build.allanninal.dev

Part 4 of 7 · Daily briefing bot series ~3 min read

How the digest gets delivered

The keepers from the ranker still need to become a thing you’ll actually open. The postman writes the digest, ships it to whatever inbox you check first thing — and knows when not to send.

The delivery flow: format the digest, then ship to one channel — or stay silent A vertical flow with one branch. At the top, “Today’s keepers” from the ranker. Below it, a decision step labeled “Anything worth sending?” If no, an arrow goes right to a terminal box labeled “Quiet day — log silently and stop”. If yes, the flow continues down to a Format step, which writes the digest as one short block per item: headline, one-line summary, why it matters, link. From the format step, three arrows fan out to three delivery options at the bottom: an Email channel on the left, a Chat channel in the middle, and a Doc channel on the right. A small note in the middle reads “you pick one”. A bottom note reads: if nothing scored high enough, no digest goes out. The bot never trains you to ignore it. Today’s keepers 3–8 items, or zero Anything worth sending? at least one keeper above the bar no Quiet day log silently, stop yes Format the digest headline, one-line summary, why it matters, link you pick one Email lands at 7am Chat channel Telegram, Discord Fresh doc a new file each morning If nothing scored high enough, no digest goes out. The bot never trains you to ignore it.
Fig 4. Format, then ship — or stay silent. One channel only; the bot doesn’t spray.

What goes in the digest

Each item becomes a small block with four lines:

  • Headline — the original title.
  • One-line summary — the bot’s compression of the article in plain English.
  • Why it matters — one sentence on how it relates to your topic.
  • Link — straight to the source.

That’s it. Five items, twenty lines, you read the digest in under a minute.

Where it gets sent

You pick one delivery channel when you set up the bot:

  • Email. Most common. Lands in your inbox at 7am. Pennies a month at this volume.
  • A chat channel. Telegram, Discord, or similar. Useful if your inbox is already chaos.
  • A fresh doc. A new Google Doc every morning. Searchable history without inbox clutter.

The bot only ships to one channel. Adding a second means another delivery worker; usually not worth it.

The quiet-day rule

If the ranker returned zero keepers, the bot doesn’t send a “your daily digest (0 items)” email. It logs the empty result, goes back to sleep, tries again tomorrow.

This sounds obvious but most aggregators get it wrong — they ship the same empty email every quiet day until you unsubscribe. The bot never trains you to ignore it.

Why the subject line matters

The subject line summarizes the digest — the headlines of the top two keepers, separated by a slash. So at a glance you know whether to open it now, later, or not at all. The body is the full version.

If you open the email three weeks in a row, the bot is doing its job. If you stop opening, the threshold gets adjusted — or the topic description in your Drive folder needs a tune-up. The next post explains how that happens without touching code.

In plain words

Five short blocks in your inbox at 7am. Nothing on quiet days. Subject line tells you what’s inside before you open it. Whichever inbox you actually check is the one to send to — the bot doesn’t care, but you do.

All posts