News Digest

AI-powered news aggregation and summarization platform with a newspaper-inspired editorial UI. Fetches RSS feeds, summarizes them using LLM APIs, and presents everything in a clean, multi-column layout with real-time widgets.

Features

Core News

• RSS feed aggregation with AI-powered summarization
• Provider fallback system (Groq / OpenRouter) with automatic failover
• Summary history with date-based archive navigation
• Article-level caching to minimize redundant API calls
• Sentiment analysis and topic extraction per article section
• Feed auto-discovery — paste any URL to find RSS feeds
• Category-level custom prompts and language settings for LLM output

Interactive

• Chat with AI about any summary ("Ask about this news")
• Morning briefing — cross-category daily digest
• Model selection — switch between Llama and MiniMax2.7
• Send summaries to Telegram with one click
• Pull-to-refresh on mobile

Widgets

• Job board — aggregated from 12 sources (incl. direct Greenhouse/Lever/Ashby/Workable boards) with AI filtering driven by a configurable JOB_PROFILE
• Upcoming movies & TV shows (TMDB) with detail modals
• Hacker News top posts
• Weather forecast (Open-Meteo)
• Cryptocurrency prices (CoinGecko)
• RON exchange rates (Frankfurter)
• Trending topics from your feeds
• PBS Headlines

MindGames — Cognitive Resilience Dashboard

Based on the "Mental Antibody" implementation spec and the "Engineering Cognitive Resilience" research paper. 57 features across 5 tabs:

Overview — Dashboard stats, quick actions, recent activity

Training

• Inoculation Lab (Van der Linden) — Build "mental antibodies" by identifying manipulation tactics in AI-generated headlines. Includes Detective Mode + CDO Mode with level progression, score tracking, and useOptimistic for instant feedback
• Pattern Recognition Tests — Interactive exercises demonstrating apophenia (seeing patterns that aren't there) using random data: coincidence, scatter, sequence, and correlation tests

Analysis

• Cognitive Forensic Engine (Grimes/Ariely) — Deconstruct text into logical and psychological components. Fallacy detection with 14 taxonomy types, emotional intensity mapping, Funnel of Misbelief visualization, SSE streaming, history viewer
• Study Stress-Tester — Evaluate news headlines about studies: sample size, control groups, conflicts of interest, peer review status
• Compare Coverage (Ground News style) — Multi-column Left/Center/Right outlet comparison with framing analysis and narrative divergence scoring
• News Spectrum — Side-by-side outlet credibility ratings and bias spectrum visualization

Reflection

• Scientist's Sandbox (Adam Grant) — ADEPT multi-agent debate (Skeptic, Institutionalist, Moralist), pre/post confidence tracking, thinking mode detection (Preacher/Prosecutor/Politician/Scientist), rethinking journal with trend charts
• Bridge Builder (Monica Guzman) — SOS Audit (Sorting/Othering/Siloing), "How" bridge-building questions, Schwartz Values Quiz, Information Diet echo-chamber diagram
• Stress & Bias Diagnostic — Pre-engagement emotional state check-in with motivated reasoning risk score

Reference

• Prompt Library — Searchable templates for bias detection, perspective taking, fallacy search, steelmanning, source evaluation
• Narrative Map — Misinformation spread visualization across platforms with timeline slider and mutation tracking
• Disinfo Influencer Map — Gateway (health/wellness) → Bridge (influencers) → Conspiracy Core funnel visualization
• Daily Quiz — Daily technique-guessing quiz bridging cognitive and bias-radar modules

Bias Radar — 5-tab slide-over panel used across the app (from article views and homepage): technique picker, compare, decode, steelman, timeline, diet report, gut check

Design

• 4 newspaper color themes (Classic, Broadsheet, Evening, Morning)
• Three-column layout: left sidebar, main content, right sidebar
• Editorial typography: Playfair Display, Lora, Inter, Source Sans 3
• LLM usage statistics with live provider quota tracking
• 5-column newspaper grid homepage with article images
• Server-synced theme preference

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS 4, Vite, ShadCN UI, Recharts
Backend	Express 5, better-sqlite3 (WAL mode), rss-parser
AI	Groq (openai/gpt-oss-20b), OpenRouter (minimax/minimax-m2.7)
APIs	TMDB, CoinGecko, Open-Meteo, Frankfurter, Hacker News, PBS

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/elodlukacs/news-digest.git
cd news-digest

# Install server dependencies
cd server
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API keys (see Configuration below)

# Install client dependencies
cd ../client
npm install

Configuration

Edit server/.env with your API keys:

# Required — at least one LLM provider
GROQ_API_KEY=           # https://console.groq.com
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=     # https://openrouter.ai

# Optional
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=     # BotFather on Telegram
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=       # Your chat ID
TMDB_API_KEY=           # https://www.themoviedb.org/settings/api
DB_PATH=                # SQLite path (default: ./newsreader.db)
PORT=                   # Server port (default: 3001)

# Access control — see "Securing a deployed backend" below
API_TOKEN=              # Bearer token required on every endpoint except /api/health
ALLOWED_ORIGINS=        # Comma-separated browser origins allowed to call the API

# Timeouts
LLM_TIMEOUT_MS=         # Per-LLM-request timeout (default 90000)
RSS_TIMEOUT_MS=         # Per-feed fetch timeout (default 15000)

Client (build-time only):

• VITE_API_URL — backend URL for a split deployment (e.g. https://api.example.com/api). Omit only if the frontend host proxies /api to the backend.
• VITE_API_TOKEN — must match the server's API_TOKEN when auth is enabled.

Securing a deployed backend

Running locally needs nothing: with API_TOKEN empty the API is open, and CORS allows localhost only. As soon as the backend is reachable from anywhere else, set both variables. Without a token, anyone who can reach the host can delete categories, rewrite the system prompts that produce every summary, and spend your LLM credits.

# server/.env
API_TOKEN=<a long random string>
ALLOWED_ORIGINS=https://your-frontend.example

# client build environment
VITE_API_TOKEN=<the same string>

GET /api/health stays unauthenticated so container health checks work. The API also rate-limits: 300 requests/min per IP overall, 20/min on the LLM-backed routes.

Prompt edits are preserved

Prompts you edit in the /prompts UI survive restarts. On boot the server re-seeds the prompts defined in server/db.js, but only for rows still byte-identical to what it last wrote (tracked via prompts.source_hash). Anything you have changed is left alone and listed in the startup log. To deliberately adopt the code versions, run once with PROMPT_SEED_FORCE=1.

Running

# Terminal 1 — Backend (port 3001)
cd server
node index.js

# Terminal 2 — Frontend (port 5173)
cd client
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser.

Development Commands

# Type-check
cd client && npx tsc --noEmit

# Lint
cd client && npm run lint

# Production build
cd client && npm run build  # outputs to client/dist/

Usage

1. Add categories using the + button in the navigation bar (e.g., "World News", "Technology")
2. Add RSS feeds by right-clicking a category and selecting "Manage Sources"
3. Click Refresh to fetch and summarize the latest articles
4. Browse history using the Archive panel in the left sidebar
5. Chat about any summary using the chat panel below the article
6. Send to Telegram using the button next to the Refresh button
7. Browse jobs from the Jobs page (aggregated from 12 sources, configurable via JOB_PROFILE)
8. Discover new releases in the Movies & TV page
9. Train your mind with the MindGames cognitive resilience dashboard

Project Structure

news-reader/
├── client/                     # React frontend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/         # UI components
│   │   │   ├── ui/             # ShadCN UI primitives
│   │   │   └── *.tsx           # Page-level components
│   │   ├── features/
│   │   │   └── mindgames/      # Cognitive Resilience Dashboard (9 sub-modules)
│   │   │       ├── common/     # Shared: FeaturePanelHeader, TabHeader
│   │   │       ├── dashboard/  # CognitiveDashboard, CognitiveTabNav
│   │   │       ├── overview/   # OverviewTab (stats, quick actions)
│   │   │       ├── training/   # InoculationPanel, PatternTests
│   │   │       ├── analysis/   # ForensicPanel, StudyStressTester, CompareCoverage, NewsSpectrum
│   │   │       ├── reflection/ # ScientistPanel, BridgePanel, JournalTrends, InformationDiet, StressDiagnostic
│   │   │       ├── reference/  # PromptLibrary, NarrativeMapPanel, DisinfoMap
│   │   │       ├── quiz/       # DailyQuiz
│   │   │       └── bias-radar/ # BiasRadarPanel, TechniquePicker, TechniqueCard
│   │   ├── hooks/              # useApi, useTheme, useWidgets, useMediaQuery, usePullToRefresh
│   │   ├── types/              # TypeScript interfaces
│   │   ├── utils/              # Date formatting utilities
│   │   ├── config.ts           # API_BASE configuration
│   │   └── index.css           # Theme definitions (4 themes via CSS custom properties)
│   ├── vite.config.ts
│   └── components.json         # ShadCN UI config
├── server/
│   ├── index.js                # Express entry point
│   ├── db.js                   # SQLite setup (WAL mode, auto-creates tables)
│   ├── routes/                 # API route handlers
│   │   ├── categories.js       # CRUD for feed categories
│   │   ├── feeds.js            # Feed management
│   │   ├── summaries.js        # Summary generation + history
│   │   ├── chat.js             # AI chat about summaries
│   │   ├── briefing.js         # Morning briefing generation
│   │   ├── jobs.js             # Job board (12 sources + AI filter)
│   │   ├── stats.js            # LLM usage + trending
│   │   ├── widgets.js          # Weather, crypto, rates, HN, releases
│   │   ├── homepage.js         # Newspaper grid homepage
│   │   ├── settings.js         # User preferences (theme, etc.)
│   │   ├── telegram.js         # Send-to-Telegram
│   │   ├── discovery.js        # RSS feed auto-discovery
│   │   ├── narrative.js        # Narrative map
│   │   ├── prompts.js          # Prompt library
│   │   ├── disinfo.js          # Disinfo map
│   │   ├── cognitive.js        # Stress diagnostic
│   │   ├── forensics.js        # Fallacy detection
│   │   ├── inoculation.js      # Inoculation game
│   │   ├── scientist.js        # ADEPT debate + journal
│   │   ├── bridge.js           # SOS audit
│   │   ├── compare.js          # Coverage comparison
│   │   ├── spectrum.js         # News spectrum
│   │   └── bias-radar/         # Bias radar (decode, related, timeline, daily-quiz, steelman, missing-story)
│   ├── lib/                    # Shared utilities
│   │   ├── llm.js              # LLM provider fallback (Groq → OpenRouter)
│   │   ├── rss.js              # RSS parsing
│   │   ├── telegram.js         # Telegram bot integration
│   │   └── fetchWithTimeout.js # HTTP with timeout
│   ├── jobs/                   # Job aggregator
│   │   ├── sources.js          # 11 aggregator fetchers + ALL_SOURCES registry
│   │   ├── sources-ats.js      # Direct Greenhouse/Lever/Ashby/Workable boards
│   │   ├── profile.js          # JOB_PROFILE — configurable role/seniority/region
│   │   ├── ai-filter.js        # AI relevance filtering (reads JOB_PROFILE)
│   │   └── common.js           # Shared job utilities
│   └── middleware/             # Express middleware
├── AGENTS.md                   # Agent instructions & architecture reference
└── vercel.json                 # Vercel deployment config

Deployment

Both halves deploy independently. Whichever host you use, set API_TOKEN + ALLOWED_ORIGINS on the server and VITE_API_TOKEN on the client — see Securing a deployed backend.

Docker / CasaOS (what .github/workflows/deploy-*.yml uses)

Both client/Dockerfile and server/Dockerfile build standalone images; the workflows SSH to the host and run ~/newsreader/deploy-frontend.sh / deploy-backend.sh there.

• Backend — mount a volume for the DB and set DB_PATH=/data/newsreader.db (already the image default). Health check hits /api/health.
• Frontend — client/nginx.conf proxies /api/ to http://newsreader-api:3001, so put both containers on the same Docker network and the default VITE_API_URL=/api works with no build arg. If your backend container has a different name, change the set $api_upstream line in client/nginx.conf.

Frontend (Vercel)

• Build command: cd client && npm install && npm run build
• Output directory: client/dist
• Set VITE_API_URL to your backend URL, including the /api suffix

vercel.json excludes api/ from the SPA rewrite. Without that exclusion the rewrite matched /api/* too and every API call came back as 200 OK with an HTML body — which surfaced as "Invalid response from server" rather than a network error. The client now detects HTML responses on API requests and reports the misconfiguration explicitly.

Backend (any Node host)

• Root directory: server
• Start command: node index.js
• Set PORT (most hosts provide it)
• For database persistence: attach a volume (e.g. /data), set DB_PATH=/data/newsreader.db

The process handles SIGTERM/SIGINT by checkpointing the SQLite WAL and closing the DB, so restarts don't leave an unflushed WAL behind.

License

MIT