Subtitle: Stop doomscrolling. Start analyzing. A local-first, AI-powered intelligence platform for the Fediverse era.
The modern internet is designed to keep you angry, anxious, and scrolling.
When you open Twitter (X), Google News, or Facebook, you aren't seeing the news. You are seeing an algorithmic feed optimized for "engagement"—which usually means outrage. You are the consumer, and your attention is the product.
I wanted to change that dynamic. I didn't want to consume news anymore. I wanted to analyze it.
I wanted the workflow of an intelligence officer: gather raw intel from sources I trust, filter it by specific sectors, and generate executive briefings that connect the dots.
So, I built News Desk.
What is News Desk?
News Desk is an open-source, local-first tool that combines the reliability of "Old School" tech (RSS) with the synthesis power of "New School" tech (local LLMs/Gemini).
It allows you to curate a list of sources, filter them by topic, age, or keyword, and then order an AI to read them and write you a briefing.
It runs entirely on your machine. There is no subscription, no tracking, and no algorithm deciding what you see.
The Architecture: "Good Enough" Engineering
Following my philosophy of Heuristic Engineering, News Desk rejects the complexity of modern web apps. It doesn't use a heavy database like PostgreSQL. It doesn't require a web server.
It uses the filesystem.
GetNews.py: A headless script that fetches your RSS feeds and caches them into a local entries.xml file. It handles the dirty work of normalization and auto-archives anything older than your settings allow.
NewsDesk.py: The interface (GUI and CLI) that reads that cache, applies your filters, and interfaces with the AI.
feeds.json: A simple configuration file where you list your sources and tag them (e.g., "Tech", "Politics", "Crypto").
The Killer Feature: Directed Synthesis
Most "AI News" apps just summarize random articles. News Desk allows for Context Injection.
Because the tool has a GUI (and a CLI), you can filter your view before you hit the "Summarize" button.
If you filter by Topic: "Economy"... the AI is instructed to ignore any non-economic context.
If you search for "Nvidia"... the AI is instructed to look specifically for that keyword across all your sources and report on it.
You aren't just asking for a summary; you are giving the AI a mission.
Automation (The Headless Mode)
While the GUI is great for morning coffee, the real power is the CLI. You can run News Desk in "Headless Mode" via a cron job to generate markdown reports while you sleep.
python NewsDesk.py --topic="Tech" --days=1 --output="morning_brief.md"
I have this running on my server, generating briefings on specific topics that matter to me. It creates a personal "wire service" that I can read in seconds, complete with citations linking back to the original source.
Reclaiming Sovereignty
We are entering an era where information is infinite, but attention is scarce.
If you rely on algorithms to curate your reality, you are ceding control of your worldview to a black box. News Desk is about taking that control back. It’s about building your own infrastructure.
It’s not perfect—it’s "good enough." And it’s open source.
Get the code here:
https://github.com/BuckRogers1965/News-Desk
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