Heute: Nachrichten (DE)

A mobile-first German news app that adapts today's headlines to your CEFR level (A1–C1) using OpenAI.

Overview

• Fetches 5 German RSS feeds daily (Tagesschau, ZEIT, Spiegel, FAZ, Süddeutsche)
• Deduplicates and normalizes articles
• Generates CEFR-leveled German summaries via OpenAI
• Stores everything in Supabase
• Single-page Next.js frontend with expandable card UI

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Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• A Supabase project
• An OpenAI API key

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Setup

1. Clone and install

git clone <repo-url>
cd german-news-app
npm install

2. Configure environment variables

cp .env.local.example .env.local

Edit .env.local and fill in all values:

Variable	Where to find it
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL	Supabase → Project Settings → API → Project URL
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY	Supabase → Project Settings → API → anon key
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY	Supabase → Project Settings → API → service_role key
OPENAI_API_KEY	platform.openai.com → API Keys
CRON_SECRET	Any random string (e.g. openssl rand -hex 32)
OPENAI_MODEL	Optional. OpenAI model ID (default: gpt-5-nano-2025-08-07). For GPT-5 models, sampling params like temperature are not sent (model requires defaults).
MAX_HEADLINES_PER_DAY	Optional. Max headlines to generate OpenAI summaries for per run (default: 20). Set to 2 or 3 locally to limit API cost.

3. Run Supabase migration

Open the Supabase SQL Editor for your project and run the contents of:

supabase/migrations/001_initial.sql

This creates the four required tables: daily_issue, headline, headline_summary, pipeline_run.

4. Run locally

npm run dev

Visit http://localhost:3000.

The page will show an empty state until the pipeline has been run.

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Triggering the Pipeline

The pipeline fetches today's RSS feeds, deduplicates headlines, and generates OpenAI summaries for all CEFR levels.

Manually via curl

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/internal/run-daily-pipeline \
  -H "x-cron-secret: your-cron-secret-here"

Replace your-cron-secret-here with the value of CRON_SECRET in your .env.local.

A successful response looks like:

{
  "ok": true,
  "issueDate": "2026-02-19",
  "headlinesProcessed": 18,
  "summariesGenerated": 15,
  "errors": [],
  "durationMs": 42000
}

Note: The pipeline calls OpenAI once per new headline (generating all 5 levels in a single request). With 20 headlines it typically takes 1–3 minutes.

Re-running is safe

The pipeline is fully idempotent. Re-running on the same day:

• Skips headlines already in the database (dedupe by SHA-256 key)
• Skips headlines that already have all 5 summaries
• Only generates missing summaries

Automated scheduling (production)

Set up a daily cron job to call the endpoint at a fixed time (e.g. 06:00 Europe/Berlin). Services that can trigger HTTP endpoints on a schedule:

• Vercel Cron Jobs (add to vercel.json)
• GitHub Actions scheduled workflow
• Upstash QStash
• Any cron service that can POST to a URL

Example vercel.json for Vercel Cron:

{
  "crons": [
    {
      "path": "/api/internal/run-daily-pipeline",
      "schedule": "0 5 * * *"
    }
  ]
}

Add CRON_SECRET as an environment variable in Vercel dashboard.

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API Reference

GET /api/news/today?level=B1

Returns today's headlines at the specified CEFR level.

Query params:

• level — one of A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 (default: B1)

Response:

{
  "issueDate": "2026-02-19",
  "level": "B1",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-02-19T06:42:00Z",
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "uuid",
      "titleDe": "...",
      "summaryDe": "...",
      "bulletsDe": ["...", "...", "..."],
      "sourceName": "Tagesschau",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://...",
      "publishedAt": "2026-02-19T05:00:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

POST /api/internal/run-daily-pipeline

Triggers the daily pipeline. Requires x-cron-secret header.

---

Project Structure

src/
  app/
    page.tsx                              — Main SPA page
    layout.tsx
    globals.css
    api/
      news/today/route.ts                 — GET headlines by level
      internal/run-daily-pipeline/route.ts — POST pipeline trigger
  components/
    LevelSelector.tsx
    HeadlineCard.tsx
    ExpandedCard.tsx
    SkeletonCard.tsx
  hooks/
    useNews.ts
  lib/
    types.ts
    supabase-browser.ts                   — Client-side (anon key)
    supabase-server.ts                    — Server-side (service role)
    rss.ts                                — RSS fetch + dedupe
    openai.ts                             — CEFR summary generation
    pipeline.ts                           — Full pipeline orchestration
supabase/
  migrations/
    001_initial.sql