A lightweight Python-based news aggregator that fetches real-time trending topics from eight major Chinese media platforms without external dependencies.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install newsnow-reader
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install newsnow-reader using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is NewsNow Reader?
NewsNow Reader is a specialized tool designed to provide elegant access to real-time hot news and trending topics across eight mainstream platforms, including Weibo, Zhihu, Baidu, and Wall Street CN. Built as part of the Openclaw Skills ecosystem, it leverages the core principles of the newsnow project to interface directly with official APIs using only the Python standard library.
This skill is engineered for developers and researchers who need a streamlined, dependency-free way to monitor public sentiment or stay updated on breaking news. By bypassing the need for complex scrapers or third-party MCP servers, it offers a robust and secure method to pipe high-quality news data into AI workflows or terminal dashboards.
NewsNow Reader Use Cases
- Real-time monitoring of trending topics across multiple social media platforms.
- Feeding live news data into AI coding agents or research workflows.
- Generating automated daily news summaries or newsletters.
- Building custom terminal-based news dashboards with elegant formatting.
How NewsNow Reader Works
- The skill initiates a request using the fetch_news script, specifying the desired platform identifier.
- It communicates with platform-specific endpoints (e.g., s.weibo.com, api-one.wallstcn.com) using the Python urllib library.
- For restricted platforms like Weibo or Douyin, the skill automatically generates random cookies or fetches session tokens to bypass anti-crawling measures.
- Raw data is parsed from JSON APIs or extracted from HTML structures and normalized into a standard format.
- The data is output as a JSON object which can then be piped into a formatting script for human-readable display.
NewsNow Reader Setup
Since this skill only uses the Python standard library, no external pip installations are required. Ensure you have Python 3.x installed.
# Clone the repository containing the skill
git clone <repository-url>
# Navigate to the skill directory
cd newsnow-reader
# Fetch news immediately (defaults to Weibo)
python scripts/fetch_news.py
NewsNow Reader Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill returns a structured JSON array. Each object in the array follows this schema:
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| id | string | Unique identifier for the news item |
| title | string | The headline of the news article |
| url | string | Full URL to the original source |
| mobileUrl | string | Mobile-optimized URL (optional) |
| extra.info | string | Additional metadata like heat level or view count |
| extra.hover | string | Hover text or short description |
NewsNow Reader Advanced Features
- Multiple Output Modes: Supports elegant (boxed), compact, markdown, and summary formatting for different display needs.
- Zero-Config Authentication: Automated cookie generation for Weibo and session management for Douyin.
- Content Filtering: Ability to limit the number of news items returned via CLI arguments.
- Lightweight Integration: Pure Python implementation ensures compatibility with any Openclaw Skills environment without overhead.
SKILL.md
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