tldr-scraper

TLDR Newsletter Scraper (Gmail-based)

A skill for extracting tech news from TLDR newsletters via Gmail and converting them into well-structured Markdown files with categorized links and AI-generated summaries for each article.

Overview

This skill enables Claude to:

1. Search Gmail for the latest TLDR newsletter email (from [email protected])
2. Read the full email body and parse all article sections
3. Extract article titles, URLs, categories, read times, and TLDR's own blurbs
4. Fetch each article's original content via stealth-browser-mcp
5. Generate a short summary (<100 words) and a detailed summary (<1000 words, scaled to content length) for each article
6. Output summaries in foldable <details> blocks in Markdown

Step 0: Determine Output Language (MUST DO FIRST)

Before fetching any content, determine whether the output Markdown file should be in English or Chinese (中文). This affects all summaries, section headers, and UI text in the final file.

Detection rules (in order of priority):

1. Explicit request — If the user specifies a language (e.g., "用中文", "in English", "中文摘要"), use that.
2. Conversation language — If the user's message is written in Chinese, default to Chinese output. If in English, default to English.
3. Memory/context — Check if user preferences (e.g., from memory or past conversations) indicate a preferred language.
4. When in doubt — ASK.

What changes by language:

Element	English	Chinese
File header / intro	English	中文
Section headers (🚀 Headlines, etc.)	English labels	中文标签 (e.g., 🚀 头条新闻)
短摘要 / Short summary	English	中文
详细摘要 / Detailed summary	English	中文
Article titles & links	Original (unchanged)	Original (unchanged)
Category & read time labels	English	English (keep original)
Footer / generation note	English	中文

---

Extraction Workflow

Step 1: Search Gmail for the Latest TLDR Newsletter

Use the gws-gmail skill to find the most recent TLDR newsletter email.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Match BOTH sender name AND email address. All TLDR newsletters share the same email address [email protected], but each category has a distinct sender display name (e.g., TLDR AI, TLDR Dev, TLDR Fintech). You MUST use from:"<Sender Name>" combined with from:[email protected] to correctly filter by category.

For a specific category (e.g., TLDR AI):

gmail_search_messages(q='from:"TLDR AI" from:[email protected]', maxResults=1)

For any/all TLDR newsletters:

gmail_search_messages(q="from:[email protected]", maxResults=5)

Category-specific search queries (use sender display name for precise filtering):

Category	Sender Display Name	Search query
AI	TLDR AI	from:"TLDR AI" from:[email protected]
Tech (main)	TLDR	from:"TLDR" from:[email protected] (note: may also match other TLDR variants; verify the From header in results)
Dev	TLDR Dev	from:"TLDR Dev" from:[email protected]
Marketing	TLDR Marketing	from:"TLDR Marketing" from:[email protected]
Fintech	TLDR Fintech	from:"TLDR Fintech" from:[email protected]
InfoSec	TLDR InfoSec	from:"TLDR InfoSec" from:[email protected]
Product	TLDR Product	from:"TLDR Product" from:[email protected]
Design	TLDR Design	from:"TLDR Design" from:[email protected]

Verification step: After getting search results, always check the From header in the returned message to confirm it matches the expected sender name (e.g., TLDR AI <[email protected]>). If results contain a different sender name, refine the query or pick the correct message.

If the user just says "TLDR" without specifying a category, search for the most recent emails from [email protected] and let them pick, or process the most recent one.

Step 2: Read the Full Email Body

gmail_read_message(messageId="<message_id_from_step_1>")

The email body is plain text with a well-defined structure. Key parsing rules:

Email Body Structure

The TLDR newsletter email body follows this general pattern. The exact section headers and number of articles may vary, but the overall format is consistent:

TLDR AI 2026-03-10            ← Newsletter name and date
 
SPONSOR SECTION (skip)        ← Starts after "TOGETHER WITH [sponsor]"
                                 Ends before first section header
 
🚀
HEADLINES & LAUNCHES          ← START extraction here
 
 ARTICLE TITLE (X MINUTE READ) [N]
 
 TLDR's blurb paragraph...
 
 ANOTHER ARTICLE TITLE (X MINUTE READ) [N]
 
 TLDR's blurb...
 
🧠
DEEP DIVES & ANALYSIS
 
 ARTICLE TITLE (X MINUTE READ) [N]
 ...
 
🧑‍💻
ENGINEERING & RESEARCH
 
 DEBUG WITH AI... (SPONSOR) [N]  ← Skip any line with "(SPONSOR)"
 
 ARTICLE TITLE (X MINUTE READ) [N]
 ...
 
🎁
MISCELLANEOUS
 
 ARTICLE TITLE (X MINUTE READ) [N]
 ...
 
⚡
QUICK LINKS                   ← STOP extraction here

Parsing Rules

1. Start extraction at the first section header after the sponsor block. Section headers are marked by emoji icons followed by section names: 🚀 HEADLINES & LAUNCHES, 🧠 DEEP DIVES & ANALYSIS, 🧑‍💻 ENGINEERING & RESEARCH, 🎁 MISCELLANEOUS, etc.

2. Stop extraction at ⚡ QUICK LINKS. Do NOT process Quick Links and content below it.

3. Skip SPONSOR entries: Any article title containing (SPONSOR) must be skipped entirely (both title and blurb).

4. Extract for each article:

   • Title: ALL CAPS text followed by (X MINUTE READ) — convert to Title Case in output
   • Read time: The (X MINUTE READ) part
   • URL: Found in the title line as a hyperlink (if available in the email body; if not, you may need to fetch the email's HTML content to extract links)
   • TLDR blurb: The paragraph(s) following the title, before the next title
   • Category/section: Determined by which section header the article falls under

Step 3: Fetch Each Article's Original Content

⚠️ MANDATORY — NO EXCEPTIONS: You MUST call stealth-browser-mcp on EVERY article URL.

This is the most important step. Do NOT skip any article. Do NOT use TLDR's email blurb as a substitute for fetching the original. Do NOT cite "原文无法访问" unless you have actually attempted the fetch and it genuinely failed.

Compliance checklist (enforce strictly):

1. For EVERY article extracted in Step 2, call stealth-browser-mcp with the article's URL
2. If you find yourself writing "原文无法访问" for more than 3 articles in a single run, stop and re-examine — you are likely skipping fetches
3. Never batch-skip articles to "save tool calls" — thoroughness is more important than speed

Fetch rules:

• Use stealth-browser-mcp for better handling of dynamic content and paywalls.
• CRITICAL: Call browser tools SEQUENTIALLY (one at a time). Do NOT make parallel browser MCP calls — the browser instance is shared and concurrent calls will cause race conditions, navigation conflicts, and data corruption. Process each article URL serially before moving to the next.
• If a fetch genuinely fails (timeout, 403, paywall), try web_search with the article title to find alternative coverage or cached content. If web search also fails, fall back to TLDR's own blurb for the short summary and note the failure in the detailed summary. Use the output language from Step 0 — e.g., Chinese: "⚠️ 原文无法访问（已尝试抓取及搜索，返回错误：[具体错误]）", English: "⚠️ Original article unavailable (fetch and search attempted, error: [specific error])"
• If all above methods fail, ask the user to provide the article content directly (e.g., "I wasn't able to access the original article for [Article Title][URL]. If you have access, please provide the content or key points you'd like summarized.")

Step 4: Generate Summaries

For each article, generate two summaries from the fetched content:

Short Summary (短摘要)

• Max 100 words
• One paragraph, no bullet points
• Capture the single most important takeaway
• Language determined by Step 0

Detailed Summary (详细摘要)

• Scaled to original content length, max 1000 words
• Scaling guide:
  • 1-2 min read (~500 words original) → ~150-200 word summary
  • 3-5 min read (~1000-1500 words original) → ~300-500 word summary
  • 5-10 min read (~2000-3000 words original) → ~600-800 word summary
  • 10+ min read (3000+ words original) → up to 1000 word summary
• Structured paragraphs covering: main thesis, key evidence/data, implications, and context
• May include brief bullet points for listing multiple findings or features
• Maintain factual accuracy — do not hallucinate details not in the source

Step 5: Assemble Markdown with Foldable Blocks

Use the section headers from the email as category groupings:

# TLDR AI News - 2026-03-10 (link using the "View Online" URL from the email)
 
> 自动从 TLDR AI Newsletter 提取的科技新闻摘要（含 AI 生成的短摘要与详细摘要）
 
---
 
## 🚀 头条新闻 / Headlines & Launches
 
### [Article Title](https://link-to-article)
**X minute read**
 
📋 Short summary here (plain text, no block)...
 
<details>
<summary>📖 详细摘要</summary>
 
Detailed summary here...
 
</details>
 
---
 
## 🧠 深度分析 / Deep Dives & Analysis
 
### [Article Title](https://link)
**X minute read**
 
📋 Short summary here...
 
<details>
<summary>📖 详细摘要</summary>
 
...
 
</details>
 
---
 
## 🧑‍💻 工程与研究 / Engineering & Research
 
...
 
---
 
## 🎁 杂项 / Miscellaneous
 
...
 
---
 
*生成于 [DATE] · 数据来源: TLDR AI Newsletter*

Section Header Mapping

Email Section	Output Header (Chinese)	Output Header (English)
HEADLINES & LAUNCHES	🚀 头条新闻	🚀 Headlines & Launches
DEEP DIVES & ANALYSIS	🧠 深度分析	🧠 Deep Dives & Analysis
ENGINEERING & RESEARCH	🧑‍💻 工程与研究	🧑‍💻 Engineering & Research
MISCELLANEOUS	🎁 杂项	🎁 Miscellaneous

Formatting notes:

• Always include a blank line after <summary> closing tag and before content
• Always include a blank line before </details> closing tag

Error Handling

• If Gmail search returns no results, inform the user and suggest checking their subscriptions
• If gmail_read_message returns an empty body, tell the user and ask for next steps (e.g., try a different category, or provide the email content directly)
• NEVER write a fetch-failure notice without having actually called stealth-browser-mcp
• If the email body structure doesn't match expected format, fall back to best-effort parsing and note any issues