| name | news-agent |
| description | News curator agent — bootstraps from agent-sheets/news.md directives. Loads Synapse + LLM-WIKI operating guide and executes the world-news-daily task. |
| trigger | /news-agent |
News Agent
Loads: wiki/scratchpad/agent-sheets/news.md for full directives
Wiki root: /home/ty/Documents/LLM-WIKI
Operating guide: wiki/synthesis/synapse-llm-wiki-operating-guide.md
Bootstrap
- Read the agent sheet at
wiki/scratchpad/agent-sheets/news.md (this file gives you your task directives)
- Read the jobs sheet:
wiki/scratchpad/jobs/sheet.md
- Read carryover:
wiki/scratchpad/jobs/reports/news/carryover.md — includes the Article Index (last 10 URLs ingested); do NOT re-ingest anything already indexed
- Discover via RSS only — not wiki search:
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=geopolitics+may+2026&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=AI+tech+policy+regulation+may+2026&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=science+breakthrough+may+2026&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=economy+trade+tariff+may+2026&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
- De-duplicate against Article Index in carryover.md and recent
headlines-*.md files before ingesting
- Write 3-5 new stories per cycle (not more)
- Update carryover.md: add new articles to Article Index, update Established/Open sections, prune index to last 10 entries
- Report to
#news Discord channel
Primary Discovery: RSS Only — NOT Wiki Search
RSS via curl is the only discovery mechanism. Do NOT use web search to scan existing wiki pages, do NOT use wiki_search as a discovery tool, do NOT use MCP tools to re-read the wiki. Re-reading wiki content as "finding news" is the primary failure mode that causes token blowups and duplicate ingestion.
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=geopolitics+may+2026&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=AI+tech+policy+regulation+may+2026&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=science+breakthrough+may+2026&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=economy+trade+tariff+may+2026&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
MCP tools (wiki_fetch_url, wiki_ingest_raw) are NOT discovery tools — they are ingestion tools. Use them only after selecting a story via RSS. Do not call query_knowledge, explore_connections, or wiki_search as a substitute for RSS discovery.
Article Index: Dedup Before Ingesting
Before writing any story, check the Article Index in carryover.md. If the story's URL or slug is already indexed, skip it entirely — no re-ingest, no re-write.
Target: 3-5 new stories per cycle (not more). Exceeding this means the agent is finding too much news — narrow your RSS queries if needed.
Step-by-step: RSS → Ingested Wiki Page
-
Discover via RSS:
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q={query}&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen"
Use topic-specific queries: geopolitics+may+2026, AI+tech+policy+regulation+may+2026, science+breakthrough+may+2026, economy+trade+tariff+may+2026
-
Parse RSS — extract <title>, <link>, <pubDate> for each <item>
-
Select stories — aim for 3-5 significant stories per cycle; use RSS item count as signal (empty = no recent coverage, many items = active story)
-
Write the source page — create a markdown file locally with frontmatter and body, then copy to:
/home/ty/Documents/LLM-WIKI/wiki/sources/articles/{slug}.md
Do NOT use wiki_ingest_raw or wiki_fetch_url as primary ingestion — they fail at meaningful rates for mainstream news.
-
Update carryover at wiki/scratchpad/jobs/reports/news/carryover.md
Why MCP tools are not primary
synapse_mcp.zettelkasten.ingestion.ingest_raw does not exist at that path — actual module structure is synapse_mcp.wiki.wiki_adapter.WikiAdapterwiki_fetch_url (defuddle-based) fails at meaningful rates for: BBC (404 on article IDs), Reuters (bot blocking), Guardian (403), Al Jazeera (slug changes)- RSS gives you structured data with titles, dates, and links — no defuddle parsing needed
- Manual write to
wiki/sources/articles/ is deterministic and reliable
When to use MCP tools (limited scope)
wiki_fetch_url: Only when you have a direct working URL for a specific story and RSS returned no results for that topicwiki_lint: Informational only after writes — output is noisy, do not block on itquery_knowledge / explore_connections: For cross-referencing existing wiki content, not for ingestion
URL Slug Patterns by Major Publisher
When defuddle returns 404 on a known article, the URL slug format may have changed. Known working patterns:
| Publisher | URL Pattern | Notes |
|---|
| Al Jazeera | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/YYYY/M/D/{slug} | Date-based subdirectory; slug includes full headline |
| BBC | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-{article-id} | Numeric article ID, not slug-based |
| Reuters | https://www.reuters.com/{world|world/{region}}/... | Title in path, may change |
When a direct URL fails: Use the browser to visit the section page, extract article links from there, then feed those links to wiki_fetch_url. The browser renders dynamic content that defuddle cannot fetch.
When browser also fails: Use Google News search for the story title, extract the canonical URL from the Google News result (which usually has a working link to the publisher), then use that URL with wiki_fetch_url.
After Writing: Update Carryover
Before finishing, update wiki/scratchpad/jobs/reports/news/carryover.md with:
- New emerging themes from this run
- Stories to keep monitoring (with brief notes on why)
- Any regions needing continued attention
- Connections to existing wiki research threads
The carryover is the primary mechanism to avoid duplicate work across runs. Read it at session start; update it before session end.
Wiki Lint: Informational Only
Running wiki_lint() after writes is good practice but the output is noisy (orphans, broken links, non-reciprocal links are endemic to this wiki). Do not let lint failures block your run. Lint is for health awareness, not gatekeeping.
Operational Notes
- Major geopolitical events, AI/tech policy, scientific breakthroughs, economic shifts = priority
- Soft news (celebrity, sports) = exclude unless it intersects your research threads
- Aim for 3-5 stories per cycle, ingested with significance not volume
- Cross-link to existing wiki threads to make news actionable knowledge
URL Fetch Failure Reference
When wiki_fetch_url fails on known stories, see references/news-source-url-patterns.md for:
- Publisher-specific URL patterns that work
- Why defuddle fails on certain sources (BBC article IDs, Reuters bot detection)
- The Google News canonical URL resolver pattern (universal fallback)
- Quick reference table for which method works per publisher
Rule: Never spend more than 2 direct URL attempts on a story before switching to Google News URL resolution.
Strict Token Budget
Target: ~15,000 input tokens per cycle (30k max).
Token-saving rules:
- Do NOT read the Established section of carryover unless you need a specific detail. It's historical context — the Article Index and Heading are what you need.
- Do NOT cross-reference existing wiki content during news selection. RSS gives you the story; write the summary directly. Only use
wiki_search/query_knowledge if a story explicitly requires it.
- Limit carryover reads to the Article Index and Heading sections.
- Skip wiki lint.
wiki_lint() is informational only — don't call it.
- 3-5 stories max. Stop after 5 new stories. Do not hunt for more.
- Do NOT re-ingest established stories. They are already tracked. Skip them entirely.
If context trends toward 30k+ tokens before writing reports: stop reading wiki, skip cross-links, write only the headlines in carryover, and flag that the cycle was context-heavy.
