Nz News

---
name: nz-news
description: "Aggregate RSS feeds from major New Zealand news websites. Use when the task involves NZ news, current events in New Zealand, what's happening in NZ, NZ headlines, or searching NZ stories by topic, timeframe, or source. No authentication required."
license: MIT
compatibility: "Requires Python 3.10+ and network access for live data"
metadata:
  thecolab.category: "events-and-media"
  thecolab.source_owner: "Participating New Zealand news publishers"
  thecolab.source_type: "commercial"
  thecolab.auth: "none"
  thecolab.access_mode: "html-readonly"
  thecolab.data_class: "public"
  thecolab.writes: "false"
  thecolab.browser: "false"
  thecolab.risk: "low"
  thecolab.cache_ttl: "24h"
  thecolab.schema_version: "1"
  thecolab.skill_type: "html-readonly"
  thecolab.pack: "nz-commercial-web"
  thecolab.source_url: "https://rss.nzherald.co.nz/rss/xml/nzhrsscid_000000001.xml"
  thecolab.allowed_domains: "rss.nzherald.co.nz,thespinoff.co.nz,www.interest.co.nz,www.newsroom.co.nz,www.rnz.co.nz,www.stuff.co.nz"
  thecolab.last_verified: "2026-07-19"
  thecolab.health: "healthy"
  thecolab.maintainer: "@adam91holt"
---

# NZ News

## Goal

Aggregate live RSS feeds from major New Zealand news websites into a single CLI tool for quick headline scanning, source browsing, and obvious topic searching.

## Use this when

- A user asks about current NZ news or what's happening in New Zealand
- A user wants today's headlines from NZ media
- A user asks about news from a specific NZ outlet (Stuff, RNZ, NZ Herald, etc.)
- A user wants to search NZ news by topic, keyword, timeframe, or source
- A user needs a quick New Zealand news briefing

## Do not use this for

- International news not covered by NZ outlets
- Historical news or archived articles
- Paywalled content (some NZ Herald articles may be paywalled)
- Social media or non-news content
- Real-time breaking news alerts (RSS feeds have a delay)

## Preferred workflow

1. Run `scripts/cli.py` with the narrowest subcommand that answers the task
2. Start with `search` for any topic lookup, either positionally or with flags
3. Use `--source`, `--since-hours`, `--since-date`, `--contains-all`, `--exact`, and `--exclude` when the request needs tighter matching
4. Use default human output for direct answers
5. Use `--json` when another tool or agent needs machine-readable output

## CLI

Run with:

```bash
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py <command> [flags]
```

### Search first

The easiest path for topic lookups is now `search`.

Examples:

```bash
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search cyclone
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search --keyword cyclone --since-hours 24
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search --keyword "housing market" --contains-all --source rnz,newsroom
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search --keyword coalition --exact --since-date 2026-04-01
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py topic cyclone --exclude sport --limit 5
```

`topic` is kept as an alias for `search`, so both of these work:

```bash
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py topic cyclone
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search --keyword cyclone
```

### `headlines [--limit N] [--json]`

Top headlines across all primary sources (NZ Herald, Stuff, RNZ, Newsroom, The Spinoff, Interest.co.nz), deduplicated and sorted by date. Default limit: 10.

Examples:

```bash
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py headlines
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py headlines --limit 20
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py headlines --json
```

### `source <name> [--limit N] [--json]`

News from a specific source. Accepts source ID (for example `rnz`, `stuff`, `herald`) or a source name. Default limit: 10.

Examples:

```bash
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py source rnz
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py source stuff --limit 5
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py source herald --json
```

### `search [keyword...] [flags]`

Search headlines and summaries across NZ sources. You can provide the search term positionally or with `--keyword`.

Useful flags:

- `--keyword <text>` for flag-based search input
- `--source rnz,herald` to limit the search to specific feeds
- `--since-hours <hours>` to keep only recent stories
- `--since-date <YYYY-MM-DD or ISO timestamp>` for a fixed start date
- `--contains-all` to require every term in a multi-word query
- `--exact` to match an exact phrase
- `--exclude sport,opinion` to remove unwanted terms
- `--limit N`
- `--json`

JSON shape:

- `fetchedAt`
- `keyword`
- `matchMode`
- `sourcesQueried`
- `sourcesOk`
- `filters.sourceIds`
- `filters.sinceHours`
- `filters.sinceDate`
- `filters.exclude`
- `filters.limit`
- `totalMatching`
- `returnedCount`
- `items[]` with `title`, `url`, `published`, `source`, `sourceId`, `summary`
- `errors[]`

Examples:

```bash
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search cyclone
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search --keyword cyclone --since-hours 24
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search --keyword "housing market" --contains-all --source rnz,newsroom
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py search --keyword coalition --exact --since-date 2026-04-01
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py topic cyclone --exclude sport --limit 5 --json
```

### `sources [--json]`

List all available news sources with a live status check showing which feeds are working, how many items each returned, and response time.

Examples:

```bash
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py sources
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py sources --json
```

### `summary [--json]`

Brief summary showing total story count across sources and the top 5 headlines.

Examples:

```bash
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py summary
python3 skills/nz-news/scripts/cli.py summary --json
```

## Sources

| ID | Name | Format | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| herald | NZ Herald | RSS | Primary |
| stuff | Stuff | Atom | Primary |
| rnz | RNZ | RSS | Primary |
| newsroom | Newsroom | RSS | Primary |
| spinoff | The Spinoff | Atom | Primary |
| interest | Interest.co.nz | RSS | Primary |
| rnz-politics | RNZ Politics | RSS | Category |
| rnz-business | RNZ Business | RSS | Category |
| rnz-national | RNZ National | RSS | Category |
| rnz-world | RNZ World | RSS | Category |
| rnz-sport | RNZ Sport | RSS | Category |
| rnz-te-ao-maori | RNZ Te Ao Māori | RSS | Category |

Primary sources are queried by default. Category feeds (RNZ sub-feeds) are available via `source <id>` and `search --source <id>`, but excluded from `headlines` and `summary` to avoid duplicate stories.

## Setup

No API key required — runs on the Python 3 standard library only.

## Resources

- CLI entrypoint: `scripts/cli.py`
- Live smoke test: `scripts/smoke_test.py`

## Notes

- No API key required
- No external XML parsing dependencies, uses regex-based RSS and Atom parsing
- Default output is human-readable, `--json` output is for chaining into other tools or agent steps
- Headlines are deduplicated by normalised title across sources
- RNZ category feeds may overlap with the main RNZ feed

## Source notes

Read `references/source-notes.md` for source ownership, access, and freshness boundaries.