Morning Brief Agent

Overview

The average knowledge worker in 2026 starts their day drowning in information. Between email inboxes with 50+ unread messages overnight, Slack channels buzzing with updates across time zones, calendar invites that shifted while they slept, news feeds algorithmically tuned for engagement over relevance, and task boards scattered across three different project management tools — most professionals spend the first 45 to 90 minutes of their day just figuring out what actually matters. According to research from the University of California, Irvine, it takes an average of 23 minutes to refocus after each context switch. When your morning starts with a dozen context switches before you have even begun real work, you have already lost your most productive hours.

This is not a new problem, but the scale has become untenable. The volume of digital information created daily surpassed 400 exabytes in 2025. Enterprise workers toggle between an average of 13 different apps per day. Notification fatigue is now a clinically recognized contributor to workplace anxiety. And the irony is sharp: the tools designed to keep us informed are the very things preventing us from being effective.

A personalized AI morning briefing agent solves this by inverting the relationship between you and your information. Instead of you hunting across a dozen sources every morning, a single AI agent wakes up before you do, pulls from every source that matters to your specific role and life, synthesizes it into a concise digest, and delivers it to wherever you will actually read it — Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, email, or directly in your OpenClaw chat. The agent learns your priorities over time, adapts its sections based on what you actually engage with, and compresses what would take 60+ minutes of manual scanning into a focused 2-minute read.

With OpenClaw's built-in cron scheduler, web search and fetch tools, and extensible plugin system for calendar, email, and task integrations, building a morning briefing agent is one of the highest-value automations you can deploy — and it takes less than 15 minutes to set up.

Architecture

The Morning Brief Agent runs on a simple but powerful architecture built entirely within OpenClaw's native capabilities:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  OpenClaw Gateway                    │
│                                                     │
│  ┌─────────────┐    ┌──────────────────────────┐    │
│  │ Cron         │───▶│ Isolated Agent Session    │    │
│  │ Scheduler    │    │                          │    │
│  │ "0 6   *"  │    │  1. Read HEARTBEAT.md    │    │
│  └─────────────┘    │  2. Fetch weather API     │    │
│                     │  3. Read Google Calendar   │    │
│                     │  4. Pull Notion tasks      │    │
│                     │  5. Search top news        │    │
│                     │  6. Compile brief          │    │
│                     │  7. Deliver via Slack      │    │
│                     └──────────┬───────────────┘    │
│                                │                     │
└────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┘
                                 │
          ┌──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┐
          │                      │                      │
   ┌──────▼──────┐     ┌────────▼───────┐    ┌────────▼────────┐
   │ Data Sources │     │ Delivery       │    │ Storage         │
   │              │     │                │    │                 │
   │ Weather API  │     │ Slack channel  │    │ Brief archive   │
   │ Google Cal   │     │ WhatsApp       │    │ (workspace dir) │
   │ Notion API   │     │ Telegram       │    │                 │
   │ News/RSS     │     │ Discord        │    │                 │
   │ Gmail        │     │ Email          │    │                 │
   └──────────────┘     └────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘

• Cron trigger: OpenClaw's built-in cron scheduler fires at your configured time (e.g., 6:00 AM weekdays). The job runs in an isolated session, so it does not pollute your main chat history.

• Data gathering: The agent executes its AGENTS.md instructions, calling each data source in sequence — weather API via web_fetch, Google Calendar via the calendar plugin, Notion tasks via the Notion plugin, and news via web_search.

• Synthesis: The agent compiles all gathered data into a structured, prioritized brief following the template defined in your configuration. It highlights what is urgent, what is time-sensitive, and what is informational.

• Delivery: Using delivery.mode = "announce" with your preferred channel, the compiled brief lands in your Slack DM, WhatsApp chat, Telegram, or any connected messaging platform — ready and waiting when you pick up your phone or open your laptop.

• Archival: Optionally, the agent saves each brief to a dated file in the workspace (briefs/YYYY-MM-DD.md) for later reference and trend analysis.

The entire cycle typically completes in 15 to 45 seconds depending on the number of API calls and response times from external services.

Step-by-Step Setup

Prerequisites

• A running OpenClaw instance (self-hosted or via Donely)
• API keys for your chosen data sources (weather, news)
• Connected plugins for calendar and task management (optional but recommended)
• A delivery channel configured (Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, or Discord)

Step 1: Configure Weather API

The agent uses OpenWeatherMap (free tier: 1,000 calls/day) for weather data.

• Sign up at openweathermap.org and grab your API key
• Store it in your OpenClaw environment:

# Add to ~/.openclaw/.env
OPENWEATHER_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

The agent will call the weather API via web_fetch:

web_fetch https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/forecast?q=San+Francisco,US&units=imperial&cnt=8&appid=${OPENWEATHER_API_KEY}

This returns the current conditions plus an 8-period (24-hour) forecast, which the agent summarizes into a human-readable weather section.

Step 2: Connect Google Calendar

Install and configure the Google Calendar plugin for OpenClaw:

• Enable the Google Calendar plugin in your OpenClaw config:

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      "google-calendar": {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          credentials: { "$ref": "secret:google-calendar-credentials" },
          calendarIds: ["primary", "work@company.com"],
          lookahead: "16h"  // fetch events for the next 16 hours
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

• Complete OAuth setup: openclaw plugins configure google-calendar
• The agent will automatically pull today's events including meeting times, attendees, and descriptions.

Step 3: Connect Notion for Task Priorities

Link your Notion workspace to pull tasks and project updates:

• Create a Notion integration at notion.so/my-integrations
• Share your task databases with the integration
• Configure the plugin:

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      notion: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          apiKey: { "$ref": "secret:notion-api-key" },
          databases: {
            tasks: "your-database-id",
            projects: "your-projects-db-id"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The agent queries for tasks due today, overdue items, and high-priority items, then ranks them in the brief.

Step 4: Configure News Sources

The agent uses OpenClaw's built-in web_search tool for news. Configure your preferred search provider:

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      brave: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: "YOUR_BRAVE_API_KEY"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        enabled: true,
        provider: "brave"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, you can use Tavily, Perplexity, or any other supported search provider. The agent's prompt specifies which topics to search for — you customize these in the AGENTS.md file.

Step 5: Create the Morning Brief Agent

Create a dedicated agent for the morning brief in your OpenClaw configuration:

{
  agents: {
    list: [
      { id: "main", default: true },
      {
        id: "morning-brief",
        model: "anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5",
        heartbeat: {
          every: "0m"  // no heartbeat needed — cron handles scheduling
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Step 6: Write the Agent Instructions

Create the agent's workspace file at ~/.openclaw/agents/morning-brief/AGENTS.md:

# Morning Brief Agent
You are a personal briefing agent. Your job is to compile a concise, actionable
morning brief for the user. Follow these rules strictly:

Sections (in order)

Weather — Current conditions + today's forecast. Include high/low temps,
   precipitation probability, and a clothing suggestion if rain > 40%.
Calendar — All events for the next 16 hours. Flag conflicts. Note prep
   time needed for important meetings.
Priority Tasks — Top 5 tasks due today or overdue, pulled from Notion.
   Sort by urgency (overdue first, then by priority).
News Digest — 3-5 headlines relevant to: [your topics here, e.g.,
   "AI/ML, startup funding, cybersecurity"]. One-sentence summary each.
Daily Focus — Based on calendar density and task load, suggest one
   primary focus for the day.

Format Rules

Total brief must be under 800 words
Use bullet points, not paragraphs
Bold the most important item in each section
Include timestamps in 12-hour format with timezone
End with a motivational one-liner (rotate daily, never repeat within 30 days)

Data Sources

Weather: web_fetch OpenWeatherMap API
Calendar: google-calendar plugin
Tasks: notion plugin (database: tasks)
News: web_search with Brave/Tavily

Step 7: Schedule the Cron Job

Add the cron job that triggers the agent every morning:

openclaw cron add \
  --name "Morning Brief" \
  --cron "0 6   1-5" \
  --tz "America/New_York" \
  --session isolated \
  --agent morning-brief \
  --message "Generate today's morning brief following your AGENTS.md instructions. Gather all data sources, compile the brief, and deliver it." \
  --announce \
  --channel slack \
  --to "channel:C1234567890"

• --cron "0 6 1-5" — Runs at 6:00 AM, Monday through Friday
• --tz "America/New_York" — Respects your local timezone
• --session isolated — Each brief runs in a fresh session (no conversation history bloat)
• --announce — Delivers the output to your chosen channel
• --agent morning-brief — Binds to the dedicated agent with your briefing instructions

For weekends, you might want a lighter brief:

openclaw cron add \
  --name "Weekend Brief" \
  --cron "0 8   0,6" \
  --tz "America/New_York" \
  --session isolated \
  --agent morning-brief \
  --message "Generate a lightweight weekend brief: weather only, any calendar events, and one fun news story. Keep it under 200 words." \
  --announce \
  --channel slack \
  --to "channel:C1234567890"

BOOTSTRAP.md

Create this file at ~/.openclaw/agents/morning-brief/BOOTSTRAP.md for first-run configuration:

# Morning Brief Agent — First Run Setup
Welcome! I'm your Morning Brief agent. Let me configure your daily digest.

Quick Setup Questions

What city are you in? (for weather data)
What time do you want your brief? (e.g., "6:30 AM" or "7:00 AM")
Weekdays only or every day?
Which news topics matter to you? (e.g., "AI, fintech, cybersecurity, climate")
Where should I deliver? (Slack channel, WhatsApp, Telegram, or here)
Any calendars beyond your primary? (e.g., shared team calendar ID)
Do you use Notion, Todoist, or Linear for tasks? (I'll connect the right one)

What I'll Configure
After your answers, I will:
Set up the cron schedule in your timezone
Configure weather for your city
Tune news search queries to your interests
Connect your calendar and task sources
Write your personalized AGENTS.md
Send a test brief immediately so you can review the format

Sections You Can Enable


          
Section
Default
Source
          
Weather & forecast
On
OpenWeatherMap API
Calendar events
On
Google Calendar / Outlook
Priority tasks
On
Notion / Todoist / Linear
News digest
On
web_search (Brave/Tavily)
Email highlights
Off
Gmail plugin
GitHub activity
Off
GitHub plugin
Health metrics
Off
Apple Health / Garmin
Market summary
Off
web_fetch financial APIs
Daily focus suggestion
On
AI synthesis
Motivational close
On
AI-generated
        
After setup, delete this file — it only runs once.

Capabilities

The Morning Brief Agent can pull from a wide range of data sources depending on your connected plugins and API keys:

Weather & Environment

• Current temperature, humidity, wind speed, and conditions
• Hourly forecast for the next 24 hours with precipitation probability
• Severe weather alerts and advisories
• UV index and air quality (with premium weather API tiers)
• Clothing and umbrella suggestions based on conditions

Calendar & Schedule

• All events for today and tomorrow morning from multiple calendars
• Meeting conflict detection and prep time suggestions
• Attendee lists with context (first meeting with someone? recurring 1:1?)
• Travel time estimates between in-person meetings
• Focus block suggestions based on meeting gaps

News & Information

• Topic-filtered headlines from web search (configurable topics per user)
• One-sentence AI summaries for each headline
• Source diversity (avoids showing 3 articles from the same outlet)
• Trending topics in your industry via search trend analysis
• RSS feed summaries from custom sources via web_fetch

Task & Project Priorities

• Overdue tasks highlighted with days overdue
• Due-today items sorted by priority
• Blocked tasks with blocker context
• Sprint progress summary (for agile teams)
• Upcoming deadlines within the next 3 days

Health & Wellness Metrics

• Sleep duration and quality from connected health APIs
• Step count and activity goals from previous day
• Hydration and nutrition reminders based on calendar density
• Suggested break times based on meeting load

Communication Highlights

• Unread email count with VIP sender highlights (Gmail plugin)
• Slack mentions and DMs received overnight
• GitHub PRs awaiting your review
• Open support tickets assigned to you

Configuration Reference

Full OpenClaw Config Example

{
  agents: {
    list: [
      { id: "main", default: true },
      {
        id: "morning-brief",
        model: "anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5",  // fast + cheap for daily runs
        heartbeat: { every: "0m" }
      }
    ]
  },
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      "google-calendar": {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          credentials: { "$ref": "secret:google-calendar-credentials" },
          calendarIds: ["primary"],
          lookahead: "16h"
        }
      },
      notion: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          apiKey: { "$ref": "secret:notion-api-key" },
          databases: { tasks: "db-id-here" }
        }
      },
      slack: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          botToken: { "$ref": "secret:slack-bot-token" },
          defaultChannel: "C1234567890"
        }
      },
      brave: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: { "$ref": "secret:brave-api-key" }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: { enabled: true, provider: "brave" },
      fetch: { enabled: true }
    }
  }
}

Cron Schedule Patterns

Delivery Channel Options

Section Configuration in AGENTS.md

Control which sections appear by editing the agent's AGENTS.md. Each section can be toggled, and the agent will skip data source calls for disabled sections — saving API calls and execution time.

Real-World Examples

Example 1: Executive Morning Brief

# Executive Morning Brief
Compile a C-level morning brief. Be direct and data-driven.

Sections

Key Metrics — Pull from Notion "KPIs" database: MRR, active users,
   churn rate, runway months. Flag any metric that changed >5% from yesterday.
Calendar — Today's meetings. For board/investor meetings, include
   attendee names and any prep docs linked in the event description.
Team Blockers — Check Linear for any "blocked" issues across all teams.
   Summarize what's stuck and who owns it.
Market Intel — Search for: company name mentions, competitor news,
   industry regulation updates. 3 items max.
Cash Position — If it's Monday, include weekly burn rate summary.
Decision Queue — Pull Notion "Decisions Pending" database items
   that have been waiting >48 hours.

Format
Lead with the single most important thing I need to know today
Use red-circle emoji for urgent items
Total: under 600 words

PRIORITY: Series B lead partner meeting at 2 PM — prep deck not yet shared by Sarah (pinged)

Metrics (vs yesterday)

- MRR: $147,200 (+1.2%)

- Active users: 12,847 (+89)

- Churn: 3.1% (unchanged)

- Runway: 14.2 months

Today's Calendar

- 9:00 AM — Engineering standup (30m)

- 11:00 AM — Product review with design team (1h)

- 2:00 PM — Series B partner meeting with Acme Ventures (1h) — prep needed

- 4:30 PM — 1:1 with CTO

Blockers

- Payment service migration blocked on AWS approval (DevOps, 3 days)

- Mobile app release waiting on App Store review (Mobile, 2 days)

Market Intel

- Competitor X raised $20M Series A (TechCrunch)

- EU AI Act enforcement timeline moved up to Q3 2026

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

Example 2: Developer Standup Prep

# Dev Standup Prep
Prepare my daily standup talking points. Pull from real data, not memory.

Sections

Yesterday's Commits — Search my GitHub activity from the last 24 hours.
   Summarize PRs merged, reviews completed, and issues closed.
Today's Sprint Tasks — Pull from Linear: my assigned tasks in the
   current sprint, sorted by priority. Mark any that are due today.
PR Reviews Waiting — List any open PRs where I'm a requested reviewer
   and how long they've been waiting.
CI/CD Status — Check if any of my branches have failing builds.
Calendar — Show only meetings, flag if standup time changed.
Blockers — Any of my Linear tasks marked as blocked, with blocker context.

Format
Use "Yesterday / Today / Blockers" standup format
Keep under 300 words
Code-block format for branch names and PR titles

Standup Prep — March 22, 2026

Yesterday

- Merged feat/user-analytics-dashboard (#847) — 12 files, 340 additions

- Reviewed and approved fix/payment-retry-logic (#851)

- Closed issue #392 (stale session cleanup)

Today

- [HIGH] PROJ-234 — Implement rate limiting middleware (due today)

- PROJ-241 — Write integration tests for webhook handler

- PROJ-245 — Update API documentation for v2 endpoints

PRs Awaiting My Review

- fix/cache-invalidation (#853) — waiting 18 hours (Jamie)

- feat/export-csv (#849) — waiting 2 days (Priya)

Blockers

- None currently

Calendar

- 9:00 AM — Standup (unchanged)

- 2:00 PM — Architecture review (new: added yesterday)

Example 3: Family Schedule Digest

# Family Morning Digest
You are a family schedule assistant. Keep it warm, practical, and scannable.

Sections

Weather — Today's weather with a kid-friendly clothing suggestion
   ("jacket weather" or "sunscreen day").
Family Calendar — Pull from ALL calendars: "Family", "Kids School",
   "Sports", and both parents' work calendars. Group by person.
School Notes — Any calendar events tagged with "school" — picture day,
   early dismissal, permission slips due.
Meals — Check Notion "Meal Plan" for today's dinner. If nothing planned,
   suggest something quick based on the evening schedule density.
Errands & Tasks — Notion "Household" database: anything due today or
   overdue. Note who's assigned.
Logistics — Flag any schedule conflicts (e.g., two kids need rides at
   the same time). Suggest solutions.

Format
Use family member first names
Emoji-friendly (this goes to a family WhatsApp group)
Under 400 words
End with "Have a great day, [family name]!"

Good morning, Johnsons! Here is your Saturday rundown.

Weather: 65°F and partly cloudy. Light jacket for morning soccer, t-shirts by afternoon. No rain expected.

Emma (10)

- 9:00 AM — Soccer practice at Riverside Park (until 10:30)

- 2:00 PM — Birthday party at Sky Zone (gift: wrapped and in hallway closet)

Liam (7)

- 10:00 AM — Swimming lesson at the YMCA

- Free afternoon

Mom (Sarah)

- 8:30 AM — Yoga class

- 11:00 AM — Grocery run (list is in Notion)

Dad (Mike)

- Morning: Soccer drop-off + swimming drop-off

- 1:30 PM — Drop Emma at Sky Zone

Logistics Alert: Soccer pickup (10:30) overlaps with swimming drop-off (10:00). Suggestion: Mike does soccer while Sarah does swimming after yoga.

Dinner: Taco night (planned). Ingredients on grocery list.

Tasks: Return library books (overdue 2 days — assigned: Mike)

Have a great day, Johnsons!

Best Practices

Information Density

• Lead with the most actionable item. The first line of your brief should be the single thing that most needs your attention. Everything else is supporting context.
• Cap your brief at 800 words. Briefs over 1,000 words defeat the purpose — you are recreating the information overload you set out to solve. If you need more detail on a specific section, create a separate cron job for deep-dive reports (weekly cadence).
• Use a fast model. Claude Haiku 4.5 or GPT-4o-mini are ideal for morning briefs. They are fast (under 5 seconds), cheap (fractions of a cent per brief), and more than capable of synthesis tasks. Reserve Opus or Sonnet for complex reasoning tasks.
• Limit news to 3-5 items. More than 5 headlines creates noise. The agent should deduplicate similar stories and pick the most substantive source.

Delivery Timing

• Schedule 15-30 minutes before you typically start your day. The brief should be waiting for you, not interrupting you mid-task.
• Use timezone-aware scheduling. Always set --tz on your cron job. Without it, the gateway uses the host's timezone, which may differ from yours (especially on cloud-hosted instances).
• Separate weekday and weekend briefs. Weekday briefs should be dense and action-oriented. Weekend briefs should be lighter — weather, family events, maybe one interesting article.
• Avoid exact top-of-hour times. OpenClaw applies a stagger window to prevent load spikes. If you want a precise time (e.g., exactly 6:00 AM), use --exact to disable stagger.

Reliability

• Use isolated sessions. Always run morning briefs with --session isolated. This prevents brief history from consuming your main session's context window and avoids the agent confusing today's brief with yesterday's.
• Set reasonable timeouts. If one API is slow (e.g., a weather service taking 10+ seconds), it should not block the entire brief. The agent handles this naturally by moving to the next section.
• Archive your briefs. Add a line to your AGENTS.md: "After delivery, save this brief to briefs/YYYY-MM-DD.md in the workspace." This creates a searchable history.
• Monitor with openclaw cron runs. Check the run history periodically to ensure briefs are generating successfully. Failed runs show error context.

Cost Optimization

• One brief per day costs roughly $0.002-$0.01 with Claude Haiku 4.5 (depending on section count and response length). That is under $0.25/month — negligible.
• Web search calls are the biggest cost driver. Brave Search includes 1,000 free queries/month. A daily brief with 3 news searches uses ~90 queries/month — well within the free tier.
• Avoid redundant API calls. If you do not need weather, disable that section rather than fetching and discarding it. Each disabled section saves both time and API credits.

Troubleshooting

Brief not delivering at the scheduled time

• Check the cron job exists: openclaw cron list — verify the job is active and the schedule is correct.
• Verify timezone: openclaw cron list shows the timezone per job. Ensure it matches your local timezone, not UTC.
• Check run history: openclaw cron runs --id — look for failed runs with error messages.
• Channel connectivity: Ensure the delivery channel (Slack, Telegram, etc.) is connected and the bot has permission to post to the target channel.

Brief is empty or missing sections

• API key issues: Check ~/.openclaw/.env for missing or expired API keys. Weather APIs and search APIs require valid keys.
• Plugin not enabled: Verify plugins are enabled in your config: openclaw plugins list.
• Calendar permissions: Google Calendar OAuth may need re-authorization. Run openclaw plugins configure google-calendar.
• Notion database access: Ensure the Notion integration has access to the databases referenced in your config.

Brief is too long or unfocused

• Tighten the AGENTS.md prompt: Add explicit word limits per section (e.g., "Calendar section: max 100 words").
• Reduce news topics: Narrow from 5 topics to 2-3 of highest relevance.
• Use lightContext: true: In the cron job config, enable lightweight context so the agent only loads AGENTS.md, not the full workspace bootstrap.

Brief arrives at the wrong time

• Stagger window: OpenClaw applies up to a 5-minute stagger for top-of-hour cron expressions. Use --exact flag to disable: openclaw cron edit --exact.
• Active hours conflict: If you have activeHours set in heartbeat config, ensure the brief's cron time falls within the active window — though cron jobs are independent of heartbeat active hours.
• Host timezone mismatch: On cloud-hosted instances, the host may be in UTC. Always specify --tz explicitly.

Cron job runs but delivery fails

• Check delivery mode: Ensure --announce is set (default for isolated jobs, but verify).
• Channel target syntax: Slack channels need the channel:C... prefix. Telegram needs the numeric chat ID, not the username.
• Bot permissions: Slack bots need chat:write scope and must be invited to the target channel. Telegram bots need to have messaged the chat at least once.
• Fallback delivery: Add --best-effort to prevent delivery failures from marking the entire run as failed. The brief will still be available in the cron run history.