channel-recap

name	Channel Recap
description	Recap article from a public Telegram channel — rank posts by engagement, expand on the best
var
tags	["content"]

${var} — Telegram channel username (without @). Required — set in aeon.yml var field.

Read memory/MEMORY.md for context.

If ${var} is empty, abort with: "channel-recap requires var= set to a Telegram channel username" and exit.

Steps

1. Verify the channel exists

Fetch https://t.me/s/${var} with WebFetch and confirm the page contains message blocks (not the "Channel does not exist" or "Private channel" screen). If the channel is missing or private, notify and exit:

./notify "*channel-recap* — channel @${var} is missing, private, or has no public preview. Skipping."

Also capture the channel metadata from the first page: title, subscriber count, and short description — these go into the article intro.

2. Fetch 7 days of posts with engagement data

Paginate through https://t.me/s/${var} using WebFetch. Each page has ~16 posts.

From the HTML of each page, extract for every message:

• post_number (from the data-post attribute, e.g. channel/1234)
• timestamp (from the <time> datetime attribute)
• text (the message body, stripped of HTML)
• links (all URLs inside the message, including the href of <a> tags)
• views (from .tgme_widget_message_views, e.g. "12.5K" → parse to integer)
• reactions (sum of all reaction counts from .tgme_widget_message_reactions)
• is_forwarded (true if the message has a "Forwarded from" header)
• media_type (photo / video / document / none)

Extract the ?before=N link from the top of each page and fetch the next one. Continue until:

• Posts are older than 7 days, OR
• You've fetched 15 pages (whichever comes first)

Fallback: if a page fetch fails or returns no messages, retry once with WebFetch. If it still fails, skip that page and continue with what you have — do not abort the whole run. If an individual post looks truncated on the preview, fetch https://t.me/${var}/POST_NUMBER?embed=1 to get the full text.

Dedupe: if two posts have identical text (common with forwards of the same message), keep only the one with higher views.

3. Rank by engagement, then filter for signal

Compute engagement_score = views + (reactions * 50) for each post. Sort descending.

From the top 30 by engagement, select the 6–12 most interesting for the article (widened from 8–12 to reduce brittleness on slow weeks). Within that top slice, prefer:

• Original takes (posts with commentary, not just a bare link)
• Posts linking to substantial content (articles, threads, papers — not memes)
• Posts that cluster around a shared theme with other top posts
• Posts that share a strong opinion

Skip even if highly viewed: single-word reactions, emoji-only posts, low-context forwards with no added comment, media-only posts with no text.

If fewer than 5 posts clear the bar, write a short recap (300–500 words) instead of a full article — note in the intro that the week was quiet.

4. Research and expand

For each selected post:

• If it links to a tweet, use WebFetch to get the full tweet/thread context
• If it links to an article, use WebFetch to read it
• Use WebSearch to get additional context on the topic if needed
• Note connections between posts — what themes keep coming up?

5. Write the article

Write a 750–1500 word article that weaves the best posts into a coherent narrative. Structure:

# [Channel title] Week in Review — ${today}

> ${subscriber_count} subscribers · [@${var}](https://t.me/${var})
> ${channel_description}

[Opening — 2-3 sentences setting up what the channel was buzzing about this week. Name the dominant theme.]

## [Theme 1 title]

[Expand on 2-3 related posts. Don't just quote them — add context, explain why they matter,
connect to the bigger picture. Each post gets its engagement shown inline, e.g.:
"[post](https://t.me/${var}/1234) (12K views · 340 reactions)"]

## [Theme 2 title]

[Same treatment — expand, contextualize, connect]

## [Theme 3 title]

[...]

## Quick hits

- [one-liner] — [post](https://t.me/${var}/POST) (N views)
- [one-liner] — [post](https://t.me/${var}/POST) (N views)
- [one-liner] — [post](https://t.me/${var}/POST) (N views)

---
*Sourced from [@${var}](https://t.me/${var}) — ${date_range} · ${total_posts_scanned} posts scanned, ${featured_count} featured*

Rules:

• Write in a direct, opinionated style — no hedging, no filler
• Don't just summarize posts — add value. Explain why something matters, what the implications are, what people are missing.
• Use the channel posts as jumping-off points, not the whole story
• Include engagement counts inline so readers can see which posts actually landed
• Group by theme, not chronologically
• Link every featured post with https://t.me/${var}/POST_NUMBER

6. Save the article

Write to articles/channel-recap-${var}-${today}.md.

7. Notify

Send via ./notify (under 4000 chars) — a condensed version:

*${var} — week recap*

[3-4 sentence summary of the biggest themes]

top posts by engagement:
- [one-liner] — N views (link)
- [one-liner] — N views (link)
- [one-liner] — N views (link)

full article: articles/channel-recap-${var}-${today}.md

8. Log

Append to memory/logs/${today}.md:

## Channel Recap — ${var}
- **Channel:** ${title} (${subscriber_count} subs)
- **Posts scanned:** N (7-day window)
- **Posts featured:** N
- **Top post:** [link] — N views, N reactions
- **Themes:** [list]
- **Article:** articles/channel-recap-${var}-${today}.md
- **Notification sent:** yes

Sandbox note

The sandbox may block outbound curl. Use WebFetch as the primary fetch method for all t.me/s/ and embed URLs — it bypasses the sandbox. If a WebFetch call returns empty or malformed HTML, retry once before skipping the page.