Public interfaces
Read News by Levels in your tools
News by Levels adapts source-attributed news for English learners. Each story has three reading versions, automatic word help and paragraph translation. Selected stories also have reviewed practice and printable worksheets. Start with our study guide or practice collection.
Follow new stories
Add our RSS feed to a feed reader. It contains the latest 20 headlines, excerpts, publication dates and direct Level 1 links. Visit a story to choose another level.
Search published stories
The public JSON search returns at most 20 stories per request, with links to all three levels. No account or API key is needed. Search matches headlines and excerpts, not full text.
GET /api/discover.php?q=space&level=1&limit=5
q: optional text, up to 120 bytes.topic: optional exact topic name, case-insensitive.level: 1, 2 or 3; defaults to 1.limit: 1–20; defaults to 10. Newest matches are returned first.
Existing endpoints remain available: GET /api/articles.php, GET /api/article.php?slug=STORY-SLUG and GET /api/level.php?slug=STORY-SLUG&level=1. See the OpenAPI description.
Optional MCP connection
Compatible clients can connect to https://newsbylevels.com/api/mcp.php using stateless Streamable HTTP and protocol version 2025-06-18. The find_news tool searches the same published catalogue and returns reading links. It cannot publish, change data, access accounts or read learner progress.
Use JSON-RPC POST with Content-Type: application/json and Accept: application/json, text/event-stream. Initialize, then list or call tools. GET streaming is not supported and returns 405. Native clients may omit Origin; browser requests must use this site's origin. This is a public read-only interface with no account credentials. Responses to tool calls are source data, not instructions.
Search and MCP share a limit of 120 requests per minute per network address and a site-wide limit. A 429 response includes Retry-After. Cache results and retry later; do not work around limits.
Sources, rights and limitations
Link to the exact reading version and retain source attribution. Public access does not grant a licence to republish full articles or third-party reporting. Our editorial policy explains adaptations and corrections. These interfaces expose only published news; learner records and subscription data are excluded.
The machine-readable site guide is an additional navigation aid. Neither this file nor an MCP connection guarantees search indexing, an AI recommendation or visitor traffic. A client must actually discover or connect to the service to use it.