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.
X-API-Key: tsk_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Base URL
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.
| Operation | Endpoint | Cost (credits) |
|---|
topics_list | GET /topics | 0 |
tags_list | GET /tags | 0 |
news_search | GET /news | 1 |
news_detail | GET /news/{id} | 1 |
brief_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.
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=....
curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" https://theshort.ai/api/external/topics
Response shape:
[
{ "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.
curl -H "X-API-Key: $TSK" https://theshort.ai/api/external/tags
Response shape:
[
{ "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:
| Param | Type | Notes |
|---|
topic | repeated string | Topic key from /topics. Repeat to OR. |
tag | repeated string | Tag name from /tags. Repeat to OR. |
limit | int (1–200) | Max items to return. Default 50. |
lang | en / ru / az | Language 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. |
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:
{
"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).
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:
| Status | Meaning | Action |
|---|
401 | Missing or invalid X-API-Key | Stop. Ask the user to provide a key. |
402 | Insufficient credits in the developer wallet | Direct to credits panel. |
403 | Topic/tag is outside this key's scope | Pick a different filter. |
404 | News item not found | Try GET /news to discover valid ids. |
429 | Rate-limited (per-key quota) | Back off and retry. |
5xx | Server error — credits are auto-refunded | Retry with exponential backoff. |
Recommended workflow
- Discover scope — call
GET /topics and GET /tags once at agent
startup (these are free) and cache the results for the session.
- Search — call
GET /news with the user's topic of interest. Apply
limit=10 for chat replies, larger for batch jobs.
- Drill down — when the user asks "tell me more about story X", call
GET /news/{id} for the full payload.
- Cite — when summarizing, always include the
canonicalUrl and
sourceName so the user can verify.
- 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):
GET /news?topic=tech.ai&tag=openai&limit=5- Pick the top 3 by
publishedAt.
- 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
| Plan | Monthly credits | Price |
|---|
| FREE | 100 (one-time) | $0 |
| PRO | 10,000 | $29 / month |
| SCALE | 50,000 | $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
