TheNewsAPI MCP Server

An MCP server that exposes the read endpoints of TheNewsAPI.com as tools, so an AI assistant (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, or any MCP client) can query news articles from natural-language prompts.

This targets TheNewsAPI.com (https://api.thenewsapi.com/v1/) — not the unrelated newsapi.org service.

npm package: @trifecta/thenewsapi-mcp-server (not yet published).

Tools

Boolean search syntax (search param)

search_news and get_top_stories accept a boolean query:

Bare space-separated words are treated as OR.

Requirements

• Node.js 18 or newer (the MCP SDK and the native fetch used for HTTP calls both require it). Check with node --version; upgrade via nvm (nvm install 20 && nvm use 20) or nodejs.org.

• A free or paid TheNewsAPI account.

Getting an API token

1. Register at https://www.thenewsapi.com/register.

2. Open your dashboard: https://www.thenewsapi.com/account/dashboard.

3. Copy the API Token.

Free-plan notes: the free tier caps limit at 3 articles per request and has a low monthly quota; some endpoints/parameters are paid-only and will return endpoint_access_restricted.

The token is supplied by each user at runtime via the NEWS_API_TOKEN environment variable. It is never bundled into the package and never logged by the server.

Install & configure — published package (for end users, once on npm)

No clone or build needed. Point your MCP client at the package via npx.

Claude Code

claude mcp add thenewsapi \
  --env NEWS_API_TOKEN=your_token_here \
  -- npx -y @trifecta/thenewsapi-mcp-server

Then run claude, check /mcp — thenewsapi should be connected with 6 tools.

Claude Desktop

Edit claude_desktop_config.json:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thenewsapi": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@trifecta/thenewsapi-mcp-server"],
      "env": { "NEWS_API_TOKEN": "your_token_here" }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

Global install alternative

npm install -g @trifecta/thenewsapi-mcp-server
# then use command "thenewsapi-mcp-server" instead of "npx -y @trifecta/..."

Local development setup (while unpublished)

git clone https://github.com/stature/trifecta-thenewsapi-mcp-server.git
cd trifecta-thenewsapi-mcp-server

npm install
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set NEWS_API_TOKEN=...

npm run build

.env is gitignored — keep the real token there, never in .env.example.

Quick check that it starts:

npm start
# -> "[thenewsapi-mcp] server ready (stdio)" on stderr, then Ctrl-C

Point Claude Code at your local build:

claude mcp add thenewsapi \
  --env NEWS_API_TOKEN=your_token_here \
  -- node /absolute/path/to/newsapi-mcp/dist/index.js

Or the config JSON directly (~/.claude.json, or .mcp.json in a project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thenewsapi": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/newsapi-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": { "NEWS_API_TOKEN": "your_token_here" }
    }
  }
}

Remote deployment — Streamable HTTP (SecureAI / HatzAI and other HTTP MCP clients)

Two entrypoints ship in this package:

The HTTP server keeps NEWS_API_TOKEN entirely server-side; remote clients authenticate with a separate shared secret (MCP_AUTH_TOKEN) and never see the TheNewsAPI token.

Configuration (env vars)

GET /healthz is an unauthenticated liveness probe.

Point SecureAI / HatzAI at it

In the custom connection form:

Try it locally first

cp .env.example .env
# set NEWS_API_TOKEN=... and MCP_AUTH_TOKEN=some-long-random-string
npm run dev:http
# -> [thenewsapi-mcp] Streamable HTTP listening on http://127.0.0.1:3000/mcp (auth: required)

# handshake check
curl -sD- http://127.0.0.1:3000/mcp \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -H 'authorization: Bearer some-long-random-string' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"curl","version":"0"}}}'
# 200 + an `mcp-session-id` response header + the server capabilities

Deploy on an Oracle Cloud "Always Free" VM + Caddy

The recommended host: a free, always-on VM with Caddy terminating TLS (automatic Let's Encrypt certs) and reverse-proxying to the Node process managed by systemd.

Config templates live in deploy/:

• deploy/Caddyfile → /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

• deploy/thenewsapi-mcp.service → /etc/systemd/system/

• deploy/env.production.example → /opt/thenewsapi-mcp/.env

Full step-by-step (VM creation, both Oracle firewalls, DNS, TLS, verification): deploy/README.md. Outline:

1. Create an Ubuntu 22.04 VM.Standard.A1.Flex (Ampere) instance; reserve its public IP.

2. Open TCP 80 + 443 in both the VCN Security List and the instance iptables.

3. Install Node 20 (NodeSource) and Caddy (apt).

4. Point a domain's A record at the VM.

5. Clone to /opt/thenewsapi-mcp, npm ci && npm run build, create .env (with an openssl rand -hex 32 value for MCP_AUTH_TOKEN), chmod 600.

6. Install the systemd unit: systemctl enable --now thenewsapi-mcp.

7. Install the Caddyfile (swap in your domain), systemctl restart caddy.

8. Verify https://your-domain/mcp with the curl handshake above, then add it to SecureAI.

No domain? deploy/README.md Appendix A covers a free DuckDNS hostname.

Scaling note: sessions are held in memory in one process — perfect for a single always-on VM. Multiple instances would need sticky-session routing.

Example prompts

• "Search the news for articles about the EU AI Act from the last two weeks, English only."

• "What are the top business stories in the US right now?"

• "Give me a news briefing — headlines across tech, business, and science."

• "Find coverage of +\"interest rate\" +\"Federal Reserve\" -crypto sorted by relevance."

• "Get everything from nytimes.com and bbc.com about the Mars sample return mission."

• "Here's an article UUID abc-123 — find other outlets covering the same story."

• "List the news sources you can access in the tech category."

• "Fetch the full article with UUID abc-123."

Error handling

TheNewsAPI's documented error codes are surfaced back to the assistant with guidance and a retryable flag:

Project layout

src/
  index.ts              stdio entrypoint (Claude Code / Desktop)
  http.ts               Streamable HTTP entrypoint (SecureAI / remote clients) + auth
  server.ts             shared McpServer factory used by both entrypoints
  client.ts             API client wrapper: base URL, auth, query building, error mapping
  errors.ts             NewsApiError + documented error-code translation
  schemas.ts            Shared zod schema fragments (filters, pagination, search help)
  tools/
    shared.ts           safeHandler wrapper + JSON result formatter
    search-news.ts
    get-top-stories.ts
    get-headlines.ts
    get-similar-articles.ts
    get-article-by-uuid.ts
    list-sources.ts

Compiled output goes to dist/. Only dist/, README.md, and LICENSE are included in the published package (see files in package.json).

Scripts

Publishing

npm run typecheck
npm publish            # scoped package; publishConfig.access is already "public"

Before the first publish: make sure you're a member of the @trifecta npm org. Repo: https://github.com/stature/trifecta-thenewsapi-mcp-server.

Versioning: starts at 0.1.0 (pre-1.0 — the tool surface may still change). Follow semver afterwards.

Out of scope (this phase)

No database, caching, webhooks, or downstream integrations — just the read endpoints as MCP tools.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.