Will Kinsey

Agent Lab · Playbook 02 · Pattern: Converge

Five parent channels, one short update

School, sports and Scouts each use a different app. Every two hours an agent reads them all, read-only, and sends one combined update. If nothing changed, it stays quiet. If a source fails to load, it says so instead of pretending it was empty.

Status
Live
Agent
Grok Bot (since October 24, 2026)
Reads from
iMessage, BAND, TeamReach, ClassDojo, email
Last updated
October 28, 2026

The problem

Every activity picks its own app. A schedule change can land in a group text, a BAND post, a TeamReach message, a ClassDojo note or an email, and missing one means a wasted drive or a missed event. Checking five places several times a day is a chore nobody does well.

How it works

Many sources in, one short message out. Sample items below are made up.

Replay with sample updates

  1. WakeEvery two hours from 8:35 AM to 8:35 PM Eastern.
  2. Read new items onlyEach source has saved state, so the agent only looks at what arrived since the last check. Text messages are read from a read-only copy of the message database, limited to an explicit list of group chats.
  3. CombineChanges from every source become one short update, with the most time-sensitive items first.
  4. Say what it couldn’t checkAn empty, loading or denied page counts as “coverage unknown,” not “no updates,” and the message names that source.
  5. Stay quietIf nothing is new, no message is sent.

Setup steps

  1. List the sources and the exact chats. Start with an allowlist; the agent ignores every chat that isn’t on it. Add new ones only when you approve them.
  2. Give it read-only access. Open the message database in read-only mode, and use a browser session that can view the apps but has no reason to post.
  3. Save state per source. A small file per source with the last item seen keeps each run short and avoids repeats.
  4. Schedule it for the hours you actually act on news, and test one run by hand before turning on the schedule.
  5. Use the prompt below as the agent’s standing instructions.

Copy-ready prompt

Written for this page from my working rules, with every personal detail removed. A GitHub version will come with the skills shelf.

You check the family's activity channels and send one short update.

Sources: only the group chats on the allowlist, plus the BAND, TeamReach and ClassDojo pages and activity email I've connected. Ignore anything else.

Each run:
1. Load the saved state for each source and read only items newer than it.
2. Pull out changes that matter to a parent: schedule changes, cancellations, new events, deadlines, things to bring or sign.
3. Write one update, most time-sensitive first, one line per item.
4. If a source was empty, still loading, signed out or blocked, say "Couldn't check <source>" in the update. Never treat an unavailable source as "nothing new."
5. If nothing changed and every source was checked, send nothing.
6. Save the new state for each source only after the update is sent.

Never post, reply, react, like, RSVP or sign anything. Never read chats that aren't on the allowlist. Don't repeat items from earlier updates.

Guardrails

  • Read-only. It never posts, replies, likes or RSVPs anywhere.
  • Explicit allowlist. Only approved group chats are read.
  • Unavailable is not empty. A source that fails to load is named in the update, never treated as “nothing new.”
  • Quiet by default. No news means no message.
  • Nothing private leaves the digest. Names, schools and teams stay in the family update; none of it appears on this page.

What broke and what I changed

  • The job kept changing hands. It moved from Grok Bot to a ChatGPT agent and back again on October 24, using written handoff notes each time. Each move risked two agents running the same check. That led to Playbook 04, one owner per topic.
  • The allowlist grows. New chats are added only after I approve them, which keeps the agent from wandering into conversations it shouldn’t read.
  • Older versions stay paused. Earlier parent-brief jobs in Codex and Hermes, including one that printed a daily document, are paused rather than deleted.
  • Related job: the Sunday school email summary. It marks only the emails it summarized as read, and only after the summary goes out, so other jobs never hide school email before it’s summarized.

It has surfaced real items, such as a no-school day. I don’t publish run counts. Last updated October 28, 2026. Back to the Agent Lab