briefings

name	briefings
triggers	["briefing","briefings","block","digest","daily briefing","morning briefing","briefing block","briefing source"]
description	Manage briefing content blocks and sources (in-tree module)
cli	true
companion_skills	["untrusted_input"]
env	[{"var":"BRIEFINGS_USER","from":"user_id"}]

Briefings (content management)

Manage the content model of the user's briefings through the in-tree briefings module. A briefing is an ordered list of blocks; each block has a title, an optional synthesis directive, and 1..N sources that are gathered and synthesized into one coherent section at generation time. Per-user SQLite; block/source/archive data live there. Scheduling and delivery (cron, target room) are managed separately with istota briefings schedule … (operator) or the web settings page — this skill manages content.

CLI

Run istota-skill briefings --help for the live list. Output is JSON.

# Blocks
istota-skill briefings blocks list --briefing Morning
istota-skill briefings blocks add --briefing Morning --title "World News" [--directive "3-5 stories, neutral"] [--render-mode synthesis|structured]
istota-skill briefings blocks set --id 3 [--title …] [--directive …] [--render-mode …] [--options '{"tone":"brief"}']
istota-skill briefings blocks reorder --briefing Morning --ids 3,1,2
istota-skill briefings blocks remove --id 3

# Sources (kind: rss|email|browse|markets|calendar|todos|reminders|notes|shared_block)
istota-skill briefings sources list --block 3
istota-skill briefings sources add --block 3 --kind email --config '{"mode":"shared","lookback_hours":12}'
istota-skill briefings sources add --block 3 --kind browse --config '{"preset":"ap"}'
istota-skill briefings sources add --block 3 --kind rss --config '{"feed_ref":{"kind":"category","value":4},"limit":10}'
istota-skill briefings sources remove --id 7

# Archive (past rendered briefings)
istota-skill briefings archive list [--briefing Morning] [--limit 20]
istota-skill briefings archive show --id 42

Source kinds

• email — shared/unowned newsletter pool ({"mode":"shared"}) or a sender allowlist ({"mode":"senders","senders":["*@semafor.com"]}).
• rss — recent entries from a Feeds subscription/category (feed_ref).
• browse — a frontpage URL, by preset ({"preset":"ap"}) or custom ({"url":"https://…"}).
• markets / calendar — structured built-ins (rendered verbatim; use --render-mode structured).
• todos / reminders / notes — a workspace file named by {"path":"…"}. There is no default filename: a source with no path reads nothing and contributes a provenance note. The path resolves relative to the user's own folder, so shared/… reaches a bot-shared file and istota/… the bot workspace.
• shared_block — pre-made curated content from the shared store ({"name":"world-headlines","max_age_hours":6}). Stale or missing content is omitted rather than failing the briefing.

Blocks are the only content model — the legacy component-based generator is gone. A briefing with no blocks produces nothing and the generation task fails quietly and retries, so give every briefing at least one block.