tools/fetch_news.py

import re
from smolagents.tools import Tool

class FetchNewsTool(Tool):
    """
    A tool that searches for the latest English news using DuckDuckGo.
    """
    name = "fetch_news"
    description = "Finds the latest English news using DuckDuckGo"
    inputs = {}
    output_type = "string"

    def __init__(self, max_results=5, **kwargs):
        super().__init__()
        self.max_results = max_results
        try:
            from duckduckgo_search import DDGS
        except ImportError as e:
            raise ImportError(
                "You must install package `duckduckgo_search` to run this tool: "
                "for instance run `pip install duckduckgo-search`."
            ) from e

        # Create a DuckDuckGoSearch instance with any kwargs needed
        self.ddgs = DDGS(**kwargs)

    def forward(self) -> str:
        """
        1) Perform a DuckDuckGo search on 'latest news'.
        2) Format each result with a "Headline #: ..." prefix.
        3) Return all the headlines as one string, separated by newlines.
        """
        results = self.ddgs.news("latest news", max_results=self.max_results)
        if not results:
            return "No results found, or unable to retrieve news at this time."

        headlines = []
        for i, item in enumerate(results, start=1):
            snippet = f"{item['body']}"
            headlines.append(snippet)

        return " ".join(headlines)

# Example usage:
if __name__ == "__main__":
    news = FetchNewsTool()
    print(news.forward())