wiki-research-news

Wiki research — news

Fetches current-events content using Perplexity (primary) or news aggregators via Firecrawl (fallback) into raw/news/. Use this sub-skill when the user wants recent or time-sensitive information: "what happened with X", "latest news on Y", "this week in Z".

---

Step 1 — Check adapter availability

Priority 0 — Read the config first:

llm-wiki integrations status

Open llm-wiki/config.json → integrations and build the enabled list. Only consider adapters where enabled: true AND their api_key_env is set in the environment.

Then use the first ready and enabled adapter:

Priority	Adapter	Config key	Condition
0	config check	—	Read llm-wiki/config.json; build enabled list
1	Perplexity	integrations.perplexity	enabled: true + PERPLEXITY_API_KEY set
2	Brave Search	integrations.brave	enabled: true + BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY set — good for news in news mode
3	NewsAPI	—	NEWS_API_KEY set (not in default config; add if needed)
4	Firecrawl on news sites	integrations.firecrawl	enabled: true + Firecrawl CLI or REST available
5	stdlib on plain-text news	—	Always available (limited)

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Step 2 — Construct the query

See skills/wiki-research/references/query-design.md — News section.

For Perplexity:

• Include the current year/month for recency grounding.
• Use declarative prompts, not open-ended questions.
• Request citations: "Include source URLs."

Example queries:

"AI regulation developments April 2026. Include source URLs."
"What happened with OpenAI in the past 7 days? Include citations."
"Summarize the latest research on LLM reasoning. Focus on papers published in 2026."

---

Step 3 — Fetch via Perplexity (primary)

llm-wiki ingest perplexity "<query>" \
  --out news/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<topic-slug>.md

The Perplexity adapter will include cited URLs in the output. After ingesting:

1. Extract cited URLs from the Perplexity output.
2. Optionally fetch 1–3 of the most relevant cited pages via wiki-research-web for deeper raw evidence.

---

Step 4 — Fetch via Brave Search (fallback)

If Perplexity is unavailable but integrations.brave is enabled: true and BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY is set:

# Brave news mode — returns structured recent articles
llm-wiki ingest brave "<query>" --mode news \
  --out news/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<topic-slug>-brave.md

# Or llm-context mode for a pre-synthesized answer with citations
llm-wiki ingest brave "<query>" --mode llm-context \
  --out news/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<topic-slug>-brave.md

After ingesting: extract article URLs from Brave results and optionally fetch 1–3 full articles via wiki-research-web.

---

Step 5 — Fetch via NewsAPI (fallback)

If Perplexity and Brave are unavailable and NEWS_API_KEY is set:

# Top headlines for a topic
curl "https://newsapi.org/v2/everything?q=<QUERY>&sortBy=publishedAt&pageSize=10&apiKey=$NEWS_API_KEY" \
  | python3 -c "
import json, sys
data = json.load(sys.stdin)
for a in data.get('articles', []):
    print(a['publishedAt'][:10], a['url'], a['title'])
"
# Then fetch each article URL via wiki-research-web

---

Step 6 — Fetch via Firecrawl on news aggregators (last fallback)

If none of the above are available:

# Google News (requires Firecrawl for JS rendering)
llm-wiki ingest firecrawl "https://news.google.com/search?q=<QUERY>&hl=en" \
  --out news/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<topic-slug>-goog.md

# Hacker News search (no JS needed)
llm-wiki ingest url "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=<QUERY>&tags=story&hitsPerPage=10" \
  --out news/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<topic-slug>-hn.md

# TechCrunch / The Verge (JS rendering needed)
llm-wiki ingest firecrawl "https://techcrunch.com/?s=<QUERY>" \
  --out news/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<topic-slug>-tc.md

---

Step 7 — Write frontmatter

---
source_type: news
source_url: https://...       # Perplexity result URL or aggregator URL
query: "<query used>"
fetched_date: YYYY-MM-DD
published_date: YYYY-MM-DD    # of the news item, if known
adapter: perplexity | brave | newsapi | firecrawl | stdlib_url
topics: [<tags>]
---

For Perplexity outputs, set source_url to the Perplexity canonical URL if available, or leave as perplexity-query.

---

Step 8 — Evaluate and return to orchestrator

News sources typically score high on recency but variable on authority. Check:

• Is the source a recognized outlet (tier 2) or unknown (tier 4–5)?
• Is the content actual reporting or clickbait/speculation?

Run through skills/wiki-research/references/source-eval.md.

Then return to wiki-research Step 3 (post-process).

---

Done looks like

• At least one raw/news/ (or agreed) file with query + date metadata; best available adapter used per config.
• source-eval applied; orchestrator handles merge.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
PERPLEXITY_API_KEY missing	export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=pplx-... or llm-wiki integrations wizard
Perplexity rate limit (429)	Wait 60s; Perplexity free tier is limited
Perplexity returns outdated info	Add current year to query; Perplexity may have knowledge cutoff
BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY missing	export BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY=... or llm-wiki integrations wizard
Brave returns no news results	Switch --mode news to --mode web or try Perplexity
NewsAPI returns paywalled articles	Fetch abstract only; note [PAYWALLED] in frontmatter
Google News returns empty via Firecrawl	Try adding &gl=US&ceid=US:en to URL
All adapters unavailable	Run llm-wiki integrations wizard to configure Perplexity or Brave

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Related skills

• wiki-research — orchestrator that invoked this skill
• wiki-research-web — for fetching full articles discovered in news results
• wiki-research-academic — for citing papers referenced in news coverage
• wiki-research-social — for HN/Twitter discussion of news items

Smoke check

• CLI: Run llm-wiki integrations status and any llm-wiki line from Step 1 of this skill (from the vault root).
• Prompt: Invoke this skill by name in Claude Code; complete Step 1 only and confirm expected CLI or file output.