tbpn

name	tbpn
description	Weekly newspaper-style summary of TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network) episodes. Use when the user asks for a TBPN summary, weekly tech news roundup, or says "tbpn summary", "tbpn newspaper", "what happened on tbpn this week", "pull the last N tbpn episodes". Also suitable for cron/scheduled end-of-week summaries.
license	MIT
compatibility	Requires yt-dlp and a PO Token server (bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider) for YouTube transcript downloads. Works with any agent that can run shell commands and fetch URLs.
metadata	{"author":"junaidrahim","version":"1.0"}

TBPN Weekly Summary

Generate a newspaper-style summary of TBPN episodes and save it as Markdown.

Configuration

Before first use, set these paths for your environment. Agents should check for a tbpn.config.json in this skill's directory. If it doesn't exist, use sensible defaults or ask the user.

{
  "ytDlp": "yt-dlp",
  "potServerDir": "~/bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider/server",
  "outputDir": "./output",
  "tempDir": "/tmp"
}

• ytDlp — path to the yt-dlp binary (default: yt-dlp on PATH)
• potServerDir — path to the bgutil PO Token server directory
• outputDir — where to save generated summaries (e.g. an Obsidian vault folder like ~/vault/TBPN/)
• tempDir — where to store temporary transcript files

Feeds

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC-DRzaGnL_vtBUpCFH5M0tg
• Newsletter (Substack): https://tbpn.substack.com/feed

Workflow

1. Fetch episodes

• Pull the YouTube RSS feed
• Filter for full episodes (skip Shorts — URLs containing /shorts/)
• By default, get episodes from the current week (Monday–Friday)
• The user may also request a specific number of recent episodes

2. Get transcripts

• Start the PO Token server: cd <potServerDir> && node build/main.js &
• For each episode, download the auto-generated transcript:

  <ytDlp> --write-auto-sub --skip-download --sub-lang en -o '<tempDir>/tbpn-%(id)s' 'VIDEO_URL'
  

• The bgutil plugin auto-provides tokens when the server is running on port 4416
• Clean transcripts: strip VTT headers, timestamps, positioning tags, and deduplicate consecutive identical lines
• Kill the PO Token server when done
• If transcripts aren't available, fall back to episode descriptions from the RSS feed

3. Generate the summary

Read all transcripts and produce a structured summary:

• Headline — the single biggest story
• Top Stories — 3-5 major topics, each with a 2-3 sentence summary
• Interviews & Guests — notable guests and key takeaways
• Hot Takes — spicy opinions from John or Jordi worth noting
• Quick Hits — bullet list of smaller stories mentioned
• Links — relevant links mentioned on the show

Tone: informative, slightly casual, like a tech-savvy friend summarising the week. Aim for 500-800 words total.

4. Save the summary

Save to <outputDir>/YYYY-WNN.md (e.g. 2026-W14.md). Create the output directory if it doesn't exist.

Use the template in references/TEMPLATE.md.

5. Generate PDF (optional)

If the user requests a PDF export, convert the Markdown summary to PDF with a design language inspired by The Wall Street Journal:

• Fonts: Use a serif font for body text (e.g. Georgia, Times New Roman) and a bold serif for headlines
• Layout: Single-column, clean and typographically dense
• Margins: 1 inch (72pt) on all sides — top, bottom, left, right. This is non-negotiable for readability
• Headline: Large, bold, uppercase or small-caps for the main headline
• Section headers: Bold, slightly larger than body, with a thin horizontal rule beneath
• Body text: 11pt, 1.4 line-height
• Color: Black and white only, no color accents
• Footer: "TBPN Weekly Summary — Week NN, YYYY" centered at the bottom of each page

Use Pandoc with a custom LaTeX template, or generate HTML styled with the above rules and convert to PDF via wkhtmltopdf or a headless browser. Ensure the --margin-top, --margin-bottom, --margin-left, and --margin-right flags are set to 25mm (≈1 inch) if using wkhtmltopdf.

Save the PDF alongside the Markdown file as <outputDir>/YYYY-WNN.pdf.

6. Notify the user

After saving, let the user know: "TBPN weekly summary for Week NN is ready."

Notes

• TBPN streams weekdays 11 AM–2 PM PT (John Coogan & Jordi Hays)
• Show was acquired by OpenAI in April 2026
• If no episodes aired in a given week, skip and note it
• The Substack feed can supplement YouTube when transcripts are unavailable