ABOUTME: Process unread newsletters into Second Brain entries via Gmail and Obsidian

ABOUTME: Batch extraction of actionable content from Substack, Beehiiv, and other platforms

Newsletter Digest Skill

Process unread newsletters, extract actionable content for Second Brain, archive processed emails.

Gmail: See ../_GMAIL.md | Obsidian CLI: See ../_OBSIDIAN.md | Integration: See ../_SECOND_BRAIN.md

Newsletter Sources

All newsletters are processed - categorize by content, not by sender.

Common Platforms

# Search for unread newsletters from common platforms
gog gmail search "is:unread (from:substack.com OR from:beehiiv.com OR from:convertkit.com OR from:mailchimp.com OR from:buttondown.email)" --account=maroffo@gmail.com --json --max=20

Known Newsletter Labels

Label	Description
📰Newsletter/🔴 Substack	Substack newsletters
📰Newsletter	General newsletters
👨🏻‍💻work-related	Work-related content (higher priority)

Key Newsletters by Category

Newsletter	Author	Category
ByteByteGo	Alex Xu	AI/Development
Turing Post	-	AI/Open Source
Artificial Ignorance	Charlie Guo	AI/Management
The Beautiful Mess	John Cutler	Engineering Management
Tidy First?	Kent Beck	Engineering/Design
Javarevisited	-	Development
[mini]marketing	Gianluca Diegoli	Marketing
Paul Krugman	Paul Krugman	Politics/Economics
Appunti	Stefano Feltri	Politics (IT)
270 by Youtrend	Youtrend	Politics (IT)
Il Mattinale Europeo	David Carretta	EU Politics
Il Post	-	News (IT)
Semafor	-	News (International)
Roberta Villa	Roberta Villa	Health/Science
Ellissi	-	Media/Culture
Sillabe	Elena Tosato	Literature

Processing Workflow

Step 1: Find Unread Newsletters

gog gmail search "is:unread (from:substack.com OR from:beehiiv.com OR from:convertkit.com)" --account=maroffo@gmail.com --json --max=20

Step 2: For Each Newsletter

Use the extraction script to get clean text content:

# Full content with metadata
gog gmail thread get <threadId> --account=maroffo@gmail.com --json \
  | python3 ~/.claude/skills/newsletter-digest/extract_email.py --meta

# Truncated (for quick triage)
gog gmail thread get <threadId> --account=maroffo@gmail.com --json \
  | python3 ~/.claude/skills/newsletter-digest/extract_email.py --meta --max-chars 3000

The script (extract_email.py) handles multipart MIME, base64 decoding, HTML fallback, and nested parts. No need to write inline Python for email parsing.

3. Analyze content - identify:

   • Tools/libraries mentioned → Second Brain - Development/AI
   • Patterns/techniques → Second Brain appropriate section
   • News/opinions → Reference only (skip or brief note)
   • Tutorials/guides → Extract key steps

4. Categorize per ../_SECOND_BRAIN.md routing table

5. Extract & integrate via Obsidian CLI:

obsidian append file="Second Brain - <Topic>" content="<extracted>"

6. Update Timeline:

obsidian append file="Second Brain - Timeline" content="- **YYYY-MM-DD** | [Topic] | Source: Newsletter | -> Second Brain - <File>.md"

7. Archive email (see ../_GMAIL.md for archive command)

Output Format

After processing batch:

## Newsletter Digest - YYYY-MM-DD

### Processed (X newsletters)

1. **[Pragmatic Engineer]** - "Platform Teams Done Right"
   - Extracted: Platform team anti-patterns
   - → Second Brain - Engineering Management.md
   - ✓ Archived

2. **[ByteByteGo]** - "Rate Limiting Deep Dive"
   - Extracted: Token bucket algorithm summary
   - → Second Brain - Development.md
   - ✓ Archived

3. **[The Batch]** - "AI News Weekly"
   - Skipped: News only, no actionable content
   - ✓ Archived

### Summary
- Newsletters processed: X
- Second Brain entries added: Y
- Archived: X

Content Extraction Guidelines

Include in Second Brain:

• Tool/library announcements with clear use case
• Architecture patterns with examples
• Techniques you can apply
• Commands/configs worth remembering
• Important news from news-focused newsletters (Il Post, Semafor, Appunti, Il Mattinale Europeo):
  • Geopolitical events with lasting impact
  • Policy changes (EU, IT, international)
  • Economic developments (trade, sanctions, markets)
  • Major political events (elections, government changes)
  • → Add to Second Brain - Politics and Economics.md

Skip (archive only):

• Tech industry news/opinions (funding, hype cycles)
• Funding announcements
• Job postings
• Content you've already captured
• Ephemeral news (daily weather, minor events)

Ask user if unclear:

• Mixed content (some actionable, some not)
• Topics outside usual categories

Rules

See ../_SECOND_BRAIN.md for shared rules. Additional:

• Always archive - processed = archived, no exceptions
• Batch process - handle multiple newsletters in one session