World News CLI

Website PyPI Python License: MIT

Full-screen terminal news reader built with Textual. Sidebar, headlines, article pane, themes, AI summarize/explain, and text-to-speech that can highlight the sentence being read.

Website: nishal21.github.io/News-CLI · Author: nishal.dev · PyPI: worldnews-cli

Requires Python 3.9+.

Install

Fastest path for most people:

pip install worldnews-cli

Isolated tool install (recommended on shared machines):

pipx install worldnews-cli
# or
uv tool install worldnews-cli

Python / pip not on PATH (Windows)

If you see python is not recognized or pip is not recognized:

py -m pip install worldnews-cli
py -m worldnews

Or reinstall Python from python.org and enable Add python.exe to PATH.

Optional extras for offline/gTTS playback helpers:

pip install "worldnews-cli[voice]"

From a local clone (developers):

pip install -e .
# or
pip install -r requirements.txt

Run

worldnews
# short alias:
news

If the console script is not on your PATH:

python -m worldnews
# Windows launcher often works as:
py -m worldnews

Useful flags:

worldnews --category tech
worldnews --chat
worldnews --summary
worldnews --offline
worldnews --add-feed "My Blog" "https://example.com/feed.xml"
worldnews --version

Keys

Key	Action
j / k or arrows	Move in the list
Enter	Open article (on a phone-width terminal: full-screen reader)
Esc / q	Back to list, or quit
a / e	AI summarize / explain
t	Speak article (press again to stop)
/	Filter headlines
Ctrl+P	Command palette
s	Settings (App, AI, Voice)
[ / ]	Previous / next feed
1–9	Jump to a numbered category
b	Bookmark
o	Open in browser
?	Help

On narrow terminals (about under 84 columns), the app switches to a phone layout: Enter opens the reader full width, Esc/Back returns to the list, and a Back button appears in the action row.

What you get

• Categories such as General, Tech, Hacker News, AI, Sports, Anime, plus All, Bookmarks, Offline, and My Feeds
• Custom sites via palette add-feed (website or RSS; feed discovery when possible)
• Infinite scroll on headline lists (50 at a time)
• Animated ASCII boot / fetch splash (WORLD NEWS figlet + gradient)
• Themes: Newsroom (default), Phosphor, Broadsheet, Nord, GitHub Dark, High Contrast
• AI summarize / explain / chat (default free provider needs no key; many others supported)
• Speak (t) with free Edge TTS by default; optional Fish Audio, Gemini, Groq, and paid live providers
• Paste a voice id or library URL in Settings → Voice when you use a provider API key

Config lives under ~/.config/worldnews/ (older ~/.news-cli-*.json files are still read).

AI

Default free path: OpenCode Zen (big-pickle), no API key.

Also wired: Hack Club AI, Ollama, LM Studio, Groq, Gemini, OpenRouter, and others.

In the app: s → AI tab (or palette → ai-provider). Pick a provider/model, paste a key if required, Save key, Apply AI.

Hack Club keys: ai.hackclub.com

Voice / TTS

Provider	Cost	Key
Edge TTS	Free	None (default)
Fish Audio	Free tier	fish.audio (s2.1-pro-free, news/narrator voices)
Gemini TTS / Live	Free tier	Google AI Studio
Groq Orpheus	Free tier	Groq
Deepgram Aura-2 / Live	Free credit	Deepgram
OpenAI / Realtime	Paid	OpenAI
ElevenLabs / Live	Free/paid	ElevenLabs
Cartesia / Live	Paid	Cartesia
gTTS	Free	None

Flow: s → Voice → provider → model → voice (or paste id/URL) → API key if needed → Apply voice → t.

You can also set FISH_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, and similar env vars.

Provider docs: Fish · Gemini speech · Groq TTS

Complex scripts (Malayalam, Hindi, Arabic, …)

Cell-grid terminals (including Windows Terminal) often cannot shape Indic scripts the way a browser does. World News keeps the TUI usable with a safe default:

Mode	How to enable	Behavior
safe (default)	Settings → App → Scripts, or no flag	No Indic/Arabic glyphs in the TUI (list + reader); press o for browser
plain	--plain / --ascii	Same as safe for hostile scripts
native	--native-titles	Show native script in list/reader (may still overlap on Windows Terminal)

Fonts / hosts

• Windows: use Windows Terminal, not legacy cmd.exe. Set the profile font to Nirmala UI or Noto Sans Malayalam.
• Termux: install a Malayalam-capable font (e.g. Noto) via your font packages.
• Linux / macOS: UTF-8 locale (LANG=*.UTF-8) + Noto / Meera / Rachana.

Startup forces UTF-8 I/O and enables Windows virtual terminal processing when possible. Full OpenType shaping still requires a capable terminal + font — for clearest reading press o (open in browser).

Phone and small terminals

This is a terminal UI. On Android, Termux is the usual host:

pkg update && pkg install python libxml2 libxslt libjpeg-turbo
pip install worldnews-cli
# optional
pip install "worldnews-cli[voice]"
pkg install termux-api ffmpeg
python -m worldnews

Other options: JuiceSSH/ConnectBot into a machine that already has worldnews, or a-Shell/iSH on iOS with Python + pip.

Width behavior (approximate):

Columns	Layout
100+	Sidebar + list + reader
84–99	List first; Enter opens reader
under 84	Single column; Enter = reader, Esc = list
under 56	Compact rows and short keyhints

Links open with termux-open-url when Termux API is installed.

Development

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd news-cli
pip install -e ".[dev,voice]"
python -m worldnews

Website (Astro)

cd docs
npm install
npm run dev
npm run build

License

MIT