GoodNews MCP Server

Overview

GoodNews is an MCP application that helps you discover positive and uplifting news stories. In a media landscape often dominated by negative headlines, GoodNews offers a refreshing alternative by curating news articles with positive sentiment.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or higher
• A NewsAPI key (obtain one from NewsAPI.org)
• A Cohere API key (obtain one from Cohere)

Installation Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/VectorInstitute/mcp-goodnews.git
   cd mcp-goodnews
   

2. Install the package:

   pip install -e .
   

3. Set up your API keys as environment variables:

   export NEWSAPI_KEY="your_newsapi_key"
   export COHERE_API_KEY="your_cohere_api_key"
   

Configuration

To use GoodNews with Claude Desktop or other MCP-compatible clients, add the following configuration to your client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "goodnews": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": [
        "-m",
        "mcp_goodnews.server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Usage

Once installed and configured, you can interact with GoodNews through your MCP-compatible client (like Claude Desktop). Simply ask for positive news, and the service will fetch, rank, and present uplifting news stories.

Example prompts:

• "Show me some good news today"
• "What are some positive news stories happening right now?"
• "I need some uplifting news about technology"
• "Share some positive environmental news"

The service will retrieve news from NewsAPI and use Cohere's LLM to analyze and rank the articles based on positive sentiment, returning the most uplifting stories.

Customization

You can customize the behavior of GoodNews by modifying the following environment variables:

• NEWSAPI_KEY: Your NewsAPI API key
• COHERE_API_KEY: Your Cohere API key
• NEWSAPI_ENDPOINT: The NewsAPI endpoint (defaults to "https://newsapi.org/v2/everything")
• NEWSAPI_SOURCES: Comma-separated list of news sources (optional)
• NEWSAPI_DOMAINS: Comma-separated list of domains to fetch news from (optional)
• NEWSAPI_LANGUAGE: Language of news articles (defaults to "en")
• NEWSAPI_PAGESIZE: Number of articles to fetch per request (defaults to 100)

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

1. Verify your API keys are correctly set as environment variables
2. Check your internet connection
3. Ensure you're using a compatible Python version (3.10+)
4. Verify the NewsAPI endpoint is accessible from your location

For more detailed information, visit the GitHub repository.