Daily industry news digest in Slack, every weekday at 9am

Build me a daily industry news digest agent that runs on a cron schedule every weekday at 9am in my local timezone, and posts the result to a Slack channel.

Trigger: cron, Monday through Friday at 9:00am.

Sources to cover (keep this list editable at the top of the agent instructions so I can add and remove sources without rewriting the workflow):

- TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com)
- Hacker News front page (https://news.ycombinator.com)
- Reddit: r/SaaS, r/startups, r/artificial (https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/, etc.)
- Stratechery (https://stratechery.com)
- Lenny's Newsletter on Substack (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com)
- Any other niche industry blog or Substack newsletter I paste into this list later

My focus topics (also keep editable): AI agents, dev tools, B2B SaaS go-to-market, vertical AI, and notable funding rounds. A story is only worth including if it clearly maps to one of these.

Fetching the sources: use the Proxy Scrape integration's "Fetch a Web Page" operation. Default the return format to markdown so the agent gets clean, LLM-ready content. Use the cheapest proxy tier (default) first; if a source returns an empty page, a block message, or a CAPTCHA challenge, retry that single source with the premium tier, and only escalate to the stealth tier as a last resort. Do not enable JavaScript rendering unless a source clearly needs it. RSS is not acceptable for this workflow because several of these sources (Substack, paywalled blogs, anti-bot news sites) reject plain fetches and only return useful content through the proxy.

Reasoning loop the agent should follow each morning:

1. Fetch each source's landing page or feed page and pull the list of recent headlines (last 24 hours, or since the last business day if it ran on Monday).
2. Look at all the headlines together and pick the 10 to 15 most promising candidates based on my focus topics. Drop obvious noise, promotions, and anything off-topic.
3. For each remaining candidate, fetch the full article through Proxy Scrape and read the body.
4. Dedupe: if multiple sources covered the same story, keep the best single version and note the other outlets that also covered it.
5. Score each remaining story by importance to my topics and pick the final 5 to 8.
6. For each finalist, write a punchy 2 to 3 sentence summary plus a one-line "why it matters" angle that ties it back to my focus areas.

Output: a single Slack message posted to the channel #industry-news using the Slack Bot integration's "Send a Message" operation. Format it as Slack mrkdwn (use *bold* for headlines, not **bold**, and use <url|text> for links). Structure:

- Header line with the date and the number of stories.
- Numbered list, ranked by importance, each with: bold headline linked to the source, source name and any duplicate outlets, 2 to 3 sentence summary, and a single "Why it matters:" line.
- A short footer with the full source list the agent checked that morning.

Style rules for the Slack output: keep it skimmable, no fluff, no marketing voice, no em dashes anywhere. Use periods or commas instead. If a source could not be reached, skip it silently rather than padding the digest with weak stories.

This needs to be an agent (not deterministic code) because choosing which stories matter, deduping near-duplicates across outlets, summarizing, and ranking by relevance are all open-ended judgement calls that depend on what is actually in the news that morning.

Additional information

What does this prompt do?

Pulls fresh stories from a list of sources you control: TechCrunch, Hacker News, Reddit communities, niche industry blogs, and Substack newsletters that normally block scrapers.
Reads the full article for the most promising headlines, then picks the 5 to 8 stories that actually matter for your topics.
Writes a 2 to 3 sentence summary of each story with a clear why it matters angle, ranked by importance.
Posts the digest to your chosen Slack channel by 9am, every weekday, so your team starts the day already caught up.

What do I need to use this?

A Slack workspace where you can install a bot and pick a channel for the digest.
A list of news sources, blogs, subreddits, or Substack newsletters you want covered.
A short list of topics or keywords that define what counts as relevant for your team.

How can I customize it?

Swap the source list in or out: add a competitor blog, drop a noisy outlet, switch from r/SaaS to r/devops, all by editing the prompt.
Change the schedule. Weekday 9am is the default; pick 7am, post twice a day, or run only on Mondays.
Tune what counts as relevant by editing the topics list, and change the digest length from a tight 5 stories to a broader 8.
Route the digest to a different Slack channel, a private team channel, or DM it to yourself.

Frequently asked questions

Why does this use a web scraper instead of RSS feeds?

A lot of the best industry sources, Substack newsletters, anti-bot news sites, and paywalled blogs, either do not publish a usable RSS feed or block plain requests. The scraper returns clean, readable article text from those sources so the agent can actually read and summarize them.

Can I add my own niche blogs and Substack newsletters?

Yes. The source list lives in the prompt, so you can paste in any URL the agent should check. Substack newsletters, industry blogs, and subreddits all work.

Will it post duplicates if the same story appears on multiple sites?

No. The agent dedupes by topic and headline before summarizing, so you get one entry per story even if TechCrunch, Hacker News, and a Substack all covered it.

How do I change which Slack channel the digest goes to?

Just tell the agent the new channel name when you set it up, or edit the prompt later. The Slack bot needs to be a member of any private channel you post to.

What if a source is missing or temporarily down one morning?

The agent skips sources it cannot reach and continues with the rest, so one broken site never blocks the whole digest from going out.