Description

Scrape structured news data from Google News automatically. Use when the user asks for news on a topic, industry trends, or PR monitoring. Triggers on keywords like "find news about", "track trends", or "monitor PR".

README (SKILL.md)

Google News Automation Scraper Skill

Name: Google News Api
Author: phheng

✨ Platform Compatibility

✅ Works Powerfully & Reliably On All Major AI Assistants

Platform	Status	How to Install
OpenCode	✅ Fully Supported	Copy skill folder to `~/.opencode/skills/`
Claude Code	✅ Fully Supported	Native skill support
Cursor	✅ Fully Supported	Copy to `~/.cursor/skills/`
OpenClaw	✅ Fully Supported	Compatible

Why Choose BrowserAct Skills?

🚀 Stable & crash-free execution
⚡ Fast response times
🔧 No configuration headaches
📦 Plug & play installation
💬 Professional support

📖 Introduction

This skill provides a one-stop news collection service using BrowserAct's Google News API template. It allows the agent to retrieve structured news data with a single command.

🔑 API Key Guidance

Before running, check the BROWSERACT_API_KEY environment variable. If not set, do not proceed with script execution; instead, request the API key from the user.

Required Message to User:

"Since you haven't configured the BrowserAct API Key, please go to the BrowserAct Console to get your Key and provide it to me in this chat."

🛠️ Input Parameters

Flexibly configure these parameters based on user requirements:

Search_Keywords
- Type: string
- Description: Keywords to search on Google News (e.g., company names, industry terms).
- Example: AI Startup, Tesla, SpaceX
Publish_date
- Type: string
- Description: Time range filter for articles.
- Options:
  - any time: No restriction
  - past hours: Breaking news
  - past 24 hours: Daily monitoring (Recommended)
  - past week: Short-term trends
  - past year: Long-term research
- Default: past week
Datelimit
- Type: number
- Description: Maximum news items to extract.
- Default: 30
- Suggestion: Use 10-30 for monitoring, higher for research.

🚀 Execution (Recommended)

Execute the following script to get results:

# Call Example
python .cursor/skills/google-news-api/scripts/google_news_api.py "Keywords" "TimeRange" Count

📊 Data Output

Successful execution returns structured data:

headline: News title
source: Publisher
news_link: URL
published_time: Timestamp
author: Author name (if available)

⚠️ Error Handling & Retry Mechanism

Check Output:
- If output contains "Invalid authorization", the API Key is invalid. Do not retry. Guide the user to provide a correct key.
- For other failures (e.g., Error: or empty results), automatically retry once.
Retry Limit:
- Maximum one automatic retry. If it still fails, stop and report the error to the user.

Usage Guidance

This skill mostly does what it says (it calls BrowserAct's API to run a Google News scraping workflow), but exercise caution before installing or running it: - The skill requires a BROWSERACT_API_KEY (used in the included script), but the registry metadata does not list this — treat that as a red flag and verify the requirement before handing over secrets. - SKILL.md instructs the agent to ask you to paste your API key into chat. Never paste sensitive API keys into free-form chat unless you trust the receiver and the platform provides a secure secret field. Prefer setting BROWSERACT_API_KEY as an environment variable on the host or using the platform's secure secret storage. - Verify you trust the BrowserAct service (api.browseract.com) and the template ID included in the script. Confirm the URL and service are legitimate for your use case. - Note missing dependency declaration: the script uses the Python requests library; ensure runtime provides it. - The skill's source/homepage is unknown. If you need stronger assurance, ask the publisher for provenance (repo, release notes) or review the BrowserAct workflow output to ensure no unexpected data is being returned or transmitted elsewhere. If you decide to proceed: do not paste secrets into chat; set the API key via a secure mechanism, and run the script in an environment you control so you can inspect network traffic and outputs.

Capability Analysis

Type: OpenClaw Skill Name: google-news-api Version: 0.1.0 The skill is designed to fetch Google News data via the BrowserAct API. It requires an API key, which it attempts to read from the `BROWSERACT_API_KEY` environment variable. If the key is missing, the `SKILL.md` instructions explicitly guide the AI agent to prompt the user for the key, including a specific message and URL (`https://www.browseract.com/reception/integrations`). The `scripts/google_news_api.py` file makes legitimate API calls to `https://api.browseract.com/v2/workflow` using the provided key. All behaviors, including the agent's instructions and network communication, are directly aligned with the stated purpose of integrating with the BrowserAct service and lack any indicators of intentional harmful behavior, data exfiltration beyond the API key for its intended use, or malicious execution.

Capability Assessment

⚠ Purpose & Capability

The code and SKILL.md call BrowserAct's API (api.browseract.com) using a workflow template to scrape Google News, which aligns with the stated purpose. However the registry metadata claims no required environment variables while both the README and the script require BROWSERACT_API_KEY — a clear metadata/requirement mismatch.

⚠ Instruction Scope

SKILL.md instructs the agent to check for BROWSERACT_API_KEY and, if missing, to request the API key from the user via chat with a specific message. Asking users to paste API keys into chat is explicit in the instructions and increases risk of secret leakage. There's also a minor path inconsistency in the example invocation (example uses .cursor/skills/... but manifest shows scripts/google_news_api.py).

ℹ Install Mechanism

There is no install spec (instruction-only with an included script), so nothing is downloaded during install (low install risk). The Python script depends on the requests library but dependencies are not declared; platform must provide Python + requests. No suspicious external download URLs are used.

⚠ Credentials

Requiring a BrowserAct API key is proportionate to calling BrowserAct's API, but the skill metadata did not declare this required env var. More importantly, the SKILL.md tells the agent to solicit the API key from the user in chat, which is an insecure handling pattern unless the platform provides a secure secret input mechanism — this raises the chance of accidental credential disclosure.

✓ Persistence & Privilege

The skill does not request permanent/always-on installation and does not modify other skills or system-wide agent settings. It runs on demand and uses standard HTTP API calls; no elevated persistence is requested.

Version History

v0.1.0

Initial release of google-news-api skill – scrape and retrieve structured news data from Google News automatically. - Fetches news data based on keywords, date range, and result limit. - Guides users to provide a BrowserAct API key if missing or invalid. - Returns news items with headline, source, link, publish time, and author. - Automatically retries once for errors (except invalid API key). - Fully compatible with major AI assistant platforms (OpenCode, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw).

Metadata

Slug google-news-api

Version 0.1.0

License —

All-time Installs 10

Active Installs 9

Total Versions 1

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google News Api?

Scrape structured news data from Google News automatically. Use when the user asks for news on a topic, industry trends, or PR monitoring. Triggers on keywords like "find news about", "track trends", or "monitor PR". It is an AI Agent Skill for Claude Code / OpenClaw, with 1943 downloads so far.

How do I install Google News Api?

Run "/install google-news-api" in the OpenClaw or Claude Code chat to install it in one step — no extra setup required.

Is Google News Api free?

Yes, Google News Api is completely free (open-source). You can download, install and use it at no cost.

Which platforms does Google News Api support?

Google News Api is cross-platform and runs anywhere OpenClaw / Claude Code is available (cross-platform).

Who created Google News Api?

It is built and maintained by Henk Nie (@phheng); the current version is v0.1.0.

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