🦞 AI News Aggregator
Collects news on any topic, writes an English editorial digest using your choice of AI provider, and posts it to Discord.
Default (AI topic): TechCrunch · The Verge · NYT Tech (RSS) + curated AI YouTube channels Custom topics: Tavily news search + YouTube topic search (no Shorts, sorted by views) AI providers: OpenAI (default) · DeepSeek · Anthropic Claude — switchable per request
Network Endpoints
| Endpoint | Purpose | Condition |
|---|---|---|
https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions | AI editorial summarisation | Only if provider=openai (default) |
https://api.deepseek.com/chat/completions | AI editorial summarisation | Only if provider=deepseek |
https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages | AI editorial summarisation | Only if provider=claude |
https://discord.com/api/webhooks/... | Post digest to Discord | Always (required) |
https://techcrunch.com/.../feed/ | RSS news (AI topic) | Default AI topic only |
https://www.theverge.com/rss/... | RSS news (AI topic) | Default AI topic only |
https://www.nytimes.com/svc/collections/... | RSS news (AI topic) | Default AI topic only |
https://api.tavily.com/search | Custom topic news search | Only if TAVILY_API_KEY set |
https://api.twitterapi.io/twitter/tweet/advanced_search | Twitter search | Only if TWITTERAPI_IO_KEY set |
https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/... | YouTube search | Only if YOUTUBE_API_KEY set |
Exactly one AI endpoint is contacted per run, determined by the active provider. The default provider is OpenAI (OPENAI_API_KEY required). Switch providers with --provider deepseek or --provider claude.
Usage Examples
- "Get today's AI news"
- "Collect news about crypto"
- "Last week's news about climate change"
- "What's trending in AI today?"
- "Get crypto news from the last 3 days using OpenAI"
- "Show me recent Bitcoin YouTube videos"
- "Summarise WWIII news with Claude"
- "AI news using GPT-4o"
- "AI news dry run" (preview without posting to Discord)
- "Test my Discord webhook"
API Keys
| Key | Required | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|
DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL | ✅ Always | Discord → Channel Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → Copy URL |
OPENAI_API_KEY | If using OpenAI (default) | platform.openai.com/api-keys |
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY | If using DeepSeek | platform.deepseek.com/api_keys |
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | If using Claude | console.anthropic.com → API Keys |
TAVILY_API_KEY | For custom topics | app.tavily.com |
TWITTERAPI_IO_KEY | Optional | twitterapi.io |
YOUTUBE_API_KEY | Optional | console.cloud.google.com → YouTube Data API v3 |
AI Providers & Models
| Provider | --provider value | Default model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | openai (default) | gpt-4o-mini | Quality, reliability |
| DeepSeek | deepseek | deepseek-chat | Cost-effective, fast |
| Claude | claude | claude-3-5-haiku-20241022 | Nuanced writing |
Override per request using the --provider flag. Set a permanent non-default with openclaw config set env.AI_PROVIDER '"deepseek"'. Override the model with --model (e.g. --model gpt-4o or --model claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022).
Implementation
IMPORTANT: Always run news_aggregator.py using the steps below. Do NOT search the web manually or improvise a response — the script handles all fetching, summarisation, and Discord posting.
Step 1 — Locate the script
The script is bundled with this skill. Find it:
SKILL_DIR=$(ls -d ~/.openclaw/skills/ai-news-aggregator-sl 2>/dev/null || ls -d ~/.openclaw/skills/news-aggregator 2>/dev/null)
SCRIPT="$SKILL_DIR/news_aggregator.py"
echo "Script: $SCRIPT"
ls "$SCRIPT"
Step 2 — Check uv is available
which uv && uv --version || echo "uv not found"
If uv is not found, ask the user to install it from their system package manager or from https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/. Do not run a curl-pipe-sh command on the user's behalf.
Step 3 — API keys
Env vars are passed automatically by OpenClaw from its config. No .env file is needed.
Verify the required keys are set (without revealing values):
[[ -n "$OPENAI_API_KEY" ]] && echo "OPENAI_API_KEY: set" || echo "OPENAI_API_KEY: MISSING (required for default provider)"
[[ -n "$DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL" ]] && echo "DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL: set" || echo "DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL: MISSING"
If any are missing, ask the user to register them:
openclaw config set env.OPENAI_API_KEY '<key>'
openclaw config set env.DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL '<url>'
# Optional alternatives:
openclaw config set env.DEEPSEEK_API_KEY '<key>'
openclaw config set env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY '<key>'
Step 4 — Parse the request
Extract topic, days, and provider from what the user said:
For AI provider:
| User said | --provider | --model |
|---|---|---|
| "use OpenAI" / "with GPT" / "using ChatGPT" / nothing specified | (omit — default) | (omit) |
| "use Claude" / "with Anthropic" | --provider claude | (omit) |
| "use DeepSeek" | --provider deepseek | (omit) |
| "use GPT-4o" / "with gpt-4o" | --provider openai | --model gpt-4o |
| "use claude sonnet" | --provider claude | --model claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022 |
| "use deepseek reasoner" | --provider deepseek | --model deepseek-reasoner |
Extract topic and days from what the user said:
| User said | --topic | --days |
|---|---|---|
| "AI news" / "tech news" / nothing specific | (omit — default AI) | 1 |
| "crypto news" | --topic "crypto" | 1 |
| "news about climate change" | --topic "climate change" | 1 |
| "last week's crypto news" | --topic "crypto" | 7 |
| "last 3 days of Bitcoin news" | --topic "Bitcoin" | 3 |
| "yesterday's AI news" | (omit topic) | 1 |
| "this week in AI" | (omit topic) | 7 |
For report type:
| User said | flag to add |
|---|---|
| "news" / "articles" / "digest" | --report news |
| "trending" / "Twitter" / "YouTube" | --report trending |
| "dry run" / "preview" / "don't post" | --dry-run |
| "test Discord" / "test webhook" | --test-discord |
| anything else | (omit — runs all) |
Step 5 — Run with uv
uv run automatically installs all dependencies from the script's inline metadata — no venv setup needed.
uv run "$SCRIPT" [--topic "TOPIC"] [--days N] [--report TYPE] [--provider PROVIDER] [--model MODEL] [--dry-run]
Examples:
# AI news today — OpenAI (default)
uv run "$SCRIPT"
# Crypto news using OpenAI
uv run "$SCRIPT" --topic "crypto" --provider openai
# Last week's climate news using Claude
uv run "$SCRIPT" --topic "climate change" --days 7 --provider claude
# Use a specific model
uv run "$SCRIPT" --topic "Bitcoin" --provider openai --model gpt-4o
# Trending AI on Twitter and YouTube
uv run "$SCRIPT" --report trending
# Preview without posting to Discord
uv run "$SCRIPT" --topic "Bitcoin" --dry-run
# Test webhook connection
uv run "$SCRIPT" --test-discord
Step 6 — Report back
Tell the user what was posted to Discord, how many items were found per source, and note any skipped sources (e.g. "YouTube skipped — YOUTUBE_API_KEY not set").