OpenClaw News Publisher

Multi-platform news publishing automation from Markdown

Overview

OpenClaw News Publisher is a CLI-based tool that automates news article distribution across multiple platforms. Write once in Markdown, publish everywhere with a single command.

Core Capabilities

1. Multi-Platform Publishing

• RSS Feed: Full implementation with automatic feed generation
• WeChat Official Account: Framework ready (API pending)
• Twitter/X: Framework ready (OAuth pending)
• Toutiao (今日头条): Placeholder
• YouTube: Placeholder
• Douyin (抖音): Placeholder

2. Markdown-First Workflow

• Write news in standard Markdown with YAML Front Matter
• Template system for different content types
• Preview before publishing
• Automatic content extraction and formatting

3. Publishing Features

• Automatic platform fallback on failures
• Dry-run mode for testing
• Publishing history tracking with JSON records
• Platform-specific formatting (e.g., Twitter 280 char limit)
• Batch publishing to multiple platforms

4. Content Management

• Draft system for work-in-progress articles
• Published archive organized by date
• Template-based article creation
• Front Matter metadata support

Installation

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/ZhenRobotics/openclaw-news-publisher.git
cd openclaw-news-publisher

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Configure platforms
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your credentials

# Verify installation
./agents/news-cli.sh help

Quick Start

1. Create News Article

# Create from template
openclaw-news create "AI Breakthrough in 2026"

# Or use script directly
./scripts/create-news.sh "My News Title" --template tech-news

This generates: news/drafts/ai-breakthrough-TIMESTAMP.md

2. Edit Article

---
title: "AI Breakthrough in 2026"
author: "Your Name"
category: "Technology"
tags: ["AI", "Innovation"]
platforms: ["rss", "twitter"]
---

# AI Breakthrough in 2026

Your article content here...

3. Preview Article

openclaw-news preview news/drafts/ai-breakthrough-*.md

Shows: title, author, word count, content preview

4. Publish

# Publish to all configured platforms
openclaw-news publish news/drafts/ai-breakthrough-*.md

# Publish to specific platforms
openclaw-news publish news/drafts/my-news.md --platforms rss,twitter

# Dry run (preview only, no actual publishing)
openclaw-news publish news/drafts/my-news.md --dry-run

5. List Published Articles

openclaw-news list

CLI Commands

Command	Description	Example
create	Create news draft	openclaw-news create "Title"
preview	Preview article	openclaw-news preview <file>
publish	Publish to platforms	openclaw-news publish <file>
list	List published articles	openclaw-news list
help	Show help	openclaw-news help

Configuration

Platform Credentials (.env)

# Platform priority (comma-separated)
PUBLISH_PLATFORMS="rss,wechat,twitter"

# RSS Configuration
RSS_SITE_URL="https://your-site.com"
RSS_FEED_URL="https://your-site.com/feed.xml"

# WeChat
WECHAT_APP_ID="wx..."
WECHAT_APP_SECRET="..."

# Twitter
TWITTER_API_KEY="..."
TWITTER_API_SECRET="..."
TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN="..."

# (See .env.example for full configuration)

Article Format

Front Matter Fields

Field	Required	Description	Example
title	✅	Article title	"AI News"
author	⬜	Author name	"John Doe"
category	⬜	Category	"Technology"
tags	⬜	Tag array	["AI", "Tech"]
platforms	⬜	Target platforms	["rss", "twitter"]
coverImage	⬜	Cover image path	"img/cover.jpg"
draft	⬜	Draft status	true or false

Example Article

---
title: "Breaking: New AI Model Released"
author: "Tech Reporter"
category: "Technology"
tags: ["AI", "Machine Learning"]
platforms: ["rss", "twitter", "wechat"]
coverImage: "images/ai-model.jpg"
draft: false
---

# Breaking: New AI Model Released

## Summary
A revolutionary AI model has been announced...

## Details
The new model demonstrates...

### Key Features
- **Performance**: 50% improvement
- **Efficiency**: Reduced compute costs
- **Applications**: Healthcare, finance

## Conclusion
This breakthrough marks...

Platform-Specific Behavior

RSS

• Generates RSS 2.0 feed at public/feed.xml
• Converts Markdown to HTML automatically
• Includes last 20 articles
• Updates on each publish

Twitter

• Automatically truncates to 280 characters
• Extracts hashtags from article tags
• Uses summary or first paragraph

WeChat

• Extracts title, author, content
• Prepares for draft article creation
• (Full API integration pending)

Use Cases

1. News Website

# Daily news workflow
openclaw-news create "Today's Tech News"
# Edit article...
openclaw-news publish news/drafts/todays-tech-news-*.md --platforms rss

2. Multi-Platform Content Distribution

# Write once, publish everywhere
openclaw-news publish article.md --platforms rss,wechat,twitter,toutiao

3. Content Preview Before Publishing

# Preview and test
openclaw-news preview article.md
openclaw-news publish article.md --dry-run
openclaw-news publish article.md  # Actual publish

Project Structure

openclaw-news-publisher/
├── news/
│   ├── templates/        # Article templates
│   ├── drafts/           # Work in progress
│   └── published/        # Published archive
├── scripts/
│   ├── platforms/        # Platform publishers
│   ├── publish-news.sh   # Main publish script
│   └── create-news.sh    # Create drafts
├── agents/
│   └── news-cli.sh       # CLI entry point
└── public/
    └── feed.xml          # Generated RSS feed

Advanced Features

Publishing History

Each publish creates a JSON record:

{
  "article_id": "my-news",
  "platform": "rss",
  "status": "success",
  "published_at": "2026-03-10T12:00:00Z",
  "platform_url": "https://example.com/feed.xml",
  "error": null
}

Stored in: news/published/YYYY-MM-DD/article-id.platform.json

Automatic Platform Fallback

If a platform fails, publishing continues to next platform:

Publishing to: rss        ✅ Success
Publishing to: wechat     ❌ Failed (not configured)
Publishing to: twitter    ✅ Success

Summary: 2 success, 1 failed

Template System

Built-in templates:

• default.md - General purpose
• tech-news.md - Technology news

Create custom templates in news/templates/

Requirements

• Node.js: >=18.0.0
• Operating System: Linux, macOS, WSL
• Dependencies: None (uses standard system tools)
• Platform Credentials: Required for each platform

Limitations

• WeChat/Twitter APIs require manual implementation
• Toutiao/YouTube are placeholders
• No built-in image hosting
• No scheduling system (yet)

Roadmap

• Complete WeChat API integration
• Implement Twitter OAuth flow
• Add Toutiao API support
• Add YouTube Data API
• Web UI dashboard
• Scheduling system
• Analytics tracking

Support

• GitHub: https://github.com/ZhenRobotics/openclaw-news-publisher
• Issues: https://github.com/ZhenRobotics/openclaw-news-publisher/issues
• Documentation: See docs/PLATFORMS.md

License

MIT License - Free for commercial and personal use

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Version: 1.0.0 Author: justin Status: Production Ready (RSS), Beta (WeChat, Twitter)