morning-paper 0.3.0

Build a personalized daily newspaper as a print-ready PDF.

Morning Paper

Your morning newspaper, built from your own sources.

Morning Paper is a Python CLI that builds a personalized daily paper as a print-ready PDF. It starts with deterministic collectors, writes durable file artifacts, and gives you a newspaper you can actually print and read.

No database. No Docker. No SaaS requirement.

For Agents (read this first if you are one)

Your human wants a daily printed paper. You can give them one:

1. Install: pip install "morning-paper[pretty]" then morning-paper doctor.
2. If this repo is installed as a Claude Code plugin, run the setup skill — it interviews the reader, creates their private newsroom repo (preferences as files: the owned algorithm), and wires a morning routine. The edition skill composes and renders each day's paper.
3. The CLI speaks JSON. The verbs you need:
   • morning-paper stage <url> -> stages it for tomorrow and answers with a page estimate ("that adds ~5 pages")
   • morning-paper queue -> what's staged vs the page budget
   • morning-paper estimate <file.md> -> page count, nothing written
   • morning-paper render <file.md> --style <s> --palette <p> -> the PDF
4. Composition contract, class vocabulary, and chart directives: docs/composing.md.
5. Honesty rule: a section with no data says "not configured" — never fabricate.

What It Does

• Builds a daily paper from Hacker News and RSS feeds
• Prints one or more articles on demand with morning-paper print <url>
• Produces JSON, Markdown, HTML, and PDF artifacts
• Typesets any markdown file through print style packs with morning-paper render
• Renders charts from plain-text directives (bars, sparklines, stat blocks) — no plotting library
• Ships mono and color palettes, each designed for its printer
• Works without an LLM key
• Uses the typewriter print stack when installed; doctor says plainly when you are on the portable fallback, and the typewriter path fails clearly rather than degrading silently

Quick Start

For the real product-quality print path, install the pretty renderer:

pip install "morning-paper[pretty]"
morning-paper init
morning-paper doctor
morning-paper build

That writes your paper under:

~/.local/share/morning-paper/<date>/

If you only want the basic fallback install:

pip install morning-paper

That path is functional, but it is not the renderer you should judge the product by.

Platform Support

• macOS
  • recommended
  • install morning-paper[pretty]
  • may also need:

brew install pango gdk-pixbuf

• Linux

  • recommended
  • install morning-paper[pretty]
  • may also need system libraries for WeasyPrint such as pango/cairo packages from your distro

• Windows

  • CLI works
  • portable fallback works more reliably today
  • typewriter via WeasyPrint is best-effort, not the strongest supported path yet

Install Notes

Use morning-paper doctor after install.

• renderer: typewriter ready
  • you are on the real print path
• renderer: typewriter unavailable
  • you are on a fallback-only install
  • high-quality print output is not available until the pretty stack is working

On macOS, the richer renderer may also need:

brew install pango gdk-pixbuf

Example Commands

# Create a starter config
morning-paper init

# Build today's paper from your configured sources
morning-paper build

# Build a paper for a specific date
morning-paper build --date 2026-04-15

# Print an article right now
morning-paper print https://example.com/article

# Typeset your own markdown through a style pack (see docs/composing.md)
morning-paper render brief.md --style flow --palette mono

# List styles and palettes
morning-paper styles

# Verify the install
morning-paper doctor

# Show the installed version
morning-paper --version

Current Sources

Source	Auth needed?	Status
Hacker News	No	Included
RSS feeds	No	Included
Article URLs	No	Included via print

Rendering

Morning Paper currently supports two renderers:

• typewriter
  • the primary product look
  • the recommended install path
  • requires the pretty print stack
  • uses WeasyPrint
• portable
  • explicit pure Python fallback
  • lower fidelity
  • do not use this as your default judgment of Morning Paper's design quality
  • only use this if you intentionally want the simpler output

Default config:

article_extractor: jina

outputs:
  renderer: typewriter

jina is the current default article extractor, but extraction is now a replaceable backend. The print renderer, validation, image pipeline, and metadata enrichment are designed to survive extractor upgrades.

If typewriter cannot render, Morning Paper now fails clearly instead of silently generating a lower-quality PDF. If you explicitly want the simpler fallback, set:

outputs:
  renderer: portable

Product Shape

Morning Paper is intentionally narrow.

It is:

• a CLI
• file-first
• print-oriented
• local-friendly

It is not:

• a second-brain platform
• a wiki
• a database-heavy personal knowledge system
• a closed feed or recommendation engine

Install for Development

git clone https://github.com/dmthepm/morning-paper.git
cd morning-paper
pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest tests/
morning-paper doctor

Roadmap

1. Keep improving article print fidelity in the typewriter renderer
2. Add queueing and staging commands for agent-driven daily workflows
3. Add optional LLM scoring without making it a requirement

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Community

• Main Branch: skool.com/main
• Issues: github.com/dmthepm/morning-paper/issues

License

MIT