# News Article & RSS Crawler — Clean Text for RAG (`ahampton83/news-article-crawler`) Actor Fetch news from RSS feeds and Google News search, then extract clean article text and metadata. Perfect for RAG pipelines, newsletters, trend monitoring, and AI agents. Use via Apify Console/API or connect as an MCP server for Claude, Cursor, and other AI agents. - **URL**: https://apify.com/ahampton83/news-article-crawler.md - **Developed by:** [Aaron Hampton](https://apify.com/ahampton83) (community) - **Categories:** News, AI, MCP servers - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per usage This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## News Article & RSS Crawler Fetch news from **RSS/Atom feeds** and **Google News search**, then extract clean article text with metadata. Works as a normal Apify Actor or as an **MCP server** for Claude, Cursor, and other AI agents. ### Features - **Google News search** via Google's public RSS endpoint - **Direct RSS/Atom feeds** — any standard feed - **Clean article extraction** — strips nav, ads, footers, and boilerplate, returning readable body text - **MCP Server** — `search_news`, `fetch_feed`, `get_article_text` tools - **Pay-per-event pricing** — first 20 articles free per run/tool call ### MCP Tools | Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | `search_news(query, maxResults?, includeFullText?, geo?)` | Search Google News and extract articles | | `fetch_feed(feedUrls, maxItems?, includeFullText?)` | Fetch articles from RSS/Atom feeds | | `get_article_text(url)` | Extract clean text from a single article URL | ### Normal Mode Input ```json { "query": "artificial intelligence", "maxArticles": 20, "includeFullText": true, "geo": "US" } ```` Or pass direct feeds instead of a query: ```json { "feedUrls": ["https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml"], "maxArticles": 10, "includeFullText": true } ``` ### Output ```json { "query": "artificial intelligence", "feedUrls": [], "totalResults": 20, "errors": [], "articles": [ { "title": "AI Agents Reach New Milestone", "url": "https://example.com/ai-agents", "resolvedUrl": "https://example.com/ai-agents", "source": "Example Source", "publishedAt": "2026-07-04T12:00:00.000Z", "summary": "...", "text": "Clean, extracted article body text...", "wordCount": 842, "fetchedAt": "2026-07-04T19:00:00.000Z" } ], "fetchedAt": "2026-07-04T19:00:00.000Z" } ``` ### Pricing (Pay-Per-Event) | Event | Price | Description | |-------|-------|-------------| | Actor start | $0.00005 | Billed once per run | | Article fetched | $0.005 | Per article successfully extracted (first 20 free per run/tool call) | | MCP tool call | $0.005 | Per MCP tool invocation | ### Technical Approach The Actor uses `got-scraping` with optional Apify proxy rotation for HTTP requests. RSS/Atom XML is parsed with `fast-xml-parser`. Article text is extracted with a Cheerio heuristic that removes scripts, navigation, sidebars, ads, and footers, then picks the richest `
`, `
`, or content-class container. ### Development ```bash npm install # Install dependencies npm run build # Compile TypeScript npm test # Run tests npm run start:dev # Run locally (development mode) ``` ### Categories `NEWS`, `AI`, `MCP_SERVERS` ### License ISC # Actor input Schema ## `query` (type: `string`): Search term for Google News RSS (e.g. 'artificial intelligence'). Either query or feedUrls must be provided. ## `feedUrls` (type: `array`): One or more direct RSS or Atom feed URLs to fetch. ## `maxArticles` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of articles to return. ## `includeFullText` (type: `boolean`): Fetch and extract the full article body for each item. Disable to return only headlines and metadata. ## `geo` (type: `string`): ISO country code for Google News region (e.g. US, GB, DE). Defaults to US. ## Actor input object example ```json { "query": "", "feedUrls": [], "maxArticles": 20, "includeFullText": true, "geo": "US" } ``` # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = {}; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("ahampton83/news-article-crawler").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = {} # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("ahampton83/news-article-crawler").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{}' | apify call ahampton83/news-article-crawler --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=ahampton83/news-article-crawler", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "News Article & RSS Crawler — Clean Text for RAG", "description": "Fetch news from RSS feeds and Google News search, then extract clean article text and metadata. Perfect for RAG pipelines, newsletters, trend monitoring, and AI agents. Use via Apify Console/API or connect as an MCP server for Claude, Cursor, and other AI agents.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "40kbqxqAz5RVxeOgr" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/ahampton83~news-article-crawler/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-ahampton83-news-article-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/ahampton83~news-article-crawler/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-ahampton83-news-article-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/ahampton83~news-article-crawler/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-ahampton83-news-article-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "query": { "title": "Google News search query", "type": "string", "description": "Search term for Google News RSS (e.g. 'artificial intelligence'). Either query or feedUrls must be provided.", "default": "" }, "feedUrls": { "title": "RSS/Atom feed URLs", "type": "array", "description": "One or more direct RSS or Atom feed URLs to fetch.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "maxArticles": { "title": "Max articles", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 50, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of articles to return.", "default": 20 }, "includeFullText": { "title": "Include full article text", "type": "boolean", "description": "Fetch and extract the full article body for each item. Disable to return only headlines and metadata.", "default": true }, "geo": { "title": "Geographic region", "type": "string", "description": "ISO country code for Google News region (e.g. US, GB, DE). Defaults to US.", "default": "US" } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```