draft-newsletter

name	draft-newsletter
description	Draft a new issue of the newsletter by gathering recent blog and micro posts. Use when the user asks to draft, create, or start a new newsletter issue.

Draft newsletter

Draft a new issue of the Working on It newsletter. Follow every step below in order.

Step 1: Find the latest newsletter issue

Glob content/newsletter/*/index.md and determine the highest-numbered directory. Read that file's front matter to get:

• The issue number (from the directory name / slug)
• The date field (this is the "last issue date")

Step 2: Create the new newsletter file

• Compute the new issue number: last issue number + 1
• Create the directory content/newsletter/{new issue number}/
• Create content/newsletter/{new issue number}/index.md with this front matter:

---
title: ""
date: "{TODAY}T21:00:00-04:00"
slug: {new issue number}
draft: true
newsletter: true
social:
  bluesky: ""
  mastodon: ""
  linkedin: ""
---

Replace {TODAY} with today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format and {new issue number} with the computed number.

Step 3: Opening paragraph

Calculate the number of days between today's date and the last issue's date field. Write this as the first content after the front matter:

Welcome back to the (very) occasional newsletter. It has been {NUMDAYS} days since the last issue.

<!--more-->

Replace {NUMDAYS} with the calculated number of days.

Step 4: Blog post sections

Find all blog posts published since the last newsletter issue:

• Glob content/blog/*/index.md
• Read each file's front matter
• Include only posts where date is after the last newsletter's date AND draft is not true
• Sort by date, oldest first

For each qualifying blog post, add a section:

1. A level-three heading with the post's title exactly as it appears in front matter: ### {title}

2. The body text from after the front matter up to and NOT including the <!--more--> marker, copied verbatim with one exception: remove all footnote markers (e.g., [^1], [^2]) and remove all footnote definitions (lines starting with [^1]:, etc.). Footnotes don't work well in the newsletter context.

3. Images: If any image or figure shortcodes appear in the text before <!--more-->, copy the referenced image file from the blog post's page bundle directory into the new newsletter's directory. Update the src attribute in the shortcode to reference just the filename (since it will now be in the same page bundle). For images with paths starting with / (absolute paths), copy from assets/ instead.

4. After the body excerpt, add a blank line and then: [Read the rest](https://lincolnmullen.com/blog/{slug}/)

   where {slug} is the slug field from the blog post's front matter.

Step 5: Links and observations section

Add a section heading: ### Links and observations

Find all micro posts published since the last newsletter issue:

• Glob content/micro/*.md
• Read each file's front matter
• Include only posts where date is after the last newsletter's date AND draft is not true
• Sort by date, oldest first

For each qualifying micro post, add a paragraph:

1. Draft a one-sentence summary that captures the essence of the micro post. Do NOT reproduce the body text verbatim — borrow from it and from any social media content in the front matter, but write an original summary sentence.
2. Images: If the micro post contains image or figure shortcodes, copy the referenced image file into the newsletter directory. For micro post images (paths like /images/micro/filename.jpg), the source file is at assets/images/micro/filename.jpg. Update the shortcode src to just the filename. Add the shortcode on its own line before the summary paragraph.
3. In the same paragraph as the summary, add a link:
   • If the post has a linkpost field: [Read the post](https://lincolnmullen.com/micro/{date-slug}/) or [follow the link]({linkpost-url}).
   • If no linkpost: [Read the post](https://lincolnmullen.com/micro/{date-slug}/).

Micro post permalink format: The {date-slug} is derived from the post's date field formatted as YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS. For example, a post dated 2026-02-06T15:09:00-05:00 has permalink https://lincolnmullen.com/micro/2026-02-06-15-09-00/.

Step 6: Updates section

Add the following section. The three standard categories (Reading, Listening, Working) come first, followed by all other unique gerund-style labels found in ### Updates sections across all previous newsletter issues.

To find the gerund labels: read the Updates sections of all previous newsletters and collect every line that starts with a capitalized gerund followed by a colon (e.g., Playing:, Watching:, Hiking:). Deduplicate them and exclude Reading, Listening, and Working (which are already listed). Also exclude Also reading and Also listening style variants.

### Updates

Reading:

Listening:

Working:

{other gerund}:

{other gerund}:

...

List each gerund label with a colon and nothing after it. The user will fill in content and remove unwanted labels.

Step 7: Review

After writing the complete newsletter draft, briefly summarize:

• How many blog posts were included
• How many micro posts were included
• The calculated days since last issue
• Remind the user to fill in the title, Updates section, and social media fields