mcp_newsnow

This MCP server provides a Newsnow-based news aggregation service. It exposes tools that let you fetch the latest news from multiple sources, across 14+ platforms, including popular Chinese and international sources. The server is designed to be used via MCP-compatible clients (such as Claude Desktop or an MCP CLI) and supports English and Chinese source names with fuzzy matching. Available tools include: get_newsnow for retrieving the latest news from a single source, get_multi_news for aggregating news from multiple sources (up to five), get_all_news to fetch news from all configured sources, and list_sources to reveal the supported news sources and their Chinese names. These tools return dictionaries containing news data and metadata suitable for downstream processing in your MCP workflow.

Prerequisites:

• Python (3.8+)
• pip or uv for Python package installation
• Internet access to fetch the package from PyPI

Option A: Install from PyPI

1. Install the package using pip

pip install mcp-newsnow

2. (Optional) If using uv to install, run:

uv pip install mcp-newsnow

Option B: Configure with Claude Desktop (example setup)

1. Open Claude Desktop configuration file (macOS): ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json or (Windows): %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add the MCP server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "get_news": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-newsnow"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. Save and restart Claude Desktop to load the new MCP server.

Environment variable for API endpoint (optional):

• NEWS_API_URL: Set this to point to the Newsnow API base URL if you need a non-default endpoint. Example:

export NEWS_API_URL=https://newsnow.example.com

Note: The package is primarily Python-based and uses the MCP protocol; Node.js or Docker-based deployments are not included in this configuration by default.

Tips and notes:

• If you encounter authentication or rate-limiting issues with Newsnow, consider configuring a custom NEWS_API_URL to point to a more reliable endpoint or add caching at your client layer.
• The list_sources tool helps you verify supported sources and their Chinese names for easier integration with Chinese-speaking prompts.
• When using get_multi_news, you can pass up to five source names to aggregate data in a single call. Ensure source names match those configured in your environment (supporting both Chinese and English names).
• For development workflows, you can use the MCP CLI to run tests against the server and validate responses (e.g., mcp test server.py).
• This MCP server configuration assumes the server is accessible in your runtime environment as a Python module named mcp-newsnow; adjust the module name if your packaging differs.