MCP Server

The GNews MCP server lets AI assistants search news articles and get top headlines through the Model Context Protocol. It is hosted by GNews: there is nothing to install, you only connect your client to it with your API key.

Setting	Value
URL	https://mcp.gnews.io/
Transport	Streamable HTTP
Authentication	X-Api-Key header with your GNews API key
Registry	io.github.gnews-io/gnews in the official MCP Registry

Each tool call makes one API request with your key: it counts toward your daily quota and follows your plan (articles per request, historical archive and data freshness, see Article Availability).

Connect Your Client

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with the key from your dashboard.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http gnews_api https://mcp.gnews.io/ --header "X-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Cursor

In ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or .cursor/mcp.json (one project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gnews": {
      "url": "https://mcp.gnews.io/",
      "headers": {
        "X-Api-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

In .vscode/mcp.json. VS Code asks for the key the first time and stores it securely:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "gnews-api-key",
      "description": "GNews API key",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "gnews": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.gnews.io/",
      "headers": {
        "X-Api-Key": "${input:gnews-api-key}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI

In ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gnews": {
      "httpUrl": "https://mcp.gnews.io/",
      "headers": {
        "X-Api-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Other Clients

Any MCP client that supports the Streamable HTTP transport and custom headers can connect with the URL and header above.

Available Tools

search

Searches articles by keywords, like the Search endpoint.

Parameter	Default	Description
q	required	Keywords, with the query syntax (quotes, AND, OR, NOT, parentheses)
lang	any	2-letter language code, e.g. en
country	any	2-letter country code of the source, e.g. us
max	10	Number of articles, from 1 to 100 depending on your plan
in_fields	title, description	Where to search, comma-separated: title, description, content
sortby	publishedAt	publishedAt (most recent first) or relevance
date_from	none	Minimum publication date: YYYY-MM-DD or ISO 8601 (2026-10-01T08:30:00Z)
date_to	none	Maximum publication date, same formats
page	1	Page number

top_headlines

Gets the current trending articles of a category, like the Top Headlines endpoint.

Parameter	Default	Description
category	general	general, world, nation, business, technology, entertainment, sports, science or health
lang	any	2-letter language code, e.g. en
country	any	2-letter country code, e.g. us
max	10	Number of articles, from 1 to 100 depending on your plan
q	none	Optional keywords to filter the headlines
date_from	none	Minimum publication date: YYYY-MM-DD or ISO 8601
date_to	none	Maximum publication date, same formats
page	1	Page number

Both tools return the same JSON as the API, see JSON Response. The server also exposes the API documentation as MCP resources (docs://gnews/cheatsheet, docs://gnews/search, docs://gnews/top-headlines).

Example Prompts

• What are today's top technology headlines in the United States, in English?
• Find English articles about the Federal Reserve from the last 3 days, most relevant first.
• Summarize this morning's business news in France.

Privacy

The server is a proxy: it forwards your key to the GNews API with each request and does not store it. It records anonymous usage statistics for each tool call (tool name, MCP client name and version, success or error, duration, and the lang, country, category, max, page and sortby parameters). Your API key is only recorded as a one-way hash, and your search queries are never recorded.

Source Code

The server is open source: github.com/gnews-io/gnews-io-mcp-server.