diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 7bf60b3..ad2d4ee 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ FIRMS_INTERVAL=900
 INGEST_FIRES=1
 
 # ── API keys (managed from the dashboard UI) ──────────────────────────────
-# Keys such as GEMINI_API_KEY and TELEGRAM_TOKEN are stored in the Postgres
+# Keys such as NOUS_API_KEY and TELEGRAM_TOKEN are stored in the Postgres
 # `api_keys` table and managed from the dashboard's "Keys" tab
 # (GET/POST/DELETE /api/keys/{name}) — see app/keystore.py. The FIRMS ingestor
 # currently reads FIRMS_MAP_KEY from .env (above); wiring the Keys-UI store as
@@ -68,13 +68,15 @@ INGEST_FIRES=1
 
 # ── News pipeline (scraper + summarizer, profile `ingest`) ────────────────
 # Hourly: the scraper crawls 257 RSS sources at minute :00 and the summarizer
-# runs the Gemini map-reduce at minute :05, both writing to the shared osint-db
+# runs the Nous map-reduce at minute :05, both writing to the shared osint-db
 # (tables `articles` + `article_summaries`, created by alembic 003_news).
 # Consume via GET /api/news and GET /api/news/summaries.
-# GEMINI_API_KEY is REQUIRED for summarization; unset = summarizer idles.
-GEMINI_API_KEY=
+# NOUS_API_KEY is also (preferably) set in the Keys UI; env is an override.
+# Unset in both env and api_keys = summarizer logs and idles (never crashes).
+NOUS_API_KEY=
+NOUS_BASE_URL=https://inference-api.nousresearch.com/v1
 # Optional LLM knobs
-SUMMARY_MODEL=gemini-2.0-flash
+SUMMARY_MODEL=Hermes-4.3-36B
 NEWS_BATCH_SIZE=50
 SUMMARY_WINDOW_HOURS=1
 # Futures/markets coupling from the upstream pipeline is OFF by default
@@ -87,6 +89,8 @@ NEWS_SUMMARIZE_MINUTE=5
 # scheduled minute.
 NEWS_SCRAPE_RUN_ON_START=1
 NEWS_SUMMARIZE_RUN_ON_START=1
+# "1" ignores the current-UTC-hour idempotency skip (double-pins on recreate).
+NEWS_SUMMARIZE_FORCE=0
 NEWS_LOG_LEVEL=INFO
 # Reserved for the (out-of-scope) Telegram delivery bot.
 TELEGRAM_TOKEN=
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index b2a7cd6..a34365c 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -224,14 +224,16 @@ services:
       DB_HOST: db
       DB_PORT: ${DB_PORT:-5432}
       DB_NAME: ${DB_NAME:-osint_data}
-      # Required to do real work; unset → the loop logs and idles.
-      GEMINI_API_KEY: ${GEMINI_API_KEY:-}
-      SUMMARY_MODEL: ${SUMMARY_MODEL:-gemini-2.0-flash}
+      NOUS_API_KEY: ${NOUS_API_KEY:-}
+      NOUS_BASE_URL: ${NOUS_BASE_URL:-https://inference-api.nousresearch.com/v1}
+      SUMMARY_MODEL: ${SUMMARY_MODEL:-Hermes-4.3-36B}
+      OSINT_USER_AGENT: ${OSINT_USER_AGENT:-osint-dashboard-news-summarizer}
       BATCH_SIZE: ${NEWS_BATCH_SIZE:-50}
       SUMMARY_WINDOW_HOURS: ${SUMMARY_WINDOW_HOURS:-1}
       INCLUDE_FUTURES: ${INCLUDE_FUTURES:-0}
       NEWS_SUMMARIZE_MINUTE: ${NEWS_SUMMARIZE_MINUTE:-5}
       NEWS_SUMMARIZE_RUN_ON_START: ${NEWS_SUMMARIZE_RUN_ON_START:-1}
+      NEWS_SUMMARIZE_FORCE: ${NEWS_SUMMARIZE_FORCE:-0}
     command: ["python", "run_news_summarizer.py"]
 
 volumes:
diff --git a/news/summerizer/requirements.txt b/news/summerizer/requirements.txt
index 49aed17..30b9117 100644
--- a/news/summerizer/requirements.txt
+++ b/news/summerizer/requirements.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,2 @@
-# Database adapter for PostgreSQL (shared osint-db).
 psycopg2-binary==2.9.11
-
-# Gemini LLM SDK (google-genai). yfinance is NOT a dependency: futures prices
-# are gated behind INCLUDE_FUTURES=1 and lazy-imported (install it to enable).
-google-genai
+httpx==0.28.1