newsletter-digest

Newsletter Digest

Aggregate content from RSS feeds, synthesize the week's top stories with Gemini, and publish a digest to Ghost CMS. Supports weekly digests, topic-focused roundups, and curated picks formats.

Writing Style

Apply to all generated digest content:

• Active voice only
• Short sentences, one idea per sentence
• No em dashes — use a period or comma instead
• No semicolons
• No markdown or asterisks in the final newsletter body
• No hashtags

Banned words — do not use any of these in the digest: incredible, amazing, leveraging, synergize, game-changing, game changer, delve, harness, unlock, groundbreaking, cutting-edge, remarkable, paradigm, revolutionize, disruptive, transformative, thrilled, excited to share, powerful, innovative, comprehensive, actionable, crucial, vital, pivotal, elucidate, utilize, dive deep, tapestry, illuminate, revolutionize

CRITICAL RULE

Every claim, statistic, and summary in the digest must come from the fetched articles. Never fabricate data points, quotes, or facts. If a source article has no meaningful content, skip it.

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Step 1: Check Setup

1a. Verify feeds are configured

Check if feeds.json exists in the skill directory:

ls /Users/ksd/Desktop/Varnan_skills/newsletter-digest/feeds.json 2>/dev/null

If missing, ask the user: "Which RSS feeds should I monitor? Share a list of URLs and I'll create feeds.json."

The format is:

[
  { "url": "https://example.com/feed", "name": "Source Name" },
  { "url": "https://another.com/rss", "name": "Another Source" }
]

1b. Verify required environment variables

Check that these are set:

• GEMINI_API_KEY (required): for synthesis
• GHOST_URL and GHOST_ADMIN_KEY (required for Ghost publishing, optional if output-only)

If GEMINI_API_KEY is missing, stop and ask the user to set it.

GHOST config is optional. If not set, the skill outputs formatted Markdown instead of publishing.

1c. Verify script dependencies

ls /Users/ksd/Desktop/Varnan_skills/newsletter-digest/node_modules 2>/dev/null | head -1