🌟 Good News Engine

An AI-powered autonomous curator that transforms doomscrolling into hope-scrolling

Features • Demo • Quick Start • Roadmap • Contributing

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🎯 The Problem

Doomscrolling is destroying our mental health. Studies show 73% of news consumers experience anxiety from constant negative coverage. We built an autonomous AI agent that fights back.

💡 The Solution

Every 6 hours, our serverless engine:

1. 🔍 Scans 100+ global headlines
2. 🤖 AI-filters for genuinely uplifting stories (no toxic positivity)
3. ✨ Summarizes with context and emotional intelligence
4. 📱 Delivers hope directly to your app/feed

Zero maintenance. Zero cost (under 10K users). 100% good vibes.

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✨ Features

Core Engine

• 🧠 Smart AI Curation - Gemini 2.5 Flash enforces strict "Good News" criteria
  • ❌ No politics/crime/tragedy
  • ✅ Yes to science breakthroughs, human kindness, environmental wins
• ⚡ Batch Processing - Analyzes 20+ articles per AI call (cost: ~$0.002/batch)
• 🔄 Auto-Deduplication - URL fingerprinting prevents story repeats
• 🧹 Self-Cleaning Database - 48-hour TTL keeps Firestore lean

Developer Experience

• 🚀 One-Command Deploy - firebase deploy --only functions
• 🔐 Secret Manager Integration - No .env files, no leaked keys
• 📊 Built-in Analytics - Track filter rates and AI performance
• 🧪 Local Testing Suite - Validate filters before deployment

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🎬 Live Demo

Try the engine: goodnews-demo.web.app

Sample Output:

{
  "title": "Scientists Develop Plastic-Eating Enzyme 10x More Efficient",
  "summary": "Researchers at UT Austin engineered a bacterial enzyme that breaks down PET plastic in hours instead of centuries...",
  "category": "Environment",
  "sentiment": "breakthrough",
  "publishedAt": "2025-01-14T08:30:00Z"
}

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🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

node --version  # 20+
firebase --version  # 13+

1. Clone & Install

git clone https://codeberg.org/yourusername/good-news-engine
cd good-news-engine
npm install

2. Get API Keys (Free Tiers)

• NewsData.io: Get Key (200 requests/day free)
• Gemini API: Get Key (1,500 requests/day free)

3. Configure Secrets

# Initialize Firebase
firebase login
firebase init functions

# Store keys securely
firebase functions:secrets:set GEMINI_API_KEY
firebase functions:secrets:set NEWSDATA_API_KEY

4. Deploy

firebase deploy --only functions
# ✅ Function deployed: https://us-central1-yourproject.cloudfunctions.net/fetchGoodNews

5. Test Manually

# Trigger the function
curl -X POST https://YOUR_FUNCTION_URL

# Check Firestore
firebase firestore:read goodNews --limit 5

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📁 Project Structure

good-news-engine/
├── functions/
│   ├── index.js           # Main Cloud Function
│   ├── filters.js         # AI prompt templates
│   └── package.json
├── firestore.rules        # Security rules
├── firebase.json
├── README.md
└── .gitignore

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🛣️ Roadmap

Phase 1: Core Engine ✅ Complete

• Automated fetching + filtering
• Gemini 2.5 Flash integration
• Firestore storage with TTL

Phase 2: Enhancement 🚧 In Progress

• Category Tagging - Science, Environment, Health, etc.
• Sentiment Scoring - "Inspiring" vs "Hopeful" vs "Breakthrough"
• Multi-Language Support - Spanish, French, German (using Gemini's built-in translation)
• RSS Feed Output - goodnews.rss for compatibility

Phase 3: Community Features 📅 Q2 2025

• Upvote System - Let users vote on their favorite stories
• Weekly Digest Email - Automated Mailchimp/SendGrid integration
• Browser Extension - Replace "Trending News" with good news
• Public API - Share good news with other developers

Phase 4: Scale & Monetization 💡 Future

• Premium Tier - Custom filters, private instances ($5/mo)
• White-Label Licensing - For mental health apps
• Corporate Wellness - Slack/Teams integration

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💰 Cost Breakdown (Transparent Pricing)

Free Tier (0-1K users/day)

Service	Usage	Cost
NewsData.io	200 requests/day	$0
Gemini API	1,500 requests/day	$0
Firebase Functions	2M invocations/month	$0
Firestore	50K reads/day	$0
Total		$0/month

Growth Tier (1K-10K users/day)

Service	Usage	Cost
NewsData.io	10K requests/month	$0 (free tier)
Gemini API	45K requests/month	$0 (free tier)
Firebase Functions	6M invocations/month	$0
Firestore	1.5M reads/month	~$0.50
Total		~$0.50/month

Scale Tier (10K+ users/day)

Estimated at $15-30/month depending on traffic patterns. Contact us for optimization strategies.

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🛠️ Architecture

┌─────────────────┐
│  Cloud Scheduler│  (Every 6 hours)
└────────┬────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│ Firebase Function│
│  fetchGoodNews  │
└────────┬────────┘
         │
         ├──────────────┐
         ▼              ▼
┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐
│ NewsData.io  │  │ Gemini 2.5   │
│  API Fetch   │  │  Flash AI    │
└──────┬───────┘  └──────┬───────┘
       │                 │
       └────────┬────────┘
                ▼
       ┌─────────────────┐
       │   Firestore DB  │
       │  (Auto-Cleanup) │
       └─────────────────┘

Key Design Decisions:

1. Batch Processing - Process 20 articles in one AI call instead of 20 separate calls
2. URL Fingerprinting - Hash URLs to prevent duplicate storage
3. TTL Pattern - Store createdAt timestamp, query with where('createdAt', '>', 48hoursAgo)
4. Stateless Functions - No persistent memory between runs

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🧪 Testing Locally

Run the function locally

firebase emulators:start --only functions,firestore

Test the AI filter

node test-gemini.js

Example test file (test-gemini.js):

const { analyzeArticles } = require('./functions/filters');

const mockArticles = [
  {
    title: "Local Dog Rescues Family from Fire",
    description: "Hero pup alerts sleeping family to kitchen blaze..."
  },
  {
    title: "Political Scandal Rocks Capital",
    description: "Corruption investigation expands..."
  }
];

analyzeArticles(mockArticles).then(results => {
  console.log('✅ Good News:', results.filter(r => r.isGoodNews));
  console.log('❌ Filtered:', results.filter(r => !r.isGoodNews));
});

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🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Here are ways to help:

Low-Effort Contributions

• 🐛 Report Bugs - Open an issue with reproduction steps
• 💡 Suggest Features - Share your ideas in Discussions
• 📖 Improve Docs - Fix typos, add examples
• ⭐ Star the Repo - Help others discover this project

Code Contributions

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-idea)
3. Commit changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to branch (git push origin feature/amazing-idea)
5. Open a Pull Request

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

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🔒 Security

Secrets Management

• Never commit API keys to version control
• Use Firebase Secret Manager for production
• Rotate keys every 90 days
• Enable 2FA on all service accounts

Firestore Rules

rules_version = '2';
service cloud.firestore {
  match /databases/{database}/documents {
    match /goodNews/{article} {
      allow read: if true;  // Public read
      allow write: if false;  // Only Cloud Functions can write
    }
  }
}

Report Vulnerabilities

Email security@yourproject.com (do not open public issues for security bugs)

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

TL;DR: You can use, modify, and distribute this freely. Just include the original license.

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🙏 Acknowledgments

• NewsData.io - For providing free news API access
• Google AI - For Gemini 2.5 Flash's incredible filtering capabilities
• Firebase Team - For the best serverless platform
• You - For caring about mental health and positive news

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📬 Contact & Support

• Issues: Open an issue
• Discussions: Join the conversation
• Twitter: @goodnewsengine
• Email: hello@goodnewsengine.dev

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🌍 Join the Movement

Every deploy makes the internet a little brighter. ✨

If this project helped you, consider:

• ⭐ Starring the repo
• 🐦 Sharing on social media
• 💬 Telling a friend who needs good news
• ☕ Buy us a coffee

💰 Support the Project

Find me on nostr, codeberg, and substack ONLY!

💜 nostr
💾 codeberg
📖 substack

If you find this helpful, consider sending a tip!

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💡 Privacy Note

When sending Monero (XMR), your transaction is private by default. For Bitcoin, consider using a fresh address for each tip if you want to maintain maximum on-chain privacy.

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Built with ❤️ and AI to fight doomscrolling

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