mcp-news

# news-mcp MCP server mcp news server ## Components ### Resources The server exposes news articles stored in a database via a resource URI: - `news://{category}/{limit}`: Retrieves a list of the latest articles for a given category. - `{category}`: Filters articles by category (e.g., `tech`, `data_science`, `news`). See tool description for full list. - `{limit}` (optional, default 10): Specifies the maximum number of articles to return. - Each returned article includes title, link, published date, and source. ### Prompts The server currently does not expose any prompts. (The summarization logic exists internally but is not available via an MCP prompt). ### Tools The server implements one tool: - `summarize_news`: Retrieves raw news articles from the database, allowing the client (LLM) to summarize them. - Takes optional `category` (string) and `limit` (integer, default 20) arguments. - Returns a list of article dictionaries, each containing `id`, `title`, `link`, `published`, `source`, and `content`. - Available categories: `tech`, `data_science`, `llm_tools`, `cybersecurity`, `linux`, `audio_dsp`, `startups`, `news`, `science`, `research`, `policy`. ## Configuration The server relies on a PostgreSQL database configured via the `DATABASE_URL` environment variable (defaults to `postgresql://localhost/mcp_news`). The `news_gatherer.py` script (intended to be run separately/scheduled) populates the database from various RSS feeds. Summarization logic (internal, not exposed via MCP) uses the OpenAI API, configured via the `OPENAI_API_KEY` environment variable. Other configurations (via environment variables or defaults): - `LOOKBACK_HOURS`: How far back `news_gatherer.py` looks for new articles (default: 6). - `SUMMARY_WORD_TARGET`: Target word count for internal summarization (default: 500). - `MAX_ARTICLES_PER_SUMMARY`: Maximum articles included in one summary batch (default: 25). - `KEYWORD_FILTER`: Keywords used by internal summarization logic. ## Quickstart ### Install #### Claude Desktop On MacOS: `~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json` On Windows: `%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json` <details> <summary>Development/Unpublished Servers Configuration</summary> ``` "mcpServers": { "news-mcp": { "command": "uv", "args": [ "--directory", "~/dev/news-mcp", "run", "news-mcp" ] } } ``` </details> <details> <summary>Published Servers Configuration</summary> ``` "mcpServers": { "news-mcp": { "command": "uvx", "args": [ "news-mcp" ] } } ``` </details> ## Development ### Building and Publishing To prepare the package for distribution: 1. Sync dependencies and update lockfile: ```bash uv sync ``` 2. Build package distributions: ```bash uv build ``` This will create source and wheel distributions in the `dist/` directory. 3. Publish to PyPI: ```bash uv publish ``` Note: You'll need to set PyPI credentials via environment variables or command flags: - Token: `--token` or `UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN` - Or username/password: `--username`/`UV_PUBLISH_USERNAME` and `--password`/`UV_PUBLISH_PASSWORD` ### Debugging Since MCP servers run over stdio, debugging can be challenging. For the best debugging experience, we strongly recommend using the [MCP Inspector](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/inspector). You can launch the MCP Inspector via [`npm`](https://docs.npmjs.com/downloading-and-installing-node-js-and-npm) with this command: ```bash npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory ~/dev/news-mcp run news-mcp ``` Upon launching, the Inspector will display a URL that you can access in your browser to begin debugging.