# Cron Job: yt-sitrep-talking-sasquach

**Job ID:** e4b5abe283b9
**Run Time:** 2026-06-09 20:29:36
**Schedule:** 0 7 * * *

## Prompt

[IMPORTANT: The user has invoked the "youtube-channel-sitreps" skill, indicating they want you to follow its instructions. The full skill content is loaded below.]

---
name: youtube-channel-sitreps
description: "Create recurring YouTube channel sitreps and deliver them to Telegram."
platforms: [linux, macos, windows]
---

# YouTube Channel Sitreps

Use this skill when the user wants a recurring or one-off briefing based on one or more YouTube channels: latest upload, short summary, and a concluding assessment of why it matters in the channel's broader domain.

This is a **briefing workflow**, not a transcript workflow. Use the YouTube content skill for transcript extraction when you need video-level detail; use this skill when the goal is channel monitoring, editorial curation, or scheduled sitreps.

## Typical outputs

- Daily/weekly channel sitreps (compact format)
- **Nieuws24 format** (thematic groups with bold titles + short explanation per item, max 5 videos, concluding takeaway)
- Telegram-delivered briefings
- Multi-channel comparative briefings

## Core workflow

1. **Resolve the channel**
   - Prefer the canonical channel URL or handle.
   - **Verify the channel ID.** The user may provide a wrong UC ID. Use web_search to find the actual `@handle` and extract the correct `UC...` channel ID from the channel's about page or search snippets. Multiple channels can share similar names — verify subscriber count and content theme.
   - **About-page disambiguation.** A channel's `/about` page HTML contains multiple `channelId` and `browseId` values — these include the actual channel's ID plus IDs of *linked/referenced* channels (featured channels in the banner, external links). To find the real one: extract all browse IDs, then test each with the RSS feed at `https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<ID>`. The feed's `<title>` element tells you which channel that ID belongs to — RSS doubles as a channel-discovery tool.
   - Use the channel's `/videos` page to identify the latest public upload.

2. **Extract the minimum useful facts**
   - Latest video title
   - Publish time / freshness (prefer exact ISO dates over relative "X days ago")
   - 1-sentence summary of the video
   - 2-3 recent channel highlights if relevant

   **Workflow priority (try in order):**

   A. **YouTube RSS feed** — `https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<VALID_UC_ID>`. When the channel ID is correct, the RSS feed returns reliable data including exact ISO 8601 publish dates, view counts, star ratings, and full descriptions (including chapters). Parse with `grep -E "(<title>|<yt:videoId>|<published>|<media:statistics)"` for a quick overview. For full descriptions and structured data, use Python's `xml.etree.ElementTree`:

      ```python
      import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
      ns = {'yt':'http://www.youtube.com/xml/schemas/2015','media':'http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/','atom':'http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'}
      for e in root.findall('atom:entry', ns):
          title = e.find('atom:title', ns).text
          vid = e.find('yt:videoId', ns).text
          pub = e.find('atom:published', ns).text
          views = e.find('.//media:statistics', ns).attrib.get('views','')
          desc = (e.find('.//media:description', ns).text or '')[:600]
      ```

      This avoids encoding issues with grep on multi-line description content. The RSS feed is faster than any other method, avoids bot detection entirely, and gives exact dates (not relative timestamps). **RSS works for most channels with a valid UC ID.** If it returns 404, first re-verify the channel ID before concluding RSS is broken.

   B. **curl + CONSENT cookie bypass** — if RSS is confirmed unavailable for this channel, or if the RSS feed returns a different channel's content (e.g. a sub-channel or localized variant). See `references/youtube-sitrep-workflow.md` for the full curl command, JSON path map, and oEmbed recipe.

   C. **FALLBACK (browser)** — only when both RSS and curl fail. YouTube browser sessions loop back to the consent screen because the consent cookie doesn't persist across isolated Hermes browser sessions. Use `browser_console` with JS expression `document.querySelector('a[href*="/watch"]')?.href` to extract the first video URL without relying on the accessibility snapshot.

   **YouTube watch page metadata** — When you need exact ISO publish dates (not relative timestamps) after falling back to curl+CONSENT, extract the `uploadDate` from the watch page HTML's JSON-LD. This is more reliable than the relative timestamps in the videos grid:

   ```bash
   curl -sL -b "CONSENT=YES+US.us+V12" \
     -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 ..." \
     "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" \
     | grep -oP '"uploadDate":"[^"]*"'
   # → "uploadDate":"2026-06-05T00:09:17-07:00"
   ```

   The `CONSENT=YES+US.us+V12` cookie yields English timestamps; `YES+NL.nl+V12` yields Dutch. The watch page also contains `<meta name="description">` and the ytInitialPlayerResponse JSON blob for full video descriptions — prefer `grep -oP '"uploadDate":"[^"]*"'` for just the date, as it's the simplest extraction.

   **Video description from watch page** — The `<meta name="description">` tag is truncated at ~200 chars. For full descriptions (including chapter timestamps), extract from the watch page's ytInitialPlayerResponse JSON blob using the same brace-depth matching technique described in the reference workflow.

3. **Add the editorial conclusion**
   - End with a short conclusion about what the latest video means in the channel's wider niche or industry.
   - Keep the conclusion specific, not generic.

4. **Keep it compact**
   - The briefing should be readable in a phone notification.
   - Prefer bullets and short sentences.

## Telegram delivery pattern

When the user asks for scheduled delivery to Telegram:

- Use a cron job with a stable, class-level name.
- Default naming pattern: `yt-sitrep-<channel-slug>`.
- Deliver in the user's language unless they explicitly ask otherwise.
- If the user wants Belgium time, use `Europe/Brussels` and `0 9 * * *`.

## Email delivery pattern

When the user asks for email delivery alongside or instead of Telegram:

- Write the full sitrep to a local file first at a deterministic path (e.g. `/opt/data/cron/output/yt-<channel-slug>/YYYY-MM-DD.md`).
- Send via the Google API script: `/opt/data/skills/productivity/google-workspace/scripts/google_api.py gmail send --to <email> --subject "YT Sitrep - <Channel> - YYYY-MM-DD" --body "$(cat <filepath>)"`.
- The script has CRLF line endings (`\r\n`) from Git checkout on some systems. If `execve` fails with "required file not found" or similar, run `sed -i 's/\r$//' /opt/data/skills/productivity/google-workspace/scripts/google_api.py` to normalize to Unix line endings, then retry.
- Only skip email if the Gmail API itself fails (check the JSON response for `status: "sent"`). Still write the local file regardless.

## [SILENT] for cron jobs

When running as a cron job and no new videos exist since the last run, respond with exactly `[SILENT]` (nothing else) to suppress delivery. Never combine [SILENT] with content — either report findings normally or deliver [SILENT] alone.

## Related skills

- `youtube-content` for transcript extraction and video-to-text transformation.

## Reference material

See `references/youtube-sitrep-workflow.md` for the reusable briefing template, naming convention, and Telegram cron pattern.

The user has provided the following instruction alongside the skill invocation: [IMPORTANT: You are running as a scheduled cron job. DELIVERY: Your final response will be automatically delivered to the user — do NOT use send_message or try to deliver the output yourself. Just produce your report/output as your final response and the system handles the rest. SILENT: If there is genuinely nothing new to report, respond with exactly "[SILENT]" (nothing else) to suppress delivery. Never combine [SILENT] with content — either report your findings normally, or say [SILENT] and nothing more.]

Check the Talking Sasquach YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@talkingsasquach for new videos since the last run. Output in nieuws24 format: thematic groups with short title+explanation per item, up to 5 videos max, concluding takeaway. After creating the digest, write the full output to /opt/data/cron/output/yt-talkingsasquach/YYYY-MM-DD.md (create dirs if needed). Then EMAIL the same content to tomstynen@gmail.com with subject "YT Sitrep - Talking Sasquach - YYYY-MM-DD" using the GAPI script at /opt/data/skills/productivity/google-workspace/scripts/google_api.py. Only skip email if the Gmail API fails — still write the local file. If there are NO new videos since last run, write "No new videos" to the file and skip the email.

## Response

Email sent successfully. Now I can deliver the full report as the cron output.

## 📡 YT Sitrep — Talking Sasquach — 2026-06-09

**🛠️ DIY Cyberdeck & M5Stack-hacks**

- **I Built a $50 Mini Cyberdeck (Cardputer ADV Mod)** — Volledige bouwvideo van een dual-screen pocket cyberdeck op de M5Stack Cardputer, met 2.8" TFT-touchscreen en Porkchop firmware voor draadloze pentesting, alles onder de $50.
- **Retro Cyberdeck Under $50 Runs Porkchop** — Korte Short/teaser die verwijst naar bovenstaande tutorial.

**📡 Wardriving Hardware**

- **Stop Wardriving With Your Phone! Use These Instead!** — Zeven apparaten naast elkaar getest (ESP32 Marauder, WiFi Pineapple Pager, Cardputer/Pork Chop, Hale Hound, Biscuit Pro, Piglet) voor competitive WiFi-mapping met Wigle.net en Watchdog Go Wars.

**⚡ Flipper Zero Alternatieven**

- **RaspyJack Makes the Cardputer Zero INSANE! Flipper One is left in the DUST!** — Cardputer Zero review met RaspyJack firmware en DOOM-demo, gepositioneerd als het Flipper Zero-alternatief dat wél bestaat.

**🖥️ Raspberry Pi Cyberdeck**

- **I Built My Own Cyber Deck and It Looks INSANE! (Pi Flux Build)** — Stap-voor-stap bouw van de Pi Flux Cyberdeck: Raspberry Pi 5 in custom handheld-behuizing voor draagbare Linux en pentesting.

---

**Conclusie:** Talking Sasquach blijft dé chroniqueur van de DIY-hardware-hacker-scene. De Cardputer/M5Stack-cyberdeck is de spirituele opvolger van de Flipper Zero hype — concrete builds onder $50 ipv vaporware. De wardriving-vergelijking is bijzonder relevant voor Wigle.net-gebruikers en Watchdog Go Wars.

📁 Lokale kopie: `/opt/data/cron/output/yt-talkingsasquach/2026-06-09.md`
📧 Email: sent ✅