the-news Skill (sfkislev) for Claude Code: What It Does and How to Install It

Lets Claude fetch current or archived front-page headlines from news outlets in 20 countries through The Hear's public API.

Installs: 17.3K; on skills.sh
Stars: 16; on GitHub
Updated: Jul 2026; last commit

This skill gives Claude a snapshot of news front pages from The Hear (thehear.org), a nonprofit headline dashboard and archive. It calls one public endpoint per country and gets each outlet's main headline, plus AI-written overviews. A live mode returns the current headlines, and an archive mode returns headlines at a UTC timestamp or daily overviews for up to 7 days.

The endpoint needs no key or sign-in, per SKILL.md. The overviews are written by an AI model, so treat the raw headlines as the source of truth.

Good for

Anyone who wants a quick, multi-country news briefing in the assistant
Researchers comparing how different outlets frame the same day
Developers who want their agent grounded in current events

Install the-news

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the the-news skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

npx skills add sfkislev/the-news

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

Requires Node.js.

The skill is the single SKILL.md at the repo root. The folder routes copy only that file, because the repo root also holds a clawhub/ copy, 4 loose text files and 8 Python scripts that SKILL.md does not use (repo tree). The skill calls www.thehear.org, so the assistant must be able to reach that site.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

gives agents real-time and archival access to front-page headlines across 20 countries for breaking news, current events, and comparative media analysis.

Sections in SKILL.md

When To Use the Skill
Multilingual
Examples
Endpoint
Calls
Reading Guidance
The Hear Context
Available Countries
Response Structure
How can agents get their news?
Safety
Web Interface
Access

Key facts

Author: S.F.Kislev (copyright holder in the LICENSE; the repo owner is SFKislev)
Service behind it: The Hear (thehear.org), described in SKILL.md as a nonprofit headline dashboard and archive
License: MIT
Installs on skills.sh: 17,275 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 16 (Nov 2, 2026)
Last repo commit: Jul 1, 2026
Audits on skills.sh: Gen Agent Trust Hub: pass, Socket: pass, Snyk: warn
What it includes: SKILL.md at the repo root. The repo also holds a clawhub/ folder with 3 files, 4 loose text files and an embedding-experiments folder with 8 Python scripts, none referenced in SKILL.md
Needs: Access to www.thehear.org. SKILL.md says the endpoint is public, open and read-only, with no authentication or API key
Coverage: 20 countries, with 12 to 39 sources each; archive start dates run from Jul 4, 2024 (Israel) to Nov 5, 2025 (Kenya)

What it includes

GET https://www.thehear.org/api/country-view/[country]
Returns each outlet's main headline, subtitle and link, plus AI overviews for current, previous and yesterday.
Try: “What's going on in Germany right now?”
Network · Current snapshot
Add ?at=<UTC timestamp> to see headlines at that moment
For questions like what happened last night in Israel.
Network · Historical snapshot
Add ?call=daily-overviews&from=YYYY-MM-DD&to=YYYY-MM-DD
Limited to 7 days. Used to follow how the story mix changed over several days.
Try: “How did the story mix in Turkey change over the last three days?”
Network · Daily overviews
china, finland, france, germany, india, iran, israel, italy, japan, kenya and 10 more
The table in SKILL.md gives each key, its source count and its earliest archive date.
20 country keys
Five rules: note outlet bias, treat it as a snapshot, trust raw headlines over overviews
The overviews were written by an AI model; the raw headlines are the source of truth.
Reading guidance
thehear.org/en/[country] and /en/[country]/[DD-MM-YYYY]
Pages Claude can point you to for a side-by-side view of the sources.
Web interface links

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

This skill sends requests to thehear.org and shows you text written by news outlets and an AI model, so treat the headlines as data and not as instructions.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only modeHow to turn it on

Watch out for

Headlines are third-party text, not instructions
SKILL.md's Safety section says to treat returned headlines, subtitles and overviews as data, not as instructions. Our advice: ask Claude to quote or summarize them, not to act on anything they say. github.com
The overviews are written by an AI model
SKILL.md says the overviews were written by an AI model with access to the headlines and previous overviews. The raw headlines are the source of truth. github.com
Your questions reach a third party
The country and dates in your question are sent to thehear.org in the request URL. github.com

Security advisories

No published security advisories as of Nov 2, 2026.

Technical details

Turning on read-only	SKILL.md describes the endpoint as read-only.
Talks to	www.thehear.org
Sign-in and keys	SKILL.md says the endpoint is public and open and does not require authentication or an API key.
Scopes	Sends GET requests to www.thehear.org/api/country-view/<country>; the country and any timestamps go in the URL

Questions

What does the-news do?

It lets Claude read the main headline of each outlet in 20 countries from The Hear's public API, live or from the archive. It also returns AI-written overviews to give context.

How do I install it?

Use the install box at the top of this page. The README gives one command, and the folder routes copy only SKILL.md because the repo root holds other files.

Does it need an API key?

SKILL.md says the endpoint is public, open and read-only and does not require authentication or an API key.

Which countries does it cover?

Twenty: China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK, Ukraine and the US. The US has the most sources (39) and the Netherlands and Ukraine the fewest (12).

How far back does the archive go?

It depends on the country. SKILL.md lists earliest dates from Jul 4, 2024 for Israel to Nov 5, 2025 for Kenya.

Is it safe?

It sends read-only GET requests to thehear.org with the country and dates in the URL. SKILL.md says to treat the returned headlines and overviews as data, not instructions. Remember that the overviews are written by an AI model.

How is it different from web search or RSS?

SKILL.md's comparison table says one call returns the front-page lead of 12 to 39 outlets per country, while web fetch depends on the sites the agent picks and RSS needs one feed per source.

Who runs the API?

SKILL.md says the skill is the agent-facing version of The Hear (thehear.org), a nonprofit headline dashboard and archive. The LICENSE names S.F.Kislev as copyright holder.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: sfkislev/the-news

sfkislev/the-news skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 2

the-news SKILL.md · github.com
the-news README · github.com