NewsCaptain

An automated, AI-powered daily news intelligence briefing designed seamlessly for Newsboat (or any terminal/desktop RSS workflow).

NewsCaptain updates your local RSS feeds, filters out noise (celebrity gossip and other irrelevant news), synthesizes high-impact national/international affairs and local developments using Google Gemini AI, and formats a clean XML briefing delivered straight to your Newsboat interface with daily desktop notifications.

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Features

• AI Noise-Filtering: Evaluates feeds based on a customizable prompt matrix (prioritizes high-impact tech, geopolitical, economic, and regional news).
• Newsboat First-Class Integration: Embeds natively into Newsboat using local filter:cat feed definitions.
• Automated Daily Runs: Powered by Systemd timers to execute strictly once a day on first boot.
• Terminal Friendly: Formatted for lightweight, fast scanning inside terminal emulators.
• Privacy-Aware & Flexible: Keeps local state in SQLite and parses raw content clean using trafilatura.

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Repository Structure

NewsCaptain/
├── systemd/
│   ├── newscaptain.service  # Systemd user service unit template
│   └── newscaptain.timer    # Daily execution timer
├── newscaptain.py           # Core Python engine (DB extraction, Gemini synthesis, XML rendering)
├── newscaptain_daily.sh     # Main Shell wrapper script
├── requirements.txt         # Lightweight Python dependencies
├── LICENSE                  # MIT License
└── README.md

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Installation & Setup

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/NewsCaptain.git
cd NewsCaptain

2. Set Up Virtual Environment & Dependencies

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure Gemini API Key

Obtain an API key from Google AI Studio and export it, or set it directly in your environment/service.

export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-api-key"

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Newsboat Integration

To view the generated AI Briefing directly inside Newsboat, add the following entry to your ~/.config/newsboat/urls configuration file:

"filter:cat ~/.config/newsboat/ai_feed.xml" "Summary" "News"

Make sure your newscaptain.py outputs the generated HTML briefing to ~/.config/newsboat/ai_feed.xml (or your configured output directory).

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Automated Daily Execution (Systemd)

NewsCaptain includes Systemd unit files to automatically update feeds and build your briefing once a day on your first system boot.

1. Create the user Systemd directory (if it doesn't exist):

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user

2. Copy the unit files from the repository:

cp systemd/newscaptain.* ~/.config/systemd/user/

3. Edit ~/.config/systemd/user/newscaptain.service to update your path and set your GEMINI_API_KEY:

[Unit]
Description=Updates Newsboat & Generates AI Summary
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
Environment="GEMINI_API_KEY=YOUR_GEMINI_API_KEY_HERE"
ExecStart=/home/<username>/.config/newscaptain_daily.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

4. Enable and start the daily timer:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now newscaptain.timer

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Manual Execution

You can run the wrapper manually at any time to test or trigger an immediate refresh:

chmod +x newscaptain.sh
./newscaptain.sh

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License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.