CLSTR reads 100,000+ articles a day from 40,000+ sources in 170+ countries and deduplicates them into single events, then links related events into ongoing situations with a maintained summary and a full timeline. An agent can answer what has happened over the last six weeks, not just what a single headline says right now.
Scored across 4 tools
Each tool has a clearly distinct role: search by topic, browse top-ranked situations, get one situation's timeline, and get one event cluster's detail. The descriptions explicitly explain the relationship between situations and clusters, reducing confusion between result types.
All names use a readable verb_noun pattern (get_cluster, get_situation_timeline, get_top_situations, search_situations). The only minor inconsistency is that get_cluster names an event-level resource while the other three foreground 'situations', but this reflects the domain distinction rather than arbitrary variation.
Four tools is a small but well-scoped set for a read-only news exploration API: discovery, ranking, timeline, and event detail. It is slightly thin compared with a broader news surface, but each tool earns its place.
For a read-only news service, the surface covers the core workflows: topic search, current situation discovery, full storyline timelines, and single-event details with source links. No obvious agent dead ends are apparent within the stated domain.
Get one news event in detail. A cluster is a single real-world event grouped from the outlets covering it and deduplicated into one item, so you get one event rather than 20 near-duplicate headlines. Returns its summary, a significance score (1 to 10, where 8 and above is exceptional), a source count, the situation it belongs to if any, and links to its source articles (outlet, headline, URL and date). It returns up to 100 of those links, one per outlet; sources and articles_total are the full count, and articles_truncated says whether the list was cut. Use this when the user wants the specifics of one event. Get a cluster id from search_situations, get_situation_timeline, or a clstr.news URL. Results carry canonical clstr.news links. (Requires sign-in, or a free API key: https://clstr.news/developers)
Inputs: cluster_id (required), articles. Returns: data
Get the full chronological timeline of one situation. A situation is an ongoing storyline (story arc) that groups related news events over time; it carries a maintained summary plus every event in order, so you see not just what happened but how it developed. Each event is a cluster (one happening grouped from the outlets covering it and deduplicated) with its date, a significance score (1 to 10, where 8 and above is exceptional), a source count, and a canonical clstr.news link. Use this to brief on a story's history or answer 'how did this develop'. Get a situation id from search_situations or get_top_situations, or from a clstr.news URL. An id that was retired when two situations merged resolves to the successor, flagged with merged_into_shown. Results carry canonical clstr.news links.
Inputs: situation_id (required), timeline_limit, timeline_before. Returns: data
List the situations developing now, ranked by relevance: a blend of significance, how many outlets are covering it, and how recently it moved. So a lower significance score can rank above a higher one, and that ordering is intentional; do not re-sort. A situation is an ongoing storyline that groups related news events over time and carries a maintained summary and a source count (how many outlets are behind it). Optionally filter by category, by country, and by time window (24h, 7d, or 30d), and switch the ordering to newest activity first with sort. Use this to answer 'what is going on in the world', 'what is happening in ' or 'what is happening in ' when there is no specific topic yet, then open any result with get_situation_timeline. When there are more, the result ends with a cursor to page further. Pass summary: "full" to get each situation's maintained summary in full, instead of a one-line preview, without a follow-up call per result; full summaries in a list are not enabled for every account, so read summary_mode in the result to see what you got, and use get_situation_timeline for one situation's summary in full. Results carry canonical clstr.news links.
Inputs: sort, limit, cursor, window, +3 more. Returns: data, next_cursor, window_days, summary_mode
Search the news by topic to find matching situations and events. A situation is an ongoing storyline (story arc) that groups related events over time; an event, called a cluster, is one happening grouped from the outlets covering it and deduplicated into a single item, so you get one event rather than 20 near-duplicate headlines. Results come back grouped under their situations, each with a one-line summary, a significance score (1 to 10, where 8 and above is exceptional), a source count (how many outlets are covering it), and a canonical clstr.news link. Use this to answer 'what is happening around X' for a topic, company, country, or event. Then open a result with get_situation_timeline for the full history, or get_cluster for one event's detail. Results are relevance ordered and bounded to the top matches: when there are more, the result ends with a cursor to pass back, and each page counts as one search against your cap. Pass summary: "full" to read each match's summary untruncated instead of one line. Results carry canonical clstr.news links. (Requires sign-in, or a free API key: https://clstr.news/developers)
Inputs: query (required), days, limit, cursor, +1 more. Returns: data, query, next_cursor, summary_mode
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