# News Scraper by Topic + AI Briefing (`pdcul/news-topic-scraper`) Actor

Track any topic and pull recent news articles from Google News and RSS feeds — with an optional AI briefing.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pdcul/news-topic-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Dan Cristian Podina](https://apify.com/pdcul) (community)
- **Categories:** News, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% 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 web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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 Scraper by Topic + AI Briefing

Track any topic and pull **recent news articles** from Google News and any RSS/Atom feed — title, source, date, link, and snippet — with an optional **AI briefing** that summarizes everything into a few bullet points. Great for monitoring a subject, feeding fresh headlines to an LLM, or building a daily digest.

### What it does

- **Topic tracking** — give it terms like `artificial intelligence` or `Tesla earnings`; it fetches the latest matching articles from Google News.
- **Any RSS/Atom feed** — add your own feed URLs to pull alongside (or instead of) topics.
- **Clean, structured output** — each article as `{ title, source, published, link, snippet, query }`, de-duplicated across sources.
- **Optional AI briefing** — one concise summary of everything collected, as bullets, a concise paragraph, a detailed write-up, or a grouped outline.
- **Reliable** — built on RSS, which is designed to be fetched by machines, so it just works.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `queries` | array | Topics / search terms to track via Google News. |
| `rssUrls` | array | Optional specific RSS or Atom feed URLs. |
| `language` | string | Two-letter language code (default `en`). |
| `country` | string | Two-letter country code (default `US`). |
| `maxItemsPerSource` | integer | Articles to keep per topic/feed (default 25). |
| `includeAiBriefing` | boolean | Add a single AI briefing (premium). Default `false`. |
| `summaryStyle` | `concise` | `bullets` | `detailed` | `chapters` | Shape of the briefing. Default `bullets`. |

At least one of `queries` or `rssUrls` is required.

#### Example input

```json
{
  "queries": ["artificial intelligence", "renewable energy"],
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "maxItemsPerSource": 20,
  "includeAiBriefing": false
}
```

### Output

Each article becomes one dataset item:

```json
{
  "title": "New AI model sets benchmark record",
  "link": "https://news.example.com/...",
  "source": "Example News",
  "published": "Fri, 08 Aug 2026 14:03:00 GMT",
  "publishedIso": "2026-08-08T14:03:00Z",
  "snippet": "Researchers announced ...",
  "query": "artificial intelligence"
}
```

When `includeAiBriefing` is on, a final item is added:

```json
{ "type": "briefing", "articleCount": 40, "queries": ["artificial intelligence"], "summary": "- ..." }
```

### Notes

- Only public data is accessed (public Google News results and the feeds you provide).
- Results reflect Google News' own coverage and ranking for your language/country.

### Local development

```bash
python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
apify run
```

The fetch core (`src/news.py`) has no Apify dependency and can be run directly for quick testing.

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Topics or search terms to track (e.g. "artificial intelligence", "Tesla earnings"). Each pulls recent articles from Google News.

## `rssUrls` (type: `array`):

Optional: specific RSS or Atom feed URLs to include alongside (or instead of) topics.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Two-letter language code for Google News results.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Two-letter country code for Google News results (e.g. US, GB, DE).

## `maxItemsPerSource` (type: `integer`):

How many articles to keep from each topic or feed.

## `includeAiBriefing` (type: `boolean`):

Generate a single AI briefing summarizing all collected articles. Requires an AI provider key; billed as a separate premium event.

## `summaryStyle` (type: `string`):

Shape of the AI briefing (only used when 'Add AI briefing' is on).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "artificial intelligence"
  ],
  "rssUrls": [],
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "maxItemsPerSource": 25,
  "includeAiBriefing": false,
  "summaryStyle": "bullets"
}
```

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "artificial intelligence"
    ],
    "rssUrls": [],
    "language": "en",
    "country": "US"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pdcul/news-topic-scraper").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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "queries": ["artificial intelligence"],
    "rssUrls": [],
    "language": "en",
    "country": "US",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pdcul/news-topic-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "artificial intelligence"
  ],
  "rssUrls": [],
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US"
}' |
apify call pdcul/news-topic-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,pdcul/news-topic-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/29VMtgFnv3vvzkCG2/builds/wN1wvlcGEs0QvHOhA/openapi.json