theshort-news (OpenClaw skill)#

Read access to theshort.ai's curated news index for any agent running on OpenClaw. Authenticated by API key ( X-API-Key header), billed in credits against the developer account that owns the key. The skill exposes topic-scoped search, tag-scoped search, full article details, and the topic / tag catalogs the key has access to.

When to use this skill#

• The user is asking about something that happened recently and the model's built-in knowledge is likely stale.
• The user wants a one-line or one-paragraph summary of a news event.
• The agent needs to ground a longer answer in real, attributable sources with canonicalUrl links.
• The user is asking about trending stories in a given topic (politics, finance, tech, etc.) or geography (country / region).

Do not use this skill for opinion pieces, social media posts, or fact-checking arbitrary user-supplied claims — the index is curated news only.

Authentication#

Every request requires an X-API-Key header. Keys are issued from the OpenClaw dashboard. Each key has its own topic + tag access scope, set when the key was created.

http

X-API-Key: tsk_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Base URL#

text

https://theshort.ai/api/external

Credit costs#

Every successful call deducts credits from the developer account's wallet. Credits drain in this order: PLAN_INCLUDED → PROMO → TOPUP. If a call fails server-side, credits are refunded automatically.

OperationEndpointCost (credits)topics_list``GET /topics0tags_list``GET /tags0news_search``GET /news1news_detail``GET /news/{id}1brief_generate(future)3

If the wallet balance is insufficient the call returns HTTP 402 Payment Required with {"error":"insufficient_credits", ...}. Direct the user to the credits panel to top up or upgrade their plan.

Endpoints#

GET /health#

Liveness probe. Returns {"status":"ok"}. Free, unauthenticated, useful as a connectivity check before issuing billable calls.

bash

curl https://theshort.ai/api/external/health

GET /topics#

List the topic taxonomy this API key is allowed to query. Topics are hierarchical ( tech, tech.ai, tech.cybersecurity, …). Use the returned keys verbatim in GET /news?topic=....

bash

curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" https://theshort.ai/api/external/topics

Response shape:

json

[
  { "topicId": 12, "topicKey": "tech", "topicName": "Technology" },
  { "topicId": 18, "topicKey": "tech.ai", "topicName": "Artificial Intelligence" }
]

GET /tags#

List the tags this key has access to. Tags are flat labels (no hierarchy) attached to news items by the editorial team. Use these for very narrow filters that topics can't express.

bash

curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" https://theshort.ai/api/external/tags

Response shape:

json

[
  { "tagId": 7,  "tagName": "openai"        },
  { "tagId": 19, "tagName": "central-banks" }
]

GET /news#

The primary search endpoint. Returns the most recent news items the key has access to, optionally filtered by topic and/or tag. Multiple filters of the same kind are OR-ed; topic and tag filters are AND-ed.

Query params:

ParamTypeNotestopicrepeated stringTopic key from /topics. Repeat to OR.tagrepeated stringTag name from /tags. Repeat to OR.limitint (1–200)Max items to return. Default 50.lang``en / ru / azLanguage for the summary field. Defaults to en (English). When ru or az is requested, the summary field is populated with the Russian / Azerbaijani translation; if a translation is missing for a particular row the API transparently falls back to English so summary is never empty.bash

curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" \
  "https://theshort.ai/api/external/news?topic=tech.ai&tag=openai&limit=10"

# Russian summaries
curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" \
  "https://theshort.ai/api/external/news?topic=tech.ai&lang=ru&limit=10"

# Azerbaijani summaries
curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" \
  "https://theshort.ai/api/external/news?topic=tech.ai&lang=az&limit=10"

Response shape:

json

{
  "consumer": "acme-corp",
  "appliedTopics": ["tech.ai"],
  "appliedTags": ["openai"],
  "limit": 10,
  "items": [
    {
      "id": 12345,
      "summary": "OpenAI announced ...",
      "contentType": "news",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "sourceName": "Reuters",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://reuters.com/...",
      "publishedAt": "2026-04-11T08:30:00Z",
      "topics": ["tech", "tech.ai"],
      "tags": ["openai"]
    }
  ]
}

The response only contains a single summary field — there is no separate title. The first sentence of summary is the headline; treat the whole field as the article text. If you need both English and Russian text for the same article, make two requests: one with lang=en (or no lang at all) and another with lang=ru.

When grounding an answer for the user, always cite canonicalUrl so they can verify the source.

GET /news/{id}#

Fetch a single news item by id. Useful when the user clicks through from a search result. Returns the same ExternalNewsItemDTO shape as items in GET /news — the same lang parameter applies.

Returns 404 if the item is outside the key's topic/tag scope, even if it exists in the underlying database — this is a billable call regardless (the key paid for the lookup).

bash

curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" https://theshort.ai/api/external/news/12345
curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" "https://theshort.ai/api/external/news/12345?lang=ru"

Error handling#

All errors come back as JSON with an error field and a human-readable message. The HTTP status indicates the category:

StatusMeaningAction401Missing or invalid X-API-KeyStop. Ask the user to provide a key.402Insufficient credits in the developer walletDirect to credits panel.403Topic/tag is outside this key's scopePick a different filter.404News item not foundTry GET /news to discover valid ids.429Rate-limited (per-key quota)Back off and retry.5xxServer error — credits are auto-refundedRetry with exponential backoff.

Recommended workflow#

1. Discover scope — call GET /topics and GET /tags once at agent startup (these are free) and cache the results for the session.
2. Search — call GET /news with the user's topic of interest. Apply limit=10 for chat replies, larger for batch jobs.
3. Drill down — when the user asks "tell me more about story X", call GET /news/{id} for the full payload.
4. Cite — when summarizing, always include the canonicalUrl and sourceName so the user can verify.
5. Watch the wallet — surface the response from GET /api/v1/me/billing (admin / dashboard) when the user asks "how many credits do I have left".

Example conversation#

User: "What's happening with OpenAI today?"

Agent (internal):

1. GET /news?topic=tech.ai&tag=openai&limit=5
2. Pick the top 3 by publishedAt.
3. For the most relevant: GET /news/{id} to grab the full summary.

Agent (reply): "Three things in the past 24 hours: …. Sources: Reuters, TechCrunch, The Verge."

Plans and pricing#

PlanMonthly creditsPriceFREE100 (one-time)$0PRO10,000$29 / monthSCALE50,000$119 / month

Top-up packs (one-time): TOPUP_1K (1000 credits, $10), TOPUP_5K (5000, $45), TOPUP_20K (20,000, $160). All purchases and plan changes happen through the credits panel.

Support#

• Dashboard: https://openclaw.theshort.ai
• Issues: contact@tqdm.org