---
name: newsletter-digest
description: "Generate a personalised newsletter digest by searching your email, cross-referencing against your personal context, and synthesising only what matters to you."
---

# Personalised Newsletter Digest

Cut through newsletter overload by generating a digest that's filtered and prioritised based on your personal context — your projects, goals, and interests.

## Configuration

**Set your personal context file path below:**

```
CONTEXT_FILE: ~/notes/personal-context.md
```

This file should contain your current projects, goals, interests, and priorities. The more specific it is, the better the digest will be tailored to you.

**Example personal context file:**

```markdown
# Personal Context

## Current Projects
- Building a SaaS product for [domain] using [tech stack]
- Learning [topic] for professional development

## Professional Interests
- [List specific interests, e.g., "AI agents in production", "developer tooling"]
- [Areas you're actively working in]

## Goals This Quarter
- [Specific goals that newsletter content should be filtered against]

## Topics I Can Skip
- [Things you don't need to hear about, e.g., "crypto", "Web3"]
```

**Email search tool:** This skill requires access to your email. Configure your preferred email search tool (Gmail MCP, email CLI, etc.) and adapt the search commands in Step 2 below.

## When to Use

- Weekly or bi-weekly to process accumulated newsletters
- When your inbox has 20+ unread newsletters and you need to triage
- When you want a single document summarising what matters across all your subscriptions

## Process

### Step 1: Load Personal Context

Read the personal context file:
```
Read $CONTEXT_FILE
```

Use this context to filter and prioritise all newsletter content. Every piece of information should be evaluated against: "Does this matter given what this person is working on and cares about?"

### Step 2: Search for Newsletters

Search your email for recent newsletters. Adapt these commands to your email tool:

```
Search for emails:
- From the last 7 days (or since last digest)
- That match newsletter sender patterns
- Unread preferred, but include read if relevant
```

**Newsletter identification heuristics:**
- Emails with "unsubscribe" links
- Known newsletter sender patterns (Substack, Beehiiv, ConvertKit, etc.)
- Recurring senders with consistent subject line patterns
- Community digest emails

### Step 3: Triage

From the search results, categorise each newsletter:
- **Read in full**: Likely relevant based on sender and subject line
- **Scan**: Might be relevant, worth a quick look
- **Skip**: Not relevant to current context

### Step 4: Read and Extract

For each newsletter marked "Read in full" or "Scan":
1. Read the full email content
2. Extract key points, announcements, insights, links
3. Tag each extract with relevance to the user's context

### Step 5: Synthesise by Theme

Group extracts by theme, not by source. Cross-reference across newsletters.

**Do NOT** just summarise each newsletter sequentially. Instead:
- Identify themes that appear across multiple newsletters
- Group related information together regardless of source
- Note when multiple sources agree or disagree on a trend

### Step 6: Write the Digest

## Output Format

```markdown
# Newsletter Digest — [Date Range]

## TL;DR
[3-5 bullet points of the most important things across all newsletters]

## [Theme 1 Title]
[Synthesised content across sources]

**Why this matters to you:** [Specific connection to user's context — their projects, goals, or interests]

**Sources:** [Which newsletters covered this]

## [Theme 2 Title]
[Synthesised content across sources]

**Why this matters to you:** [Specific connection to user's context]

**Sources:** [Which newsletters covered this]

## [Theme 3 Title]
...

## Quick Hits
- [Interesting but minor items, one line each, with source]
- [Links worth bookmarking]

## Skipped
[List of newsletters that were skipped and a one-line reason why — so the user can spot-check the triage]
```

## Writing Rules

1. **Synthesise, don't summarise.** "Three newsletters mentioned X" is better than three separate summaries of X.
2. **Every theme section needs "Why this matters to you."** This is the personalisation layer. Connect it to their specific projects, goals, or interests from the context file.
3. **Be opinionated.** "This is worth watching because..." or "You can probably ignore this because..." — the user wants a filter, not a mirror.
4. **Include specific numbers.** "Adoption grew 40% year-over-year" beats "adoption is growing."
5. **Link to originals.** Include URLs when available so the user can go deeper on anything that catches their eye.
6. **Note disagreements.** When two sources say different things about the same topic, flag it. That's often where the interesting insight lives.

## Edge Cases

- **No newsletters found**: Report that no newsletters were found in the date range. Suggest expanding the search window.
- **All newsletters irrelevant**: Still produce the "Skipped" section so the user can verify the triage was correct.
- **Very long newsletters**: Focus on the sections most relevant to the user's context. Don't try to capture everything.
- **Paywalled content**: Note when content appears truncated. Include what's visible.