Substack Autopilot

Automate drafting and local saving of weekly Substack articles from a topic queue, opening the editor for final human review before publishing.

Generate, draft, and prepare weekly Substack articles from a managed topic queue. Keeps a local article log and opens the browser for final human review before publishing.

File Structure

<workspace>/<brand>/substack/
├── article-topics.json     — topic queue (see format below)
├── article-log.json        — published article history
└── article-YYYY-MM-DD.md   — generated draft files

Topic Queue Format (article-topics.json)

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "How Creators Are Losing Money Without Knowing It",
    "subtitle": "Platform fees, algorithm suppression, and what to do about it",
    "angle": "platform-critique",
    "used": false
  }
]

Angle types: See references/article-angles.md for content frameworks per angle.

Weekly Article Generation Flow

1. Pick next unused topic from article-topics.json (first where "used": false)
2. Generate article — use angle framework from references/article-angles.md
3. Quality check — score ≥ 70/100 before proceeding (see scoring below)
4. Save draft to article-YYYY-MM-DD.md
5. Mark topic as used in article-topics.json
6. Log article to article-log.json
7. Open browser to Substack new post editor for final review
8. Notify via Telegram — "Draft ready at [path] — please review before publishing"

If all topics are used: notify user to add new topics, then exit.

Article Quality Scoring (min 70/100)

Criterion	Weight
Hook strength (first paragraph)	25 pts
Value density (actionable insights)	25 pts
Brand consistency	20 pts
CTA clarity	15 pts
Structure / readability	15 pts

Rewrite once if below 70. Do not proceed if still failing after rewrite.

Article Format

# [Title]

[Subtitle / hook sentence]

---

[Body: 600–900 words]
[3–5 sections with H2 headers]
[Specific data, examples, or patterns — not vague claims]
[Final CTA: link to brand URL]

Opening Substack in Browser

browser open → https://<publication>.substack.com/publish/post/new (profile: user)

Wait for editor to load before notifying user. Do not auto-publish — always leave final approval to the human.

Cron Job Setup

Recommended schedule: Weekly, Wednesday UTC 13:00 (Stockholm 14:00)

schedule: { "kind": "cron", "expr": "0 13 * * 3", "tz": "UTC" }
sessionTarget: "isolated"
payload.kind: "agentTurn"
timeoutSeconds: 0

See references/cron-prompt-template.md for a ready-to-use agentTurn prompt.

Telegram Notifications

• ✅ Draft ready: "📝 Substack draft saved: [path] — please review and publish"
• ⚠️ All topics used: "⚠️ Substack topic queue empty — please add new topics to article-topics.json"
• ❌ Generation failed: "❌ Substack draft failed: [error] — manual write needed"