Example: Morning Briefing Automation

A complete walkthrough of a real automation — from cron trigger to Obama-voiced briefing playing in the kitchen at 6:45 AM.

What It Does

Every weekday morning at 6:45 AM, the system automatically:

Chief wakes up (cron fires)
Reads today's calendar from Microsoft 365
Reads open tasks from Microsoft Planner
Gets the weather for [Your City, State]
Checks for any urgent email flags from Inbox agent
Synthesizes a 60-90 second briefing
Sends it to Signal with TTS
Plays it via Sonos in the kitchen (optional)

No manual action required. Not even opening a phone.

The Components

CRON TIMER (6:45 AM weekdays)
        │
        ▼
  n8n WORKFLOW
  ├── GET Calendar (Graph API)
  ├── GET Tasks (Planner API)  
  ├── GET Weather (wttr.in)
  └── GET Email flags (from Inbox agent)
        │
        ▼
  BARACK (Claude Sonnet 4.6)
  └── Synthesize briefing text
        │
        ▼
  CHATTERBOX TTS (Obama voice, MPS)
  └── Generate audio file
        │
        ├── Signal: Send audio message
        └── Sonos: Play in kitchen (HTTP API)

Step 1: The n8n Workflow

Build this in n8n at http://[N8N_IP]:5678:

Node 1: Schedule Trigger

Type: Schedule Trigger
Schedule: Cron expression
Value: 45 6 * * 1-5   (6:45 AM, Monday-Friday)

Node 2: Get Calendar (HTTP Request)

URL: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/calendarview
Method: GET
Headers:
  Authorization: Bearer {{$credentials.m365.accessToken}}
  Prefer: outlook.timezone="America/Chicago"
Query params:
  startDateTime: {{$today.format('YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00')}}
  endDateTime: {{$today.format('YYYY-MM-DDT23:59:59')}}
  $select: subject,start,end,location,organizer
  $orderby: start/dateTime

Node 3: Get Tasks (HTTP Request)

URL: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/planner/tasks
Method: GET
Headers:
  Authorization: Bearer {{$credentials.m365.accessToken}}
Query params:
  $filter: percentComplete ne 100
  $select: title,dueDateTime,priority
  $orderby: dueDateTime
  $top: 10

Node 4: Get Weather (HTTP Request)

URL: https://wttr.in/[Your+City+State]
Method: GET
Query params:
  format: 3   (returns: "[Your City, State]: ⛅ +45°F")

Node 5: Build Briefing Message (Code Node)

// Combine all data into a briefing prompt
const calendar = $('Get Calendar').first().json.value;
const tasks = $('Get Tasks').first().json.value;
const weather = $('Get Weather').first().json.body;

// Format calendar
const calText = calendar.length === 0 
  ? "No meetings today."
  : calendar.map(e => {
      const time = new Date(e.start.dateTime).toLocaleTimeString('en-US', 
        { hour: 'numeric', minute: '2-digit', hour12: true });
      return `${time}: ${e.subject}`;
    }).join('\n');

// Format tasks (top 3 most urgent)
const urgentTasks = tasks
  .filter(t => t.dueDateTime)
  .sort((a,b) => new Date(a.dueDateTime) - new Date(b.dueDateTime))
  .slice(0, 3)
  .map(t => `- ${t.title} (due ${new Date(t.dueDateTime).toLocaleDateString()})`)
  .join('\n');

const prompt = `Good morning. Please give me my morning briefing.

Today is ${new Date().toLocaleDateString('en-US', { weekday: 'long', month: 'long', day: 'numeric' })}.

WEATHER: ${weather}

TODAY'S CALENDAR:
${calText}

PRIORITY TASKS (due soonest):
${urgentTasks || "No tasks with due dates."}

Please synthesize this into a 60-90 second spoken briefing.
Keep it energetic but brief. Lead with weather + calendar, then tasks.
End with one motivating thought for the day.
Format for voice: no bullet points, no markdown, just clean prose.`;

return [{ json: { prompt } }];

Node 6: Send to Chief (HTTP Request)

URL: http://[YOUR_MAC_IP]:18789/api/agents/barack/message
Method: POST
Body (JSON):
{
  "message": "{{$json.prompt}}",
  "tts": true,
  "voice": "obama",
  "responseFormat": "audio"
}

Node 7: Send to Signal (HTTP Request or use OpenClaw's built-in)

OpenClaw handles Signal delivery when tts:true is set.
The audio file is automatically sent to the configured Signal number.

Node 8 (Optional): Play on Sonos (HTTP Request)

URL: http://[SONOS_SPEAKER_IP]:1400/MediaRenderer/AVTransport/Control
(See Sonos HTTP API documentation for the SOAP request format)

Alternatively: use the openclaw Sonos integration if configured.

Step 2: Configure the Cron in OpenClaw

If you prefer OpenClaw-native cron instead of n8n:

# ~/myai/config/crons.yaml

crons:
  - id: morning-briefing
    schedule: "45 6 * * 1-5"
    agent: barack
    channel: signal
    tts: true
    voice: obama
    message: |
      Good morning. Generate my morning briefing.
      
      Today is {date}.
      
      Please check:
      1. Today's calendar (use calendar tool)
      2. My top 3 priority tasks (use planner tool)
      3. Current weather in [Your City, State] (use weather tool)
      
      Synthesize into a 60-90 second spoken briefing.
      Energetic, brief, no markdown formatting.
      End with one sentence of motivation.

Chief needs the calendar, planner, and weather tools configured as OpenClaw tools.

Step 3: Chief's Briefing System Prompt Addition

Add this to Chief's system prompt:

MORNING BRIEFING FORMAT:
When asked to generate a morning briefing, format your response as
clean spoken prose (no bullet points, no headers, no markdown).
Structure:
1. Greeting + date/day
2. Weather (one sentence)
3. Calendar highlights (top 2-3 events)
4. Top priorities (top 2-3 tasks)
5. One motivating close

Target: 60-90 seconds when read aloud at normal pace.
Test: ~150-225 words.

Sample Briefing Output

Chief generates something like:

"Good morning. It's Tuesday, March 3rd.

Weather in [Your City]: partly cloudy and 34 degrees, warming to the low 40s this afternoon — grab a jacket.

Today's calendar: you've got a 10 AM standup with the Agilent CX team — 30 minutes, just status updates. Then your MSBA lecture at 2 PM, which runs two hours. You're clear in the morning, so that's your focus block.

On the priority list: the Q1 analytics deck is due Thursday and needs your final review. The consulting proposal for that Iowa City client is still in draft — Riley can finish it if you give her the green light. And there are two student emails asking about the midterm rubric that Sage already drafted responses for.

You have a focused morning in front of you. Use it. Let's go."

What It Actually Costs

Per briefing:

Chief (Claude Sonnet 4.6): ~$0.008 (roughly 1,200 input tokens + 250 output)
Chatterbox TTS: $0 (local)
n8n: $0 (self-hosted)

Per month (22 weekdays):

~$0.18 in Claude API costs
Everything else: zero

vs. a dedicated morning briefing app: $10-20/month for far less customization.

Extending the Briefing

Once the basic briefing works, add:

Stock/portfolio summary (via Vega):

Pre-market snapshot of your watchlist

Inbox summary (via Inbox agent):

Urgent emails from overnight

Kids' schedule (via Quinn):

If Kid has soccer, leave by 5:15 PM

Weekly version (Monday only):

Full week preview + last week's wins

The pattern: each extension is a new data source → new tool → more context for Chief → richer briefing.