news-dashboard MCP Server

MCP server for the news-dashboard app. Lets AI agents (Claude Desktop, Claude Code) read feeds, manage bookmarks, generate the daily Morning Edition and AI intelligence briefings, clip/translate articles, create Obsidian notes, and post to BlueSky.

Requirements

• Node.js 24.22.1 or later in the 24.x line (nvm use)
• The news-dashboard-nest backend running and reachable
• A valid JWT access token for a registered user (see Authentication below) — the

backend requires a signed-in user for almost every route.

Setup

npm install
npm run build

Authentication

The backend (news-dashboard-nest) guards nearly every route with a JWT, the same way the web app does. This MCP server does not implement its own login flow — instead, you supply a pre-issued access token:

1. Log into the news dashboard (web app) normally, or call the backend directly:

   curl -X POST https://your-backend-url/auth/login \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -d '{"email":"[email protected]","password":"...","rememberMe":true}'

This returns { "accessToken": "..." }. With rememberMe: true the token is valid for 30 days; otherwise 2 hours.

1. Set NEWS_DASHBOARD_TOKEN to that value in the MCP server's environment (see below).

When the token expires or is rejected, tools return a clear error telling you to repeat this step and update the config — there is no automatic refresh.

Claude Desktop integration

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "news-dashboard": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/news-dashboard-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "NEWS_DASHBOARD_API_URL": "https://your-deployed-backend.com",
        "NEWS_DASHBOARD_TOKEN": "eyJhbGciOi..."
      }
    }
  }
}

For local development set NEWS_DASHBOARD_API_URL=http://localhost:3001.

Tools

Feeds & articles

Bookmarks

Article tools

Digests & briefings

Obsidian

BlueSky & settings

Not covered by this server (client-side-only in the web app, no backend endpoint to wrap): search/story-clustering/trends/alerts over already-loaded articles. Also out of scope: admin endpoints, the audio brief (binary MP3 streaming), and the paywall-capture bookmarklet flow.

Resources

Prompts

Example agent workflows

Save an article to Obsidian with a summary:

"Clip https://... and save it to my Obsidian Research/Biotech folder with a summary and relevant tags"

Today's top 5 stories:

"Fetch today's articles and generate a digest of the 5 most important stories"

Morning Edition:

"Pull today's articles and generate my Morning Edition"

Topic research:

"Find all articles about GLP-1 drugs across my feeds and create an Obsidian research note"

Find and share:

"Find the most recent FDA approval news and post it to BlueSky"

Local HTTP security

HTTP mode binds to 127.0.0.1 and validates the Host and browser Origin headers. Non-browser MCP clients can omit Origin. Browser clients must use a loopback origin on the same port. This bridge uses NEWS_DASHBOARD_TOKEN for its tools; remote access requires a separate authenticated gateway, not a public bind.

Migration validation

Express 5 and TypeScript 7 are covered by npm test, including the localhost Host/Origin boundary checks. Use npm 12.2.1 with Node 24.22.1. See the security and migration review.