# Rss News > RSS news aggregation skill. Fetches news by category from configured RSS sources and outputs each article as a title + summary block. Suitable for getting news updates, RSS feed subscriptions, blog or site updates, news source aggregation, and browsing news by category. The script ships with local caching (default 4 hours, adjustable) and by default only shows news from the last 24 hours, with filtering by category and time window. - Skill: `techstay/rss-news` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add techstay/rss-news` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/techstay/rss-news/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - License: MIT - Author: techstay (https://skillmd.com/u/techstay) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/techstay/rss-news --- # RSS News Fetches news from RSS sources by category as defined in `news-source.json`, deduplicates via cache, and outputs each article as a title + summary block followed by a total count. ## Quick Reference ```bash cd skills/rss-news/scripts # Without -c, all available categories are fetched by default uv run rss-fetch.py # Single category uv run rss-fetch.py -c politics uv run rss-fetch.py -c technology # Multiple categories (comma-separated) uv run rss-fetch.py -c politics,technology # Only news from the last 48 hours (default 24, 0 means no time limit) uv run rss-fetch.py -c politics --within-hours 48 uv run rss-fetch.py -c sports --within-hours 0 # Only refresh the cache, no news output (useful for warming cache) uv run rss-fetch.py --fetch-only # Force a cache refresh without outputting anything uv run rss-fetch.py --fetch-only --refetch-interval-hours 0 ``` --- ## Command Options | Option | Default | Description | | ---------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `-c, --category` | All categories | Categories to output, comma-separated, e.g. `-c politics,technology`. If omitted, outputs all available categories. | | `--refetch-interval-hours` | `4` | Cache freshness threshold. Skips fetching when the cache exists and is younger than this many hours. | | `--within-hours` | `24` | Only show news published within this many hours. `0` means no limit, showing all cached news. | | `--fetch-only` | Off | Only refresh the cache; do not output any news. Prints one status line to stdout on completion (`news fetched successfully` or `cache is fresh`). Respects `--refetch-interval-hours`; combine with `--refetch-interval-hours 0` to force a refresh. | | `--debug` | Off | Enables DEBUG-level logging, outputting fetch and cache details. | | `-h, --help` | — | Show help. | | `--version` | — | Show version. | --- ## Key Rules | Rule | Description | | ------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Use `-c` to select categories, omit for all | Category names are listed in the table below; comma-separate for multiple selections. | | Cache is managed automatically | `cache/rss_output.json` skips fetching if younger than `--refetch-interval-hours`; auto-refreshes fully when stale or missing. | | Use `--within-hours` to control time range | Defaults to showing only news from the last 24 hours; pass `0` to show all. | | Use `--fetch-only` to warm the cache | Refreshes the cache without producing any news output; respects `--refetch-interval-hours` for freshness gating. | | Do not manually look for a refresh command | Refresh logic is built into the output flow; pass `--refetch-interval-hours 0` to force a refresh. | | The script only returns RSS summaries | When full article text is needed, fetch the `link` with a web tool. | | Fetch failures do not halt execution | A single source failure is logged and skipped; other sources return normally. | --- ## Available Categories Categories are defined by the script's `Category` enum and map to category names in `news-source.json`: | Category name (`-c` value) | Maps to `news-source.json` category | | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | | `china` | China News | | `international` | International News | | `technology` | Technology | | `finance` | Business & Finance | | `politics` | Politics | | `sports` | Sports | | `science` | Science | | `health` | Health & Medicine | | `entertainment` | Entertainment | | `culture` | Culture & Education | --- ## Output Format The script outputs each article as a **title + summary block**: the article title on the first line and the RSS summary text on the next line, blocks separated by a single blank line. A trailing `total n news` line reports how many articles were shown. Empty/whitespace-only summaries are skipped. ``` First article headline First article's RSS summary text appears here. Second article headline Second article's RSS summary text appears here. Third article headline Third article's RSS summary text. total 3 news ``` Field descriptions: | Field | Meaning | | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `title` | The article title, printed as the first line of each block | | `summary`| The RSS summary/description text of each article, HTML-stripped, on the line after the title | --- ## Caching - Cache file: `cache/rss_output.json` - Fetching uses HTTP `etag` / `modified` conditional requests; when a source returns 304, cached news is preserved and not wiped - `last_sync` must reach `--refetch-interval-hours` (default 4 hours) before refetching - Force refresh: `uv run rss-fetch.py --refetch-interval-hours 0` ---