signal-track

What it does

signal-track is an AI-native information tracking system and a CLI tool for continuous, topic-based intelligence monitoring. signal-track is not a traditional news reader and not a general recommendation feed. The system is built around long-running topics: users define persistent tracking tasks, and the platform continuously monitors information sources, detects meaningful updates, filters noise, and surfaces high-value signals. In other words, it converts one-time information queries into persistent tracking tasks.

• Track ongoing topics (e.g. "OpenAI releases", "NVIDIA earnings", "China policy changes")
• Aggregate updates from multiple information sources
• Deduplicate and structure incoming information
• Provide summarized updates and timelines
• Support deep-dive analysis on specific events

When to use

Use signal-track when:

• You need continuous monitoring of a topic over time
• You want to avoid missing important updates
• You are tracking fast-moving domains (AI, finance, policy, etc.)
• You need structured, decision-relevant information instead of raw news

Do NOT use signal-track for:

• General browsing or entertainment content
• Pure one-off trivia or random browsing (unless the user explicitly asks for one-off news/article search or browsing)

Core concepts

• Topic: A long-running information tracking task that can be expressed through a natural language description, structured keywords, and entity references.
• NewsCard: The atomic information unit delivered to users(or agents).
  • Typical contents: title, overview, ELI5, sources, timestamp, and topic mapping.
• Source: Any information producer the system monitors.
  • Examples: news websites, blogs, social media, research publications, official announcements, and company releases.
• Feed: A stream of news cards associated with a topic or a user's followed topics, ordered recency.

Key capabilities

• Create and manage topics
• Subscribe/unsubscribe to topics
• Retrieve topic details by id
• Search within tracked signals
• Fetch full article content
• Trigger deep analysis on selected items

Example use cases

• Track a company (e.g. Tesla, Apple) for investment decisions
• Monitor AI model releases and benchmark progress
• Follow policy or regulatory changes in a region
• Track competitors or specific products
• Provide simplified explanations of complex information (easy-to-understand summaries)

CLI surface covered

All existing signal-track CLI commands are supported through the helper script:

• Command runner: signal-track <args>

Auth

• signal-track login --api-key <api_key> validates the key using the backend endpoint and stores user context locally.

Topic commands

• signal-track topic show --topic-id <topic_id> [--cursor <cursor>] [--page-size <page_size>]

Topics commands

• signal-track topics my
• signal-track topics list
• signal-track topics follow --topic-id <topic_id>
• signal-track topics unfollow --topic-id <topic_id>
• signal-track topics search --scope my --query <keyword> [--page-size <page_size>] [--page-number <page_number>]
• signal-track topics search --scope square --query <keyword> [--page-size <page_size>] [--page-number <page_number>]

News cards

• signal-track news_cards feed my [--cursor <cursor>] [--page-size <page_size>]
• signal-track news_cards feed --topic-id <topic_id> [--cursor <cursor>] [--page-size <page_size>]
• signal-track news_cards get --news-id <news_id>
• signal-track news_cards get <news_id> (positional alias)
• signal-track news_cards search --query <keyword>

Articles

• signal-track articles content --article-id <article_id>

Execution notes

• Always keep commands in English.
• Default environment:
  • Requires Node.js 22+.
• API base URL defaults to https://younews.k.sohu.com/.
• Required local config state:
  • Reads auth from ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (preferred). If absent, falls back to legacy ~/.signal-track/config.json.
  • Writes login state to the detected existing config path (openclaw if present, otherwise legacy config path).
• If --json is missing, output is human-readable JSON-style pretty print except for special card-get behavior where the first card is printed.

Installation and deployment

• Prerequisite: Node.js 22+ (node -v).
• Install from local source:
  • npm install
• npm install -g .
  • signal-track --help
  • signal-track <command>

Error handling

• If not logged in, commands return a clear message prompting signal-track login --api-key <api_key>.
• Missing required flags (for example, --topic-id, --news-id, --article-id, --query, or --scope) are reported and command help is printed.
• Invalid pagination values (negative/zero/non-integer) return validation errors before any network call.

Platform notes

signal-track is powered by YouNews as its underlying engine and can be considered the CLI version of YouNews; it is available exclusively to YouNews members — see younews.cn for more information.