If the import returns an error or zero nodes, the README's answer is to fetch a fresh address from the same page, not to debug the client.

Free nodes fail quietly, and the README does not pretend otherwise

The README's troubleshooting section is one line long in substance: if the subscription link does not work, get the latest address. That is an admission that link rot is expected rather than exceptional. Two limitations follow. First, availability is not guaranteed by anything in the repository. There is no uptime statement, no node provenance, no operator information and no measurement of latency or bandwidth, so a user cannot tell whether a node is fast, slow, or logging traffic before connecting. Second, the pool is tiny. Fourteen nodes shared across an unknown number of users is a thin margin, and free shared exits are the first thing to saturate when a feed gets attention. The project is also the wrong tool for anything that needs a stable egress identity, such as long-lived sessions, IP-allowlisted services, or work where a mid-session disconnect costs you something. A rotating free pool is a browsing convenience, not infrastructure.

How this differs from self-hosted proxy setups

The obvious alternative is running your own node with a tool like Xray or sing-box on a VPS you control. The difference is not quality, it is who owns the exit. With a self-hosted setup you choose the region, you hold the credentials, only your traffic uses the link, and the endpoint does not move unless you move it. With clash-freenode you get none of that: the address is published, the nodes are shared, and the endpoint can change without notice, which is exactly why the README sends you to an external page for the current URL. The trade is effort and cost against control. A VPS costs money monthly and needs maintenance; this feed costs nothing and needs none, but you cannot inspect what you are connecting through. A second alternative is a paid subscription provider, which typically publishes a service-level expectation and a support channel. This repository publishes neither, and the README routes problems to a GitHub issue rather than to an operator.

Licence, maintenance and what an upgrade costs you

The README states the project is released under CC BY-SA 4.0, and the repository carries a CC BY-SA 4.0 badge. That is a content licence, which fits a repository whose only real artifact is a list plus prose. It also means anyone redistributing the material, including a modified node list, is expected to keep the same licence and attribution terms. This is a description of what the README says, not legal advice; if you plan to republish the data, read the licence text yourself. On maintenance, the last push was on 2026-09-21, and the README's own table runs through 2026-09-22, so the feed is being refreshed on a daily cadence. The upgrade path is trivial by design: git pull for the README, and re-fetch the subscription address from free.datiya.com when the old one stops resolving. There are no releases in the repository, so there is no version to pin and no changelog to read. The ongoing cost is not maintenance effort, it is the recurring need to re-import an address whenever the published one changes.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt it only if you want a zero-cost way to point a Clash, SSR or V2Ray client at a small rotating pool of free nodes, and you accept that the feed holds roughly 14 entries and that the working subscription link lives at free.datiya.com rather than in the repository. Skip it if you need stable throughput, a documented node source, or anything you can hold someone to. Before importing, open free.datiya.com, compare its date against the README table, and decide whether a 14-node pool is enough for what you are doing.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. OpenRunner/clash-freenode on GitHub
3. README