Mcp Goodnews

What is Mcp Goodnews about?

Mcp Goodnews provides a simple MCP server that retrieves recent news articles, evaluates their sentiment using a Cohere LLM in a zero‑shot setting, and returns the highest‑scoring uplifting stories.

How to use Mcp Goodnews?

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/VectorInstitute/mcp-goodnews.git
   

2. Obtain required API keys
   • NewsAPI key
   • Cohere API key
3. Configure Claude Desktop (or any MCP client)
   • Add an entry under mcpServers pointing to the cloned repository.
   • Example (Mac/Linux) configuration:

     {
       "mcpServers": {
         "Goodnews": {
           "command": "uv",
           "args": ["--directory", "<absolute-path-to-repo>/mcp-goodnews/src/mcp_goodnews", "run", "server.py"],
           "env": {
             "NEWS_API_KEY": "<your‑newsapi‑key>",
             "COHERE_API_KEY": "<your‑cohere‑key>"
           }
         }
       }
     }
     

4. Restart Claude Desktop – the hammer tool will appear, allowing you to invoke fetch_list_of_goodnews.
5. Ask for good news – e.g., "Show me some good news from today" or "Give me uplifting science stories".

Key Features

• Automatic retrieval of recent articles from NewsAPI.
• Zero‑shot sentiment analysis using a Cohere LLM.
• Ranking and selection of top‑scoring positive stories.
• Ready‑to‑use MCP server that integrates with Claude Desktop and other MCP clients.
• CI/CD pipelines with CodeQL, linting, unit testing, coverage, and automated releases.

Use Cases

• Personal assistants that provide daily doses of positivity.
• Workplace dashboards that highlight constructive news to boost morale.
• Educational platforms showcasing uplifting scientific and societal developments.
• Chatbots or virtual agents needing a reliable source of positive content.

FAQ

Q: Which API keys are required? A: A NewsAPI key for article sourcing and a Cohere API key for sentiment ranking.

Q: Do I need any special software to run the server? A: The server is built with Python and uses the uv package manager. Install uv following its official guide.

Q: Can I use the server with other MCP clients besides Claude Desktop? A: Yes, any client that can invoke MCP servers with the defined command and environment variables can interact with Mcp Goodnews.

Q: How are articles ranked? A: Each article’s content is sent to the Cohere LLM, which returns a sentiment score. Articles with higher positive scores are returned first.

Q: Is the project open source? A: Yes, it is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license and hosted on GitHub.

MCP Goodnews

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MCP Goodnews is a simple Model Context Protocol (MCP) application that features a server for getting good, positive, and uplifting news. This tool fetches news articles from the NewsAPI and uses a Cohere LLM to rank and return the top news articles based on positive sentiment.

Read the blog post on Medium!

Motivation

In a world where negative news often dominates headlines, Goodnews MCP aims to shine a light on more positive and uplifting news stories. This project was inspired by an earlier initiative called GoodnewsFirst, which delivered positive news daily to email subscribers — it was a really awesome project! While GoodnewsFirst predated recent breakthroughs in Large Language Models (LLMs) and relied on traditional methods for sentiment ranking, Goodnews MCP leverages modern LLMs to perform sentiment analysis in a zero-shot setting.

Example Usage: MCP Goodnews with Claude Desktop

Requirements

• Cohere API Key
• NewsAPI Key
• Claude Desktop Application
• uv Python Project and Package Manager

Clone mcp-goodnews

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/VectorInstitute/mcp-goodnews.git

In the next step, we'll need to provide the absolute path to the location of this cloned repository.

Update Claude Desktop Config to find mcp-goodnews

For Mac/Linux

# Navigate to the configuration directory
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/config

# Edit the claude_desktop_config.json file
nano claude_desktop_config.json

For Windows

# Navigate to the configuration directory
cd %APPDATA%\Claude\config

# Edit the claude_desktop_config.json file
notepad claude_desktop_config.json

And you'll want to add an entry under mcpServers for Goodnews:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Goodnews": {
      "command": "<absolute-path-to-bin>/uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "<absolute-path-to-cloned-repo>/mcp-goodnews/src/mcp_goodnews",
        "run",
        "server.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NEWS_API_KEY": "<newsapi-api-key>",
        "COHERE_API_KEY": "<cohere-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Start or Restart Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop will use the updated config to build and run the mcp-goodnews server. If successful, you will see the hammer tool in the bottom-right corner of the chat dialogue window.

Clicking the hammer tool icon will bring up a modal that lists available MCP tools. You should see fetch_list_of_goodnews listed there.

Ask Claude for Good News

Example prompts:

• "Show me some good news from today."
• "What positive things happened in the world this week?"
• "Give me uplifting news stories about science."

How It Works

1. When you request good news, the application queries the NewsAPI for recent articles
2. The Cohere LLM analyzes the sentiment of each article
3. Articles are ranked based on positive sentiment score
4. The top-ranking good news stories are returned to you through Claude

License

Apache 2.0

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Stay positive with Goodnews MCP!