Dashboard Brief tab — structured JSON at data/brief/latest.json, rendered by the React dashboard
Telegram summary — shorter conversational version sent directly to the user

Prerequisites

data/foliome.db must exist. If not: "No financial data found. Run /sync first."
data/brief/ directory is created automatically if missing.

Data Sources

The brief draws from three sources:

1. Wiki (what matters to the user)

Read the agent's financial memory wiki at data/wiki/:

Read data/wiki/index.md to discover all active pages
Read goal pages (data/wiki/goals/) for savings targets, progress, deadlines
Read preference pages (data/wiki/preferences/) for spending intentions
Read concern pages (data/wiki/concerns/) for balance worries, spending alerts
Read context pages (data/wiki/context/) for life events, pay schedule

If the wiki is empty (no pages in index), generate a data-only brief — no warning banner needed. An empty wiki just means the agent hasn't captured any context yet.

2. foliome.db (what happened)

Use dashboard-queries.js functions via Node.js:

const { getOverview, getTransactions, getSpending, getBudgets } = require('./scripts/dashboard-queries.js');
const overview = getOverview();
const txns = getTransactions(undefined, { from: sevenDaysAgo, limit: 20 });
const spending = getSpending(undefined, { from: monthStart });
const budgets = getBudgets();

Key data points:

Net worth — overview.netWorth, trend from overview.netWorthTrend
Balances — latest per account from overview.balances
Recent transactions — last 7 days
Spending by category — current month
Budget progress — from budgets.categories (spent vs budget per category)
Payment alerts — from overview.alerts (credit cards due soon)
Sync status — from overview.syncStatus

3. config/ (what's set)

config/budgets.json — monthly budget limits per category (already included in getBudgets())
config/payment-schedule.json — credit card due dates (already included in getOverview())

Brief Composition

Greeting

Do not guess the day of the week. Compute it programmatically:

const now = new Date();
const greeting = now.toLocaleDateString('en-US', { weekday: 'long', month: 'long', day: 'numeric' });
// e.g. "Saturday, April 11"

Use this computed value for the greeting field. LLMs are unreliable at day-of-week calculations.

Headline

{
  "netWorth": 142350.00,
  "delta": 1230.00,
  "deltaPeriod": "since last week",
  "sparkline": [138200, 139100, 140500, 141120, 142350],
  "summary": "3 transactions yesterday, $47 spent."
}

netWorth: from overview.netWorth
delta: compare to previous brief's headline.netWorth (read data/brief/latest.json before overwriting). If no previous brief, use month-over-month from netWorthTrend.
sparkline: last 5 values from netWorthTrend
summary: count recent transactions, total spending. One sentence.

Sections

Include sections based on available data and memories. Order by relevance:

goal_progress — if wiki has active goal pages. Show savings account balance vs target, pace projection.
budget_pulse — for each budget category, especially those the user cares about (from wiki preference pages). Include spent, budget, progress (0-1), pace ("on_track", "above", "over").
recent_activity — notable transactions from last 24-48 hours. Not all — just what's worth mentioning.
upcoming — payments due in the next 7 days from overview.alerts. Include payments array.
concern — if wiki has active concern pages and the relevant account balance triggers it.
portfolio — if investment accounts exist, top-level value change.
account_health — sync freshness, any warnings.
insight — any pattern the agent notices (unusual spending, recurring charge changes, etc.)

Prose Style

Trajectory, not snapshots: "Up $1,230 since last week" not "Net worth is $142,350"
Comparisons create meaning: "$80 more than usual by this point in the month"
Quiet days reframe as positive: "Nothing unusual. Spending is tracking below average."
Short, direct sentences. Financial newsletter tone. No emojis.

Output

Step 1: Write Brief JSON

Write to data/brief/latest.json atomically:

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const briefDir = path.join(__dirname, 'data', 'brief');
fs.mkdirSync(briefDir, { recursive: true });

const brief = { generatedAt, greeting, headline, sections };

// Atomic write: temp file → rename
const tmpPath = path.join(briefDir, '.latest.tmp');
fs.writeFileSync(tmpPath, JSON.stringify(brief, null, 2));
fs.renameSync(tmpPath, path.join(briefDir, 'latest.json'));

Also save a dated copy: data/brief/YYYY-MM-DD.json.

Step 2: Respond to User

Send a conversational summary to the user (Telegram or CLI). This is shorter than the JSON — just the highlights.

If running as a Telegram agent, also present the dashboard as a Mini App button so the user can tap to see the full Brief tab:

node scripts/telegram-notify.js --dashboard "<chatId>" "Your brief is ready. Tap to see the full view." "<tunnel-url>"

Use the chatId from the inbound Telegram message and the active cloudflared tunnel URL. Do NOT send the dashboard URL as a plain text link — it won't work without Mini App initData.

Conversational summary example:

Good morning. Here's your snapshot for April 7.

Net worth: $142,350 (+$1,230 since last week)

Restaurants at $620, 78% of your $800 budget with 8 days left.
Chase Sapphire due in 4 days — balance: $672.

3 transactions yesterday totaling $47. Nothing unusual.

Data Staleness

After querying, check staleness for each institution:

24-48h old: note age, suggest /sync
48h old: prominent warning in both the JSON and the message
Never refuse to generate. Always show data with appropriate warnings.

Example Brief JSON (Empty Wiki)

When the wiki has no pages, the brief is data-only:

{
  "generatedAt": "2026-04-07T08:00:00Z",
  "greeting": "Monday, April 7",
  "headline": {
    "netWorth": 142350.00,
    "delta": 1230.00,
    "deltaPeriod": "since last week",
    "sparkline": [138200, 139100, 140500, 141120, 142350],
    "summary": "3 transactions yesterday, $47 spent."
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "type": "budget_pulse",
      "title": "Restaurants",
      "body": "Restaurants at $620, 78% of your $800 budget with 8 days left. Tracking above pace.",
      "category": "Restaurants",
      "spent": 620,
      "budget": 800,
      "progress": 0.78,
      "pace": "above"
    },
    {
      "type": "recent_activity",
      "title": "Since Yesterday",
      "body": "3 transactions totaling $47.57. Whole Foods $28.50, Spotify $10.99, parking $8.08."
    },
    {
      "type": "upcoming",
      "title": "Coming Up",
      "body": "Chase Sapphire due in 4 days. Current balance: $671.99.",
      "payments": [
        { "account_id": "chase-sapphire", "account_name": "Chase Sapphire", "balance": -671.99, "days_until": 4 }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "account_health",
      "title": "Accounts",
      "body": "All 9 institutions synced within the last 24 hours."
    }
  ]
}

Example Brief JSON (With Wiki Pages)

When the wiki has goals and preferences:

{
  "generatedAt": "2026-04-07T08:00:00Z",
  "greeting": "Monday, April 7",
  "headline": {
    "netWorth": 142350.00,
    "delta": 1230.00,
    "deltaPeriod": "since last week",
    "sparkline": [138200, 139100, 140500, 141120, 142350],
    "summary": "Your third week of growth. 3 transactions yesterday."
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "type": "goal_progress",
      "title": "House Fund",
      "body": "Your Chase savings is at $42,300 — 53% to your $80k target. At this pace, you'll hit it by November 2027.",
      "progress": 0.53,
      "account": "chase-savings"
    },
    {
      "type": "budget_pulse",
      "title": "Restaurants",
      "body": "Restaurants at $620, 78% of your $800 budget with 8 days left. You mentioned wanting to cut back — this month is tracking above your usual pace.",
      "category": "Restaurants",
      "spent": 620,
      "budget": 800,
      "progress": 0.78,
      "pace": "above"
    },
    {
      "type": "recent_activity",
      "title": "Since Yesterday",
      "body": "3 transactions totaling $47.57. Nothing unusual."
    },
    {
      "type": "upcoming",
      "title": "Coming Up",
      "body": "Chase Sapphire due in 4 days. Current balance: $671.99.",
      "payments": [
        { "account_id": "chase-sapphire", "account_name": "Chase Sapphire", "balance": -671.99, "days_until": 4 }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "concern",
      "title": "Credit Card Balance",
      "body": "Your Sapphire balance is $1,247 — above the $1,000 comfort level you mentioned."
    },
    {
      "type": "account_health",
      "title": "Accounts",
      "body": "All institutions synced. Capital One was 26 hours ago — still fresh."
    }
  ]
}

Section Type Reference

Type	Required Fields	Optional Fields
`goal_progress`	title, body	progress (0-1), account
`budget_pulse`	title, body	category, spent, budget, progress (0-1), pace
`recent_activity`	title, body	transactions[]
`upcoming`	title, body	payments[]
`concern`	title, body	account
`portfolio`	title, body	—
`account_health`	title, body	—
`insight`	title, body	—