aloth CRED-1 Credibility Skill
Check the credibility of news sources and websites using the CRED-1 open dataset. 2673 domains, scored 0.0–1.0 (lower = less credible), with categories: fake, conspiracy, unreliable, satire, mixed, reliable.
Installation
npm install -g @aloth/cred1
Quick Start
cred1 check infowars.com
cred1 check nytimes.com
cred1 stats
Commands
cred1 check <domain>
Look up a single domain's credibility score.
cred1 check infowars.com
# 🔴 infowars.com
# Score: 0.140 / 1.000
# Category: fake
# Level: low
# Sources: 2
# Age: 25.6 years
# Tranco: #4,382
cred1 check nytimes.com
# ⚪ nytimes.com
# Not found in CRED-1 dataset — treat as unknown/neutral
cred1 check rt.com
# 🟡 rt.com
# Category: unreliable
# Level: mixed
JSON output:
cred1 check infowars.com --json
# { "domain": "infowars.com", "score": 0.14, "category": "fake", "level": "low", "sources": 2, ... }
Domain normalisation: www. prefix, trailing paths, and protocols are stripped automatically.
cred1 check https://www.breitbart.com/politics/
# Checks: breitbart.com
cred1 batch
Read domains from stdin, one per line. Lines starting with # are ignored.
echo -e "rt.com\ninfowars.com\nnytimes.com" | cred1 batch
# 🟡 rt.com 0.105 unreliable mixed
# 🔴 infowars.com 0.140 fake low
# ⚪ nytimes.com ? unknown neutral
# JSON array output:
echo -e "rt.com\ninfowars.com" | cred1 batch --json
Useful for processing lists from files:
cat my-sources.txt | cred1 batch
cred1 search <pattern>
Search domain names by substring or regular expression.
cred1 search "breit"
# 🔴 breitbart.com 0.115 unreliable mixed
# ...
cred1 search "\.ru$"
# All .ru domains in the dataset
cred1 search "news" --limit 20
# First 20 matches, sorted by score ascending
cred1 search "cnn" --json
cred1 stats
Show dataset statistics and per-category counts.
cred1 stats
# 📊 CRED-1 Dataset Statistics
#
# Total domains: 2,674
# Version: 1.0.0
#
# Categories:
# unreliable 2001 74.9% ████████████████████████████████
# fake 233 8.7% ████
# mixed 198 7.4% ███
# ...
cred1 categories
List all categories with descriptions and base scores.
cred1 categories
# 📋 CRED-1 Category Taxonomy
#
# fake 233 domains base score: 0.0
# Fabricates information or impersonates legitimate outlets
#
# conspiracy 120 domains base score: 0.1
# ...
cred1 --version / cred1 --help
cred1 --version # 1.0.0
cred1 --help # Full command reference
Traffic-Light Levels
| Level | Score range | Emoji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| low | ≤ 0.20 | 🔴 | High credibility risk |
| mixed | 0.21–0.50 | 🟡 | Mixed or unreliable signals |
| ok | > 0.50 | 🟢 | Generally considered reliable |
| neutral | not found | ⚪ | Unknown — absence ≠ trustworthy |
Using as a Library
import { checkDomain, searchDomains, getStats } from '@aloth/cred1';
// Single lookup
const result = checkDomain('infowars.com');
// { domain: 'infowars.com', score: 0.14, category: 'fake', level: 'low', sources: 2 }
// Not found → null
const unknown = checkDomain('nytimes.com'); // null
// Search
const breitbarts = searchDomains('breit');
// Stats
const stats = getStats();
// { totalDomains: 2673, categories: { unreliable: 2001, fake: 233, ... }, version: '1.0.0' }
Dataset
- Source: CRED-1 v1.0 (February 2026) — merged from OpenSources.co and Iffy.news
- Coverage: 2,674 domains, primarily English-language outlets
- License: CC-BY-4.0 (dataset), MIT (code)
- Important: Absence from the dataset does NOT mean a domain is trustworthy. CRED-1 focuses on known unreliable sources.
- Citation: Alexander Loth. (2026). CRED-1: An Open Credibility Dataset for Web Domains. GitHub. https://github.com/aloth/cred-1
Agent Usage Tips
When a user shares a URL or asks about a news source:
- Extract the domain from the URL
- Run
cred1 check <domain> - Interpret the result:
- 🔴 low → warn the user, explain the category (fake/conspiracy)
- 🟡 mixed → note concerns, mention category
- 🟢 ok → confirm generally reliable
- ⚪ neutral → explain absence ≠ trustworthy, advise further checking
For multiple sources in an article or list:
echo -e "domain1.com\ndomain2.com\ndomain3.com" | cred1 batch
For research, combine with stats:
cred1 search "news" | head -20 # Most problematic "news" domains