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.

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:

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:

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.

1. Search — call GET /news with the user's topic of interest. Apply

limit=10 for chat replies, larger for batch jobs.

1. Drill down — when the user asks "tell me more about story X", call

GET /news/{id} for the full payload.

1. Cite — when summarizing, always include the canonicalUrl and

sourceName so the user can verify.

1. 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

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