GNews Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a GNews-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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GNews is a REST API service to search and retrieve news articles (real-time and historical) from thousands of worldwide sources. The REST API base URL is https://gnews.io/api/v4 and all requests require an API key passed as a query parameter (apikey).
dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading GNews data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from GNews?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from GNews:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| search | search | GET | articles | Search news articles by keywords, supports q, lang, country, max, page, from/to, sortby, truncate, etc. |
| top_headlines | top-headlines | GET | articles | Get trending/top headlines (category, lang, country, q, max, page, from/to, nullable) |
| latest_headlines | latest-headlines | GET | articles | Get the latest articles (query params similar to search/top-headlines) |
| sources | sources | GET | sources | List supported news sources (returns sources list) |
How do I authenticate with the GNews API?
Authentication is performed with a single API key; include it on every request as the apikey query parameter (e.g. ?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY). Example: https://gnews.io/api/v4/search?q=Google&lang=en&max=5&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY
1. Get your credentials
- Register / sign in at https://gnews.io/register or open the dashboard at https://gnews.io/dashboard. 2) Verify your email if required. 3) Copy the API key shown on the dashboard and use it as the apikey query parameter in requests.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.gnews_source] api_key = "your_api_key_here"
dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.
How do I set up and run the pipeline?
Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"
1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:
dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex
This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →
2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:
dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install
This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →
3. Start LLM-assisted coding:
Use /find-source to load data from the GNews API into DuckDB.
The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.
4. Run the pipeline:
python gnews_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline gnews_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset gnews_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/gnews.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline gnews_pipeline show
This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.
Python pipeline example
This example loads search and top_headlines from the GNews API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:
import dlt from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources @dlt.source def gnews_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://gnews.io/api/v4", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "search", "endpoint": {"path": "search", "data_selector": "articles"}}, {"name": "top_headlines", "endpoint": {"path": "top-headlines", "data_selector": "articles"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="gnews_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="gnews_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(gnews_source()) print(load_info)
To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.
How do I query the loaded data?
Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.
Python (pandas DataFrame):
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("gnews_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.search.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM gnews_data.search LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("gnews_pipeline").dataset() data.search.df().head()
See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.
What destinations can I load GNews data to?
dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:
| Destination | Example value |
|---|---|
| DuckDB (local, default) | "duckdb" |
| PostgreSQL | "postgres" |
| BigQuery | "bigquery" |
| Snowflake | "snowflake" |
| Redshift | "redshift" |
| Databricks | "databricks" |
| Filesystem (S3, GCS, Azure) | "filesystem" |
Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.
Troubleshooting
Authentication failures
If you receive 401/403 responses check that you included your API key as apikey=... in the query string and that the key is active in your dashboard. Ensure no extra spaces and that you use the correct key from https://gnews.io/dashboard.
Rate limits and plan limits
The API enforces limits by plan (max parameter and allowed requests). Exceeding rate or request-size limits may return 429 Too Many Requests or truncated content. Upgrade your plan to increase max and remove free-plan truncation of content.
Pagination and max limit
Use page and max parameters for pagination. max is typically 1–100 (depends on plan); it’s not possible to page beyond 1000 total articles. Use sortby=publishedAt or relevance to control ordering.
Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.
Next steps
Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:
data-exploration— Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.dlthub-runtime— Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.
dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install
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