daily-briefing – OpenClaw Skill

---

name: daily-briefing description: Generates a warm, compact daily briefing with weather, calendar, reminders, birthdays, and important emails for cron or chat delivery. metadata: {"openclaw":{"emoji":"🌅","requires":{"os":["darwin"],"bins":["curl","bash"]},"optional_bins":["icalpal","gog","himalaya"]}} user-invocable: true

daily-briefing

Generates a compact, warm daily message suitable for cron delivery (stdout/chat reply). Always succeeds even with minimal context.

---

Skill Type: System Skill (Orchestrator Pattern)

This skill uses the System Skill pattern for execution on macOS. The agent must:

1. Never run raw CLI commands directly (except curl for weather).
2. Always invoke the runner script to gather data.
3. Read gathered data from JSON after the script completes.
4. Generate the briefing text using the agent's own capabilities.

Quick reference:

# Invoke data gatherer (waits for completion)
"{baseDir}/skills/daily-briefing/bin/run_daily_briefing.sh"

# Read output
cat /tmp/daily_briefing_data.json

---

Output Contract (STRICT)

CRITICAL: Output only the briefing text. No prefaces, no explanations, no "Done", no file paths, no tool output, no markdown code fences around the briefing.

Line 1 Format (Required)

Line 1 must begin exactly with the time-appropriate greeting:

Good {time_of_day} - Today is {Weekday}, {Month} {D}, {YYYY}. {Skies sentence}.

• Use full month name (e.g., "February", not "Feb").
• If today is the user's birthday (matched by name in contacts): replace greeting with:

  🎉 Happy Birthday! Today is {Weekday}, {Month} {D}, {YYYY}. {Skies sentence}.
  

Greeting Selection (Local Time)

Time Range	Greeting
05:00–11:59	Good morning
12:00–16:59	Good afternoon
17:00–21:59	Good evening
22:00–04:59	Good night
Unknown	Good morning (default)

Skies Sentence Rules

If weather is usable:

{Conditions} skies, around {TEMP}°{time_clause}{low_clause}{precip_clause}.

• Use high temp if reliable → time clause: " this afternoon"
• Otherwise use current temp → time clause: " right now"
• If low exists: append , with a low around {LOW}°
• If precip chance ≥30%: append , and a {CHANCE}% chance of {rain/snow/precipitation}

If weather is not usable: Use exact fallback:

I can't access weather right now.

Layout Rules

{Line 1: Greeting with skies sentence}

{Birthdays section - only if any today or upcoming}

{Calendar events section - only if any}

{Reminders section - only if any}

{Important emails section - only if enabled and any}

{Anchors - only if real priorities from context}

{Closing line - always required}

• Always include a blank line after Line 1.
• Each section separated by a blank line if present.
• Target ~5–15 lines depending on enabled integrations.

---

Vibe and Tone

• Gentle gift for the day: warm, calm, compassionate, quietly hopeful.
• No scolding, no urgency, no productivity pressure.
• Telegram-friendly: short lines, roomy spacing, easy to skim.

---

System Skill Execution

Step 1: Check Mode (Interactive vs Cron)

If interactive AND missing critical info (location/timezone/units):

• Prompt briefly for missing info before generating briefing.
• Offer toggles for integrations.
• Mention the important emails feature: explain it uses AI-powered semantic analysis to surface actionable emails (transactions, shipments, security alerts, etc.) and can be enabled via emails.enabled in config; note iCloud Mail requires an app-specific password (emails.icloudPassword).

If non-interactive (cron/automation):

• Do NOT ask questions (cron-safe). Use defaults.
• Do NOT create/modify any files.
• Do NOT spawn background tasks/sub-agents.
• Omit weather if location is unavailable.

Step 2: Invoke the Data Gatherer

"{baseDir}/skills/daily-briefing/bin/run_daily_briefing.sh"

• The runner script executes scripts/daily_briefing_orchestrator.sh.
• TCC permissions are granted to Terminal.app (or the calling process).

Step 3: Read the Gathered Data

After the app completes, read:

/tmp/daily_briefing_data.json

JSON structure:

{
  "generated_at": "ISO timestamp",
  "system": {
    "timezone": "America/New_York",
    "local_time": "2024-02-03T08:30:00",
    "hour": 8
  },
  "config": {
    "location": "New York, NY",
    "units": "C",
    "birthdays_enabled": true,
    "birthdays_lookahead": 14,
    "calendar_google_enabled": true,
    "calendar_icloud_enabled": true,
    "calendar_lookahead": 0,
    "reminders_enabled": true,
    "reminders_due_filter": "today",
    "reminders_include_past_due": true,
    "emails_enabled": false,
    "emails_limit": 10,
    "emails_sort_newest": true,
    "emails_starred_first": true,
    "emails_unread_only": true
  },
  "birthdays": {
    "available": true,
    "user_birthday_today": false,
    "data": [
      {"name": "Jane Doe", "date": "2024-02-03", "days_until": 0},
      {"name": "John Smith", "date": "2024-02-05", "days_until": 2}
    ]
  },
  "calendar": {
    "available": true,
    "data": [
      {"title": "Team standup", "start": "09:00", "end": "09:30", "all_day": false, "date": "2024-02-03", "source": "google"},
      {"title": "Doctor appointment", "start": null, "end": null, "all_day": true, "date": "2024-02-03", "source": "icloud"}
    ]
  },
  "reminders": {
    "available": true,
    "data": [
      {"title": "Pick up prescription", "due": "2024-02-03"}
    ]
  },
  "emails": {
    "available": true,
    "data": [
      {"id": "abc123", "from": "Amazon", "from_email": "shipment@amazon.com", "subject": "Your order has shipped", "preview": "Your package is on its way...", "starred": false, "unread": true, "date": "2024-02-03T07:30:00Z", "source": "gmail"},
      {"id": "def456", "from": "Chase", "from_email": "alerts@chase.com", "subject": "Payment received", "preview": "We received your payment of...", "starred": true, "unread": true, "date": "2024-02-03T06:15:00Z", "source": "icloud"}
    ]
  },
  "contacts": {
    "available": true,
    "data": [
      {"name": "Jane Doe", "email": "jane@example.com"},
      {"name": "John Smith", "email": "john@example.com"}
    ]
  }
}

Step 4: Fetch Weather (Agent Task)

The agent must fetch weather directly using curl (not via orchestrator):

curl -fsSL --max-time 12 "https://wttr.in/{ENCODED_LOCATION}?format=j1"

• Location: Use config.location from gathered data; if empty/null, weather is unavailable.
• Retry: Retry once on failure.
• If still failing or unusable: Weather is unavailable; use fallback sentence.

Parse from JSON response:

• Conditions: current_condition[0].weatherDesc[0].value
• Current temp (C): current_condition[0].temp_C
• Current temp (F): current_condition[0].temp_F
• High temp (C): weather[0].maxtempC
• High temp (F): weather[0].maxtempF
• Low temp (C): weather[0].mintempC
• Low temp (F): weather[0].mintempF
• Precip chance: max of weather[0].hourly[*].chanceofrain (as integers)

Units: Use config.units ("C" or "F"). Default to Celsius if unknown.

CRITICAL: Do NOT output raw curl/tool output. Do NOT use wttr.in one-line formats.

Step 5: Classify Important Emails (Agent Task)

Only if config.emails_enabled is true and emails.available is true.

For each email in emails.data, use the agent's own semantic analysis to determine importance.

Important Email Criteria (any match qualifies):

• From contacts in the gathered contacts list
• Order shipment notifications
• Receipts for purchases or transaction confirmations
• Incoming/outgoing transaction alerts
• Refund-related messages
• Customer service interactions
• Upcoming subscription renewal notices
• Upcoming payment heads-up notices
• Technical newsletters
• Job application updates
• Messages from recruiters (exclude WITCH-like outsourcing firms)
• Banking alerts
• Calendar invites
• Account security emails (e.g., "your account is locked")
• Shared items (e.g., Google Drive shares)
• Wishlist-related alerts
• Starred/flagged emails (positive signal, not sole determinant)
• Any other contextually important emails

Exclusions: The following are never important, even if matching other criteria:

• Promotional/marketing emails
• LinkedIn Job Alert emails (LinkedIn message notifications are fine)

Failure behavior: If semantic analysis fails, silently omit the entire email section.

Apply filters and sorting:

1. Filter by emails_unread_only if true
2. If emails_starred_first is true, starred emails first
3. Sort by date per emails_sort_newest
4. Limit to emails_limit

Step 6: Generate the Briefing

Using all gathered and processed data, compose the briefing text following the Output Contract.

Section Formats:

Birthdays:

🎂 **Birthdays:**
• Today: Name
• Feb 5: Name

• Group multiples per date
• Today entries first
• Up to 5 upcoming (excluding today)

Calendar Events:

📅 **Today's schedule:**
• All-day: Event title
• 9:00 AM: Event title

• Single day: "Today's schedule"
• Multi-day: "Schedule" with "Today/Tomorrow/{Month} {D}" labels
• All-day events first, then timed by start
• Up to 3 events per day

Reminders:

✅ **Reminders:**
• Pick up prescription

• Due-today reminders only
• Up to 3 reminders

Important Emails:

📧 **Emails needing attention:**
• Amazon: Your order has shipped
• Chase: Payment received

• Format: • Sender: Subject (truncated if needed)

Anchors:

• Only if you can confidently infer 1–3 real priorities from user-provided context.
• Plain bullets, no heading.
• If not real/uncertain, omit entirely (do not invent).

Closing Line:

• Required. Use the quote field from the gathered JSON data.
• The orchestrator provides a random motivational quote each run.

Step 7: Output the Briefing

Return only the briefing text. Nothing else.

---

Configuration

Configuration is read from ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json at path skills.entries.daily-briefing.config:

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "daily-briefing": {
        "config": {
          "location": "New York, NY",
          "timezone": "America/New_York",
          "units": "C",
          "birthdays": {
            "enabled": true,
            "lookahead": 14,
            "sources": ["contacts", "google"]
          },
          "calendar": {
            "enabled": true,
            "lookahead": 0,
            "sources": ["google", "icloud"]
          },
          "reminders": {
            "enabled": true
          },
          "emails": {
            "enabled": false,
            "icloudPassword": "",
            "limit": 10,
            "sortNewest": true,
            "starredFirst": true,
            "unreadOnly": true
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
location	string	""	Location for weather (e.g., "New York, NY")
timezone	string	system	Timezone (e.g., "America/New_York")
units	string	"C"	Temperature units: "C" or "F"
birthdays.enabled	bool	true	Enable birthday tracking
birthdays.lookahead	int	14	Days ahead to show upcoming birthdays
birthdays.sources	array	["contacts"]	Sources: "contacts" (iCloud), "google"
calendar.enabled	bool	true	Enable calendar events
calendar.lookahead	int	0	Days ahead (0 = today only)
calendar.sources	array	["google", "icloud"]	Calendar sources
reminders.enabled	bool	true	Enable Apple Reminders
reminders.dueFilter	string	"today"	Due date filter: "today", "week", or "all"
reminders.includePastDue	bool	true	Include overdue/past-due reminders
emails.enabled	bool	false	Enable important emails feature
emails.icloudPassword	string	""	iCloud Mail app-specific password
emails.limit	int	10	Maximum emails to show
emails.sortNewest	bool	true	Sort newest first
emails.starredFirst	bool	true	Prioritize starred emails
emails.unreadOnly	bool	true	Only show unread emails

---

Defaults

• Timezone: User's local timezone; fallback to UTC if unknown.
• Location: User's location if present; omit weather if unavailable in cron mode.
• Units: User's preferred units if known; otherwise Celsius.

---

Dependencies

Required:

• curl — for weather fetching
• bash — for orchestrator script

Optional:

• gog — brew install steipete/tap/gogcli (Google Calendar, Gmail, Contacts)
• icalpal — brew install ajrosen/tap/icalpal (iCloud Calendar)
• himalaya — brew install himalaya (iCloud Mail via IMAP)

---

File Structure

daily-briefing/
├── SKILL.md
├── README.md
├── install.sh
├── scripts/
│   └── daily_briefing_orchestrator.sh
└── bin/
    └── run_daily_briefing.sh (created by install.sh)

---

Example Output

Good morning - Today is Saturday, February 3, 2024. Partly cloudy skies, around 45°F this afternoon, with a low around 32°F.

🎂 **Birthdays:**
• Today: Jane Doe
• Feb 5: John Smith

📅 **Today's schedule:**
• All-day: Doctor appointment
• 9:00 AM: Team standup

✅ **Reminders:**
• Pick up prescription

📧 **Emails needing attention:**
• Amazon: Your order has shipped
• Chase: Payment received

Take things one step at a time today—you've got this.

---

Cleanup

"{baseDir}/skills/daily-briefing/bin/run_daily_briefing.sh" --cleanup

daily-briefing

🌅 Generates a warm, compact daily briefing with weather, calendar, reminders, birthdays, and important emails for cron or chat delivery.

Features

• Weather — Current conditions, highs/lows, precipitation chances via wttr.in
• Calendar Events — Unified view from Google Calendar and iCloud Calendar
• Reminders — Due and past-due items from Apple Reminders
• Birthdays — Today and upcoming from iCloud Contacts and Google Contacts
• Important Emails — AI-powered semantic analysis to surface actionable emails (transactions, shipments, security alerts, etc.)
• Cron-safe — Always succeeds with sensible defaults; never prompts in automation mode
• Warm, calm tone — A gentle gift for the day with no productivity pressure

Installation

1. Install via ClawHub (recommended)

clawhub install daily-briefing

Or copy manually to any skills directory:

• ~/.openclaw/skills/daily-briefing
• <workspace>/skills/daily-briefing

2. Run the installer

cd <skill-directory>
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

3. Grant macOS permissions

Grant Terminal.app (or your terminal) access in System Settings > Privacy & Security:

Permission	Required for
Contacts	Birthday tracking from iCloud Contacts
Calendars	iCloud Calendar events (via icalpal)
Reminders	Apple Reminders (via remindctl)

4. Install optional CLI tools

# Google services (Calendar, Gmail, Contacts)
brew install steipete/tap/gogcli

# iCloud Calendar
brew install ajrosen/tap/icalpal

# Apple Reminders
brew install steipete/tap/remindctl

# iCloud Mail
brew install himalaya

Configuration

Edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "daily-briefing": {
        "config": {
          "location": "New York, NY",
          "timezone": "America/New_York",
          "units": "F",
          "birthdays": {
            "enabled": true,
            "lookahead": 14,
            "sources": ["contacts", "google"]
          },
          "calendar": {
            "enabled": true,
            "lookahead": 0,
            "sources": ["google", "icloud"]
          },
          "reminders": {
            "enabled": true,
            "dueFilter": "today",
            "includePastDue": true
          },
          "emails": {
            "enabled": false,
            "icloudPassword": "",
            "limit": 10,
            "sortNewest": true,
            "starredFirst": true,
            "unreadOnly": true
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
location	string	""	Location for weather (e.g., "New York, NY")
timezone	string	system	Timezone (e.g., "America/New_York")
units	string	"C"	Temperature units: "C" or "F"
birthdays.enabled	bool	true	Enable birthday tracking
birthdays.lookahead	int	14	Days ahead to show upcoming birthdays
birthdays.sources	array	["contacts"]	Sources: "contacts" (iCloud), "google"
calendar.enabled	bool	true	Enable calendar events
calendar.lookahead	int	0	Days ahead (0 = today only)
calendar.sources	array	["google", "icloud"]	Calendar sources
reminders.enabled	bool	true	Enable Apple Reminders
reminders.dueFilter	string	"today"	Due date filter: "today", "week", or "all"
reminders.includePastDue	bool	true	Include overdue/past-due reminders
emails.enabled	bool	false	Enable important emails feature
emails.icloudPassword	string	""	iCloud Mail app-specific password for himalaya
emails.limit	int	10	Maximum emails to show
emails.sortNewest	bool	true	Sort newest first
emails.starredFirst	bool	true	Prioritize starred/flagged emails
emails.unreadOnly	bool	true	Only show unread emails

Important Emails Feature

The important emails feature uses AI-powered semantic analysis to identify actionable emails:

• Order shipments and tracking
• Receipts and transaction confirmations
• Banking and payment alerts
• Account security notices
• Subscription renewals
• Calendar invites
• Messages from your contacts
• Job-related communications

To enable:

1. Set emails.enabled to true in your config
2. For iCloud Mail: Generate an app-specific password and set it in emails.icloudPassword
3. For Gmail: Ensure gog is authenticated

Privacy note: Email analysis happens locally using the agent's model context. No email data is sent to external services beyond what you've configured.

Usage

Interactive Mode

Simply ask your agent for your daily briefing:

What's my briefing for today?

The agent will:

1. Check if location/timezone are configured
2. Prompt for missing info if needed
3. Generate your personalized briefing

Cron Mode

For automated delivery (e.g., via Telegram bot), the skill:

• Uses sensible defaults without prompting
• Omits weather if location is unavailable
• Always succeeds and outputs the briefing text

Example cron setup:

# Daily briefing at 7:00 AM
0 7 * * * /path/to/your/agent --skill daily-briefing >> /var/log/briefing.log

Example Output

Good morning - Today is Saturday, February 3, 2024. Partly cloudy skies, around 45°F this afternoon, with a low around 32°F.

🎂 **Birthdays:**
• Today: Jane Doe
• Feb 5: John Smith

📅 **Today's schedule:**
• All-day: Doctor appointment
• 9:00 AM: Team standup
• 2:00 PM: Coffee with Alex

✅ **Reminders:**
• Pick up prescription
• Call mom

📧 **Emails needing attention:**
• Amazon: Your order has shipped
• Chase: Payment received
• Google Drive: Document shared with you

Take things one step at a time today—you've got this.

Troubleshooting

Weather not showing

• Ensure location is set in your config
• Check that curl can reach wttr.in: curl -fsSL "https://wttr.in/London?format=j1"

Calendar events not showing

• For iCloud: Install icalpal and grant Calendar permission
• For Google: Ensure gog is authenticated: gog auth login

Reminders not showing

• Install remindctl: brew install steipete/tap/remindctl
• Grant Reminders permission to DailyBriefingAgent.app

Birthdays not showing

• Grant Contacts permission to DailyBriefingAgent.app
• For Google: Ensure gog is authenticated

Emails not showing

• Set emails.enabled to true in config
• For Gmail: Ensure gog is authenticated
• For iCloud: Set emails.icloudPassword with an app-specific password

Permission denied errors

Grant Terminal.app (or your terminal) access in System Settings > Privacy & Security for Contacts, Calendars, and Reminders.

Dependencies

Required:

• curl — for weather fetching (built into macOS)
• bash — for orchestrator script (built into macOS)
• python3 — for JSON parsing (built into macOS)

Optional:

• gog — brew install steipete/tap/gogcli (Google Calendar, Gmail, Contacts)
• icalpal — brew install ajrosen/tap/icalpal (iCloud Calendar)
• remindctl — brew install steipete/tap/remindctl (Apple Reminders)
• himalaya — brew install himalaya (iCloud Mail via IMAP)

File Structure

daily-briefing/
├── SKILL.md                              # Skill definition
├── README.md                             # This file
├── install.sh                            # Installer script
├── scripts/
│   └── daily_briefing_orchestrator.sh    # Data gathering script
└── bin/
    └── run_daily_briefing.sh             # Runner script (created by install.sh)

License

MIT