Tech Weekly Briefing

Generate weekly tech news briefings from 6 major English tech media sources (TechCrunch, The Verge, Wired, Ars Technica, MIT Technology Review, The Informati...

Security Scan

The skill's code, instructions, and required files align with its stated purpose (aggregating RSS from listed tech sites and producing weekly briefs); it does not request secrets or surprising privileges, though it will create persistent cron jobs and runs local subprocesses (curl, blogwatcher) which you should review before enabling.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description (weekly tech briefings) match the included scripts and data: generate-briefing.py fetches RSS, filters/deduplicates, categorizes by company, and writes reports; setup-sources.py registers feeds with a local 'blogwatcher' CLI. No unrelated credentials, cloud APIs, or surprising binaries are requested.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md instructs adding cron entries and running the Python scripts from the skill directory (persisting daily and weekly runs). Scripts operate only on the skill workspace (~/.openclaw/.../data) and /tmp for reports. They execute subprocesses (curl for one feed, and blogwatcher in setup) — expected for an aggregator but worth reviewing because subprocess calls run arbitrary local binaries.

Install Mechanism

There is no remote install/downloader in the registry metadata (instruction-only with included code files). The code does not download or extract arbitrary archives. It does rely on system binaries (curl, python3, blogwatcher) that are not installed by the skill.

Credentials

The skill requests no environment variables or credentials. Network access is required to fetch RSS feeds — appropriate for the purpose. The setup script interacts with a 'blogwatcher' CLI which may modify local blogwatcher state; this is proportional but should be run only if you trust that CLI.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill asks the user to add cron jobs (manual step) for daily/weekly runs; always:false and no autonomous model invocation flags beyond the platform defaults. Cron entries create persistent background activity (periodic network fetches and file writes) — expected for this use case but a persistence decision the user must opt into.

Assessment

This skill appears coherent with its stated purpose, but review a few points before enabling: 1) Inspect generate-briefing.py and setup-sources.py locally — they call subprocesses (curl and a 'blogwatcher' CLI) which will execute on your machine. 2) The SKILL.md suggests adding cron jobs; only add them if you want recurring network fetches and file writes in ~/.openclaw and /tmp. 3) setup-sources.py will run 'blogwatcher add' for many feeds — run that only if you trust what 'blogwatcher' does. 4) weekly-cron.sh contains a comment about sending to Telegram but currently only cats the report; if you plan to enable automated distribution, confirm which messaging tool will be used and that it won’t post sensitive local data. 5) Run the scripts manually first (dry run) and verify outputs and network targets before installing cron. If you want, I can highlight the exact lines in the scripts that call external binaries and files to check.

Tech Weekly Briefing Skill

Generate comprehensive weekly tech news briefings from major English-language technology media sources with structured format and interactive navigation.

Core Principle

Data Integrity First: Never fabricate data. All market data and news must be fetched from actual sources before generating reports.

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Media Sources

Primary Sources (Active)

Source	RSS URL	Status	Fetch Method
TechCrunch	https://techcrunch.com/feed/	✅ Active	urllib
The Verge	https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml	✅ Active	urllib
Wired	https://www.wired.com/feed/rss	✅ Active	urllib
Ars Technica	https://arstechnica.com/feed/	✅ Active	urllib
MIT Technology Review	https://www.technologyreview.com/feed/	✅ Active	urllib
The Information	https://www.theinformation.com/feed	✅ Active	curl (bypasses 403)

Secondary Sources (Configured, To Verify)

Source	Status	Note
Axios	⚠️ Configured	Needs verification
Bloomberg Tech	⚠️ Configured	May have paywall
Reuters Tech	⚠️ Configured	Needs verification
WSJ Tech	⚠️ Configured	Paywall likely

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Data Collection Workflow

Step 1: Daily Data Fetch (Every Day at 00:00)

Command:

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace-group/skills/tech-weekly-briefing && python3 scripts/generate-briefing.py daily

What it does:

1. Fetches RSS feeds from all 6 primary sources
2. Filters low-quality content (promotions, sports, lifestyle)
3. Deduplicates articles by title/URL similarity
4. Saves to data/articles_YYYY-MM-DD.json

Cron Setup:

# Add to crontab
crontab -e

# Add this line for daily fetch at 00:00:
0 0 * * * cd ~/.openclaw/workspace-group/skills/tech-weekly-briefing && python3 scripts/generate-briefing.py daily >> /tmp/tech-weekly-cron.log 2>&1

Step 2: Weekly Report Generation (Every Saturday 09:00)

Command:

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace-group/skills/tech-weekly-briefing && python3 scripts/generate-briefing.py weekly

What it does:

1. Loads articles from past 7 days
2. Aggregates similar stories across sources
3. Identifies hot news (≥2 media coverage)
4. Categorizes by company mentions
5. Generates formatted report
6. Saves to /tmp/tech-weekly-briefing-YYYYMMDD.txt

Cron Setup:

# Every Saturday at 09:00 Beijing Time
0 9 * * 6 cd ~/.openclaw/workspace-group/skills/tech-weekly-briefing && python3 scripts/generate-briefing.py weekly >> /tmp/tech-weekly-cron.log 2>&1

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Report Format Specification

Structure (4 Sections)

📊 外媒科技周报 | YYYY-MM-DD

1️⃣ 概览 (Overview) - Chinese only
2️⃣ 🔥 热点新闻 (Hot News) - English titles, all source links
3️⃣ 🚗 Robotaxi Weekly - All autonomous driving news
4️⃣ [Inline Buttons] - Company categorization

Section 1: 概览 / Overview

Language: Chinese only Content: One paragraph summarizing ALL hot news stories Format:

📈 概览
本周扫描X家科技媒体，获取X篇文章，聚类为X条独特新闻。
X条热点新闻被≥2家媒体报道：[①news summary; ②news summary; ③news summary; ④news summary]

Section 2: 🔥 热点新闻 / Hot News

Criteria: Stories covered by ≥2 media outlets Language: English titles only (no Chinese translation in body) Format:

🔥 热点新闻（按媒体报道数倒序）

1️⃣ [English Title]
📰 X家：
• Source1: https://link1
• Source2: https://link2
• Source3: https://link3

2️⃣ [English Title]
📰 X家：
• Source1: https://link1
• Source2: https://link2

Requirements:

• All source links must be clickable
• Listed by coverage count (descending)
• Maximum 20 hot news items

Section 3: 🚗 Robotaxi Weekly

Scope: All autonomous driving news (not just ≥2 coverage) Keywords: robotaxi, waymo, zoox, aurora, cruise, autonomous, self-driving Format:

🚗 Robotaxi Weekly / 自动驾驶一周汇总

1. [Title]
   📰 Source | 🔗 https://link

2. [Title]
   📰 Source | 🔗 https://link

Section 4: Inline Buttons

Layout:

[🔴 OpenAI (X篇)] [🟣 Anthropic (X篇)]
[🔵 Google (X篇)] [🍎 Apple (X篇)]
[🟢 NVIDIA (X篇)] [🚗 Waymo]
[📋 查看全部]

Companies Tracked:

• OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta
• Tesla, NVIDIA, Waymo, Zoox, Aurora, Cruise
• Nintendo, Sony, Netflix, Block, Robinhood

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Content Validation Rules

Rule 1: No Fabricated Data

MUST:

• Execute fetch commands before generating reports
• Use actual fetched data only
• Mark missing data as [获取失败] if command fails

NEVER:

• Fill in prices/percentages without executing commands
• Use cached data as real-time without timestamp
• Guess or estimate any numeric values

Rule 2: Accurate Source Attribution

MUST:

• Every news item must have source link(s)
• Multi-source stories must list ALL sources
• Use actual URLs from RSS, not generated links

Rule 3: Deduplication

Algorithm:

1. Jaccard similarity ≥ 18% on title keywords
2. OR exact 3+ consecutive word match
3. Remove duplicates, keep earliest published

Rule 4: Low-Quality Filtering

Filtered Content:

• Sports: "baseball game", "championship", "tournament"
• Promotions: "promo code", "% off", "coupon", "discount"
• Shopping: "mattress firm", "kitchenaid promo", "norton coupon"
• Lifestyle: "bird-watchers", "brew coffee", "sleep week deals"

Logged: All filtered items printed during daily fetch

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Manual Operations

Check Data Collection Status

# View today's collected articles
ls -la ~/.openclaw/workspace-group/skills/tech-weekly-briefing/data/

# Check article count
python3 -c "import json; data=json.load(open('data/articles_$(date +%Y-%m-%d).json')); print(f'{len(data)} articles today')"

Verify Media Source

# Test RSS accessibility
curl -s "https://techcrunch.com/feed/" | head -5
curl -s -A "Mozilla/5.0" "https://www.theinformation.com/feed" | head -5

Force Re-fetch Today

rm ~/.openclaw/workspace-group/skills/tech-weekly-briefing/data/articles_$(date +%Y-%m-%d).json
python3 scripts/generate-briefing.py daily

Generate Test Report

# Use existing data to generate report
python3 scripts/generate-briefing.py weekly

# View output
cat /tmp/tech-weekly-briefing-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt

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Troubleshooting

The Information Returns 403

Cause: Python urllib blocked, curl works Solution: Script automatically uses curl subprocess for The Information Verify:

curl -s -A "Mozilla/5.0" "https://www.theinformation.com/feed" | head -10

No Articles Found

Check:

1. Data directory: ls data/
2. Last fetch: cat /tmp/tech-weekly-cron.log
3. RSS status: blogwatcher blogs

Duplicate Articles in Report

Cause: Similarity threshold too low or high Adjust: Edit is_same_news() function in generate-briefing.py

Missing Company in Buttons

Add Company:

1. Edit COMPANY_KEYWORDS in generate-briefing.py
2. Re-run weekly report generation

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File Structure

tech-weekly-briefing/
├── SKILL.md                          # This file
├── scripts/
│   ├── generate-briefing.py          # Main script
│   ├── setup-sources.py              # Initial RSS setup
│   └── weekly-cron.sh                # Cron wrapper
├── data/
│   ├── articles_YYYY-MM-DD.json      # Daily fetched articles
│   └── company_data_YYYY-MM-DD.json  # Company categorization
└── assets/
    └── (optional assets)

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Dependencies

• Python 3.10+
• blogwatcher CLI for RSS monitoring
• curl for The Information feed
• Standard libraries: json, re, urllib, subprocess, datetime

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Key Performance Indicators

Metric	Target
Daily fetch success rate	≥95% (6/6 sources)
Article deduplication accuracy	≥90%
Low-quality filter precision	≥85%
Hot news detection (≥2 sources)	Capture all multi-source stories
Report generation time	<30 seconds

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Version History

Version	Date	Changes
1.0.0	2026-03-09	Initial release with 6 sources, bilingual format, company buttons

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Usage Examples

User Request: "生成科技周报"

1. Check if data exists: ls data/articles_*.json
2. If no data: Run daily fetch first
3. Run: python3 scripts/generate-briefing.py weekly
4. Send report with inline buttons

User Request: "查看OpenAI新闻"

1. Load company_data_*.json
2. Filter OpenAI articles
3. Display with bilingual format

User Request: "添加新公司追踪"

1. Edit COMPANY_KEYWORDS in generate-briefing.py
2. Add: "CompanyName": ["keyword1", "keyword2"]
3. Re-run weekly report

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Last Updated: 2026-03-09 Maintainer: OpenClaw Agent Status: Production Ready