Email Digest Summarizer

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ai email slack productivity automation

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Email Digest Summarizer

Fetch unread Gmail emails, summarize each with AI, and post a curated digest to a Slack channel in one click.

Email Digest Summarizer is an automation that fetches unread emails from your Gmail inbox via IMAP, uses OpenAI to summarise each message, and delivers a clean digest report to a Slack channel.

What it does

• Email fetching: Retrieves unread Gmail messages via IMAP with fetch-emails
• AI summarisation: Passes each email through OpenAI (gpt-4o-mini) for a concise summary via summarize-content
• Content processing: process-content orchestrates the fetch → summarise loop for all emails
• Slack delivery: Formats all summaries into a rich Slack message and posts it to a channel via send-digest
• Full pipeline: content-digest ties everything together: process all emails then send the digest

Environment variables (.env / keyring on apps)

Variable	Purpose
HABITS_OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI API key for content summarisation
HABITS_GMAIL_IMAP_HOST	IMAP host (e.g. imap.gmail.com)
HABITS_GMAIL_IMAP_PORT	IMAP port (typically 993 for SSL)
HABITS_GMAIL_IMAP_USER	Gmail address to read emails from
HABITS_GMAIL_IMAP_APP_PASSWORD	Gmail App Password for the IMAP account
HABITS_SLACK_BOT_TOKEN	Slack Bot User OAuth Token (xoxb-...)
HABITS_SLACK_DIGEST_CHANNEL	Slack channel ID to post the digest to

How to set up

1. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your credentials.
2. For Gmail, enable 2-Step Verification and generate a 16-character App Password for HABITS_GMAIL_IMAP_APP_PASSWORD.
3. Create a Slack app, add chat:write and channels:read bot scopes, install it to your workspace, and copy the xoxb- token.
4. Invite the bot to your target channel and copy the Channel ID into HABITS_SLACK_DIGEST_CHANNEL.
5. Run content-digest for a full email digest, or enable auto-fetch for continuous monitoring.

Tech stack

• habits framework for workflow orchestration
• OpenAI (@ha-bits/bit-openai) for natural-language email summarisation
• IMAP (@ha-bits/bit-email) for Gmail inbox access
• Slack (@ha-bits/bit-slack) for digest delivery

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Run Your .habit File

Run on Mobile

• [ ] Download the Cortex App from store or the downloads page
• [ ] Open the Cortex App on your device
• [ ] Tap "Open Habit" or "+" button
• [ ] Select your .habit file from your device storage
• [ ] The habit will be loaded and ready to run

Run on Desktop

• [ ] Download the Cortex App for your platform from the downloads page
• [ ] Install and open the Cortex App
• [ ] Click "Open Habit" or drag & drop your .habit file
• [ ] The habit will be loaded and ready to run
• [ ] Optional: Place a .env file in the same directory as your .habit file to override environment variables

Run on Server

Run your .habit file as a server using the Cortex CLI:

# Install and run in one command
npx @ha-bits/cortex --config ./your-app.habit

• [ ] Make sure Node.js 20+ is installed
• [ ] Run the command above with your .habit file path
• [ ] Server will start on the specified port (default: 3000)
• [ ] Access the app at http://localhost:3000
• [ ] Optional: Place a .env file next to your .habit file - it will automatically override any embedded environment variables

Run Serverless

For serverless or containerized deployments, we recommend using Docker:

# Using Docker (recommended for serverless)
docker run -p 3000:3000 -v $(pwd)/your-app.habit:/app/habit.habit \
  node:20-alpine npx @ha-bits/cortex --config /app/habit.habit --host 0.0.0.0

Or create a Dockerfile:

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY your-app.habit ./
COPY .env ./ # Optional: include environment variables
RUN npm install -g @ha-bits/cortex
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["cortex", "--config", "./your-app.habit", "--host", "0.0.0.0"]

• [ ] Create a Dockerfile or use the Docker run command above
• [ ] Deploy to your preferred cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.)
• [ ] Configure environment variables via your cloud provider's secrets management
• [ ] Set up health checks at /habits/base/api endpoint

Workflow Visualization

Requirements

• OPENAI_API_KEY (OpenAI API key)
• GMAIL_IMAP_HOST (IMAP host for Gmail)
• GMAIL_IMAP_PORT (IMAP port for Gmail)
• GMAIL_IMAP_USER (Gmail address to read emails from)
• GMAIL_IMAP_APP_PASSWORD (Gmail App Password for the IMAP account)
• SLACK_BOT_TOKEN (Slack Bot User OAuth Token)
• SLACK_DIGEST_CHANNEL (Slack channel ID to post the digest to)

Quick Start

Run using the Habits CLI wrapper, recommended if you develop local Habits

# First, download the example files
npx habits@latest cortex --config ./email-digest-summarizer/stack.yaml

Download email-digest-summarizer.habit

Get in touch

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This habit is a starting point. Tell us about your stack and we'll help you get it working exactly the way your team needs.

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