Top Stories

Name: Top Stories API
Brand: Top Stories API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecMediaContent DeliveryapiKey1 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Get the editor-curated NYT articles from any section front, including home, world, business, technology, opinion, and arts.

Quickstart

Get started with Top Stories in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"get NYT top stories"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Top Stories API.

Retrieve the curated article lineup for any NYT section front

Pull the NYT homepage lineup via the home section value

Filter to vertical-specific section fronts such as Technology or Opinion

Surface multiple-sized image media for each article

Pull geographic, person, and organisational facets attached to each article

GET STARTED

Start building with Top Stories API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

The New York Times Top Stories API returns the editor-curated lineup of articles from any NYT section front. A single GET endpoint accepts a section name (such as home, world, business, technology, opinion, or arts) and returns the ranked article list with title, byline, abstract, kicker, web URL, geographic and organisational facets, and embedded multimedia at multiple sizes. The API mirrors the NYTimes.com section fronts and is ideal for surfacing curated section-level coverage rather than chronological wire feeds.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Top Stories API for, with concrete tasks.

★ NYT Section Front Mirror

Mirror the NYT homepage or any vertical section front in a third-party app. The /{section}.{format} endpoint returns the editor-curated article ordering with title, byline, abstract, kicker, multimedia, and the canonical URL. A typical implementation calls the home section every 5 minutes and renders the response as a card grid.

Call /home.json and render the first 12 articles as a homepage card grid with title, kicker, abstract, and the largest media URL.

Vertical-Focused Reader Feed

Power a reader app that focuses on a single NYT vertical (e.g. Technology, Arts, Opinion). The Top Stories API returns the editor-curated section front with the same hierarchy NYT readers see on NYTimes.com, so the app preserves editorial priority rather than reverse-chronological order.

Call /technology.json and return the top 10 articles with byline, abstract, and the medium-sized media URL.

Editorial Briefing Generator

Generate a daily editorial briefing summarising the NYT-curated top stories across multiple sections. An agent calls the Top Stories endpoint for each chosen section, extracts titles and abstracts, and feeds them into a summarisation prompt for a morning briefing email or Slack post.

Loop sections ['home','politics','business','technology'] calling /{section}.json for each, then summarise the top 3 articles per section.

Agent-Driven Top Stories Lookup via Jentic

An AI news assistant uses Jentic to fetch the NYT-curated top stories on demand when a user asks 'what's on the NYT homepage?'. Jentic returns the /{section}.{format} operation, the agent loads the schema and executes the call without manually wiring the section path.

Search Jentic for 'get NYT top stories', load the /{section}.{format} operation, and execute it with section='home' and format='json'.

Key Endpoints

1 endpoints — the new york times top stories api returns the editor-curated lineup of articles from any nyt section front.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/{section}.{format}

Get the curated top stories for a NYT section front

GET

/{section}.{format}

Get the curated top stories for a NYT section front

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

The NYT api-key is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault and injected into the api-key query parameter at execution time. A single credential authenticates every NYT API in the workspace, so rotating once refreshes Top Stories, Times Newswire, Most Popular, and the others together.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic for 'get NYT top stories' or 'fetch NYT section front' and Jentic returns the /{section}.{format} operation with its parameter schema, so the agent calls the right path without reading NYT documentation.

Time to first call

Direct integration: an hour or two to wire the api-key, learn the supported section list, and parse the multimedia payload. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

NYT Times Newswire API

Reverse-chronological wire feed rather than the editor-curated section front.

Choose Times Newswire for chronological streaming; choose Top Stories for the curated editor ordering as it appears on NYTimes.com.

Alternative

NYT Most Popular API

Reader-engagement-ranked lists rather than editor-curated section fronts.

Choose Most Popular for engagement-driven rankings; choose Top Stories for the editor-driven view of each section.

Complementary

NYT Community API

Reader comments on the same article URLs surfaced by Top Stories.

Pair to enrich a curated top-front article with its comment thread for fuller context.

FAQs

Specific to using Top Stories API through Jentic.

What authentication does the NYT Top Stories API use?

Authentication is an API key passed as the api-key query parameter on /{section}.{format}. Provision a key at developer.nytimes.com. Through Jentic the credential lives in the vault and is injected at execution time, so the agent never sees the raw key.

Which NYT sections does the API support?

The section path segment accepts arts, automobiles, books, business, fashion, food, health, home, insider, magazine, movies, nyregion, obituaries, opinion, politics, realestate, science, sports, sundayreview, technology, theater, t-magazine, travel, upshot, us, and world.

What are the rate limits for the NYT Top Stories API?

NYT enforces 500 requests per day and 5 requests per minute per API key, shared across all NYT developer APIs. The section fronts change every few minutes at most, so cache responses for 2-5 minutes to comfortably stay within budget.

How do I get the NYT homepage articles through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'get NYT top stories', load the /{section}.{format} operation, and execute it with section='home' and format='json'. The response returns the editor-curated homepage lineup with multimedia and canonical URLs.

Is the NYT Top Stories API free to use?

Yes. NYT offers Top Stories at no cost on the developer portal for non-commercial use within the published rate limits. Commercial redistribution of the curated lineup requires a separate licensing agreement with the NYT licensing team.

How does Top Stories differ from the Times Newswire API?

Top Stories returns the editor-curated section front with hand-ordered articles. Times Newswire returns articles in reverse chronological publication order across all sources including AP. Use Top Stories to mirror NYT's editorial priorities and Times Newswire for chronological publish-stream monitoring.