Morning Message

Morning Message

Generates Ben's daily good-morning message for the Reuters News Applications Desk Teams channel. The message follows a strict format with four or five lines. The message is them shared with Ben via Telegram. He will tidy it up and post it to Teams himself.

Message Format

☀️ Good morning from <LOCATION>. It is <DAY_OF_WEEK>, <MONTH> <DAY>. The news time is <TIME>.
📰 The top story on Chartbeat is "<HEADLINE>"
🗓️ <NEWS_PEGS>
🪿 <SCHEDULE>
🏃 <RUN_LINE>  (only if Ben ran that morning)

Line-by-line rules

1. Greeting & location — Always starts with "Good morning from". The location is usually one of:

   • the Thomson Reuters Building at 3 Times Square (the office)
   • Studio 4D in moneymaking Manhattan (home studio)
   • A train, plane, or conference venue when traveling Ask Ben where he is if not obvious. Include the day of week, full date (e.g. "Wednesday, May 14"), and current time formatted as H:MM a.m. or H:MM p.m. (AP style — lowercase, periods, no leading zero).

2. Chartbeat top story — Fetch the #1 story using the chartbeat skill:

   {{HOME}}/bin/chartbeat-top-stories.sh stories 1
   

   Extract just the headline and wrap it in quotes with a hyperlink over the entire headline text.

3. News pegs — Mention any known news pegs for the day (economic data releases, scheduled events, team member assignments like "Grant has a forecast"). If none are known, use: I don't know of any pegs today. Ask Ben if you are unsure.

4. Schedule — Lead with the gaggle (daily 2 p.m. Eastern meeting). Default is We gaggle at 2 p.m. Eastern. Then append any other meetings Ben mentions. If Ben cannot make gaggle, note that instead. This 2 p.m. default replaced the old 11 a.m. default after Casey Miller moved to Los Angeles.

5. Run line (optional) — If Ben ran that morning, add a line describing the distance and route. Check the runs log for today's date: Use the Google Workspace MCP read_sheet_values on the Runs Log spreadsheet (1ybViNc3uJp9Be7Os5Cryu6E83VTxB0ZqWPRYYiQAMfA), passing user_google_email: "kip@palewi.re". Do not use gog. Use natural phrasing like "I ran 10k over the Queensborough Bridge and back." If no run is logged for today, omit this line entirely.

Workflow

1. Ask Ben for anything you don't already know:
   • Where is he today? (office, home, traveling)
   • Any news pegs or special schedule items?
2. Fetch the Chartbeat top story.
3. Check the runs log for today.
4. Check today's calendar for meetings:

   vdirsyncer sync && khal list today
   

5. Assemble the message and share it here in Telegram by default.

Style Notes

• Use AP style for times: 8:42 a.m., not 8:42 AM or 08:42
• Day of week and month are spelled out: Wednesday, May 14
• The Chartbeat headline is wrapped in straight double quotes with a hyperlink over it
• Emoji go at the start of each line with a space after
• Keep the tone casual and direct — this is a team chat, not a memo
• The gaggle emoji is always 🪿 (goose)
• The default gaggle time is 2 p.m. Eastern, not 11 a.m.
• Preserve the format as separate visible lines. In Telegram rich text, insert literal newline characters between every emoji-led item; do not let the message collapse into one paragraph.
• If using rich HTML for the Chartbeat link, keep each emoji-led item separated by a literal newline, or wrap each item in its own block element such as <p>...</p>.
• Do not add sign-offs or pleasantries beyond the format

Examples

Typical office day

☀️ Good morning from the Thomson Reuters Building at 3 Times Square. It is Wednesday, May 14. The news time is 8:35 a.m.
📰 The top story on Chartbeat is "Fed signals rate decision is approaching as inflation cools"
🗓️  Grant has a forecast this morning.
🪿  We gaggle at 2 p.m. Eastern. I have my regular meeting with Simon at 12.

Home day with a run

☀️ Good morning from Studio 4D in moneymaking Manhattan. It is Thursday, May 7. The news time is 9:02 a.m.
📰 The top story on Chartbeat is "US and Iran explore short-term deal to end fighting"
🗓️  I don't know of any pegs today.
🪿  We gaggle at 2 p.m. Eastern. I have a GitHub tech meeting at 1. I'll walk into the office shortly.
🏃 I ran 10k over the Queensborough Bridge and back.

Travel day

☀️ Good morning from Acela 2910, which left New York Penn Station this morning at 5:27 a.m. It is Tuesday, May 5. The news time is 7:58 a.m.
📰 The top story on Chartbeat is "Middle East truce in doubt as US and Iran fight for control of Strait of Hormuz"
🗓️  Grant has some forecasts this morning.
🪿  I'll be presenting at RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS USA 2026 this morning, so I can't make the 2 p.m. Eastern gaggle. You should go on without me.

Notes

• This skill only generates the message. Ben reviews, tweaks, and posts it himself.
• In a direct Telegram chat with Ben, share the assembled morning message in the chat by default after drafting it. Do not make him ask twice.
• The Chartbeat headline changes constantly — fetch it right before assembling.
• If the chartbeat script fails, ask Ben to supply the headline manually.
• News pegs and schedule details beyond the calendar often require Ben's input. Don't guess — ask.