reader

go-news-reader / reader

A pure-Go (CGO=0) multi-source news & social aggregator with a go-widgets UI. One app, one unified feed, many sources — each behind the same small source.Provider contract.

Install & run

go install github.com/go-news-reader/reader/cmd/newsreader@latest

newsreader -sub reddit:golang -sub hackernews: -o feed.png   # render the feed
newsreader -sub reddit:golang -json                          # dump merged feed
newsreader -sub reddit:golang -window                       # native window (macOS/Windows/Linux/Android)
newsreader -sub reddit:golang -serve :8080                   # read-only PNG view over HTTP

Subscriptions are kind:channel (repeatable): reddit:golang, hackernews:, syndication:https://blog/feed.xml, mastodon:#golang, bluesky:@user.bsky.social, lemmy:technology, usenet:comp.lang.go, usenet:search:ubuntu (with -indexer), … Provider endpoints/credentials are set with -mastodon, -lemmy, -usenet, -indexer.

Shipping a macOS build

Two build-tooling commands turn a compiled binary into what a Mac user installs, both pure Go with CGO_ENABLED=0 and no hdiutil:

APP=$(go run ./cmd/bundle -exe ./newsreader -dir /tmp -version 1.2.3)
codesign --force --deep --sign "NewsReader Dev" --identifier com.gonewsreader.reader "$APP"
go run ./cmd/dmg -app "$APP" -o "News Reader.dmg"

cmd/bundle assembles the .app (a bare executable is not an application to AppKit: no Dock tile, no name in the menu bar, no working tray). cmd/dmg puts that bundle in the disk image it is distributed in — the application on the left, a shortcut to /Applications on the right, and the reader's own icon on the volume — via go-macos/appdmg.

Sign before making the image. The image is a copy of the bundle as it stands, so a bundle signed afterwards is not the bundle inside it. The copy does preserve a signature — it lives in Contents/_CodeSignature and inside the Mach-O, both ordinary files — and codesign --verify on the mounted copy says valid on disk and satisfies its Designated Requirement.

Sources

Each platform has a standalone pure-Go client library in its own org; this repo adds a thin provider/<name> adapter that maps the client's objects onto the normalized source.Item.

NewsBin-style Usenet

The Usenet provider composes a full binary stack: Newznab search (go-newsgroups/newznab, direct indexer or NZBHydra2) → NZB download over NNTP with yEnc reassembly (go-newsgroups/nzb + go-newsgroups/yenc) → AutoPAR verify/repair (go-newsgroups/par2 over the go-erasure/reedsolomon GF(2¹⁶) field) → thumbnails (go-images).

Legacy vs modern servers, and authentication

Built on go-newsgroups/nntp v0.2.0, the provider transparently bridges two kinds of server (the library negotiates CAPABILITIES lazily; the reader just benefits from the OVER→XOVER fallback):

• Legacy NNRP servers that predate RFC 3977, reject CAPABILITIES, and carry binaries anonymously. Example: Free (news.free.fr:119, plain, no auth, alt.binaries.*). Legacy() reports true.
• Modern servers (INN and the like) that advertise OVER/READER/ COMPRESS and gate reading behind MODE READER + AUTHINFO. Text example: Eternal-September (news.eternal-september.org:563, TLS, free account). Binary example: XSUsenet free tier (TLS + AUTHINFO, carries binaries).

Configure a Usenet account in the Accounts window with Server host:port, the Implicit TLS toggle, and Username / Password (masked). When a username is set, the provider issues MODE READER (safe everywhere) and then AUTHINFO USER/PASS before selecting a group; an AUTHINFO rejection surfaces as an in-feed "sign-in required" prompt. Leaving username empty connects anonymously (the legacy Free path). The optional Newznab indexer URL / API key enable usenet:search:<query> feeds.

The news.free.fr example is ISP-specific and is not a shipped default — it is documented here and used as the Taskfile default only.

Network integration tests (manual, tag-gated)

Real-server tests live behind the nntpnet build tag in provider/usenet/integration_nntpnet_test.go. They are excluded from the default build and the 100% coverage gate and never run in CI; run them on demand:

task usenet-free     # legacy binary  (news.free.fr:119, no auth) — run from a Free network
task usenet-modern   # modern text    — NNTP_MODERN_USER / NNTP_MODERN_PASS
task usenet-binary   # modern binary  — NNTP_BIN_ADDR / NNTP_BIN_USER / NNTP_BIN_PASS (+NNTP_BIN_TLS)

Each target t.Skips cleanly when its required env vars are unset.

Architecture

 provider/*  ──▶  source.Registry ──▶ Aggregate() ──▶ app.App ──▶ ui.Scene ──▶ framebuffer
 (10 sources)     (one Provider/Kind)   newest-first    (double-buffered,      (go-widgets,
                                                          damage-gated)          cached sprites)

• source — the Provider/Item/Query/Result contract + a concurrent Registry.Aggregate merging sources newest-first.
• ui — the go-widgets scene: unified feed, per-source sidebar, search, thumbnails. Cards and chrome render into cached sprites so scrolling is a memcpy blit (no per-frame glyph rasterisation).
• app — wires a registry + subscriptions into the scene; double-buffered Frame() presents only when the damage sequence advances.

Every package carries 100% test coverage and builds for the fleet's nine 64-bit targets.

License

BSD-3-Clause © the go-news-reader/reader authors.