/start-11-3.en

description: "Lesson command"
chapter: "courses/aiagent/lesson03-core/module11-github-actions"
duration: "~25 min"
prerequisites: ["start-11-2"]
level: "intermediate"
tags: ["github-actions", "news", "email", "slack", "webhook", "cron"]
nonInteractiveMode: deferred

🎓 Lesson 11-3: News Fetching → Email/Slack Distribution Workflow

📍 What You'll Do

**Lesson 11-3: News Fetching → Email/Slack Distribution**!

| Item | Details | |------|------| | Goal | Build a GitHub Actions workflow that automatically fetches news and distributes it via email and Slack | | Duration | ~25 min | | Skills used | GitHub Actions, Python (requests), Slack Webhook, smtplib | | Prerequisites | Lesson 11-2 completed (understanding of Secrets configuration) |

**Session flow:** 1. Create the news fetching script 2. Implement email sending 3. Set up Slack Webhook notifications 4. Create the GitHub Actions workflow 5. Configure Secrets and test

By the end of this session, you'll have a complete pipeline that periodically collects news and automatically distributes it to email and Slack.

> **💡 Hint**: If the AI response stops midway, type "please continue" or "keep going" to resume.

---

🎯 Readiness Check

**AskQuestion configuration:**

{
  "title": "🎯 Pre-session check",
  "questions": [{
    "id": "readiness",
    "prompt": "Are you ready?",
    "options": [
      {"id": "ready", "label": "Ready! Let's start"},
      {"id": "check_prereq", "label": "Check prerequisites"},
      {"id": "different_lesson", "label": "Go to a different lesson"}
    ]
  }]
}

(ready → Go to Step 1) (check_prereq → Verify Lesson 11-2 completion. Check that the `.github/workflows/` directory exists) (different_lesson → Display module list)

---

🚀 Step 1: Create the News Fetching Script

{
  "title": "🚀 Step 1: News Fetching Script",
  "questions": [{
    "id": "step_action",
    "prompt": "Create a Python script that fetches news from RSS feeds or a News API.",
    "options": [
      {"id": "practice", "label": "Proceed"},
      {"id": "review", "label": "Review how RSS/APIs work"},
      {"id": "skip", "label": "Skip"}
    ]
  }]
}

**Guidance after selection:**

Create `tools/fetch_news.py`:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""News fetching script — collects news from RSS feeds"""
import json
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
from datetime import datetime
import requests

# RSS feed URLs (e.g., Hacker News, TechCrunch)
RSS_FEEDS = [
    {"name": "Hacker News", "url": "https://hnrss.org/newest?count=5"},
    {"name": "TechCrunch", "url": "https://techcrunch.com/feed/"},
]

def fetch_rss(url, max_items=5):
    """Fetch news from an RSS feed"""
    resp = requests.get(url, timeout=30)
    resp.raise_for_status()
    root = ET.fromstring(resp.text)
    items = []
    for item in root.iter("item"):
        title = item.findtext("title", "")
        link = item.findtext("link", "")
        pub_date = item.findtext("pubDate", "")
        items.append({"title": title, "link": link, "pubDate": pub_date})
        if len(items) >= max_items:
            break
    return items

def main():
    all_news = []
    for feed in RSS_FEEDS:
        try:
            items = fetch_rss(feed["url"])
            all_news.append({"source": feed["name"], "items": items})
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"[WARN] {feed['name']}: {e}")
    
    # JSON output
    output = {
        "generated_at": datetime.utcnow().isoformat(),
        "feeds": all_news
    }
    with open("output/news_digest.json", "w") as f:
        json.dump(output, f, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2)
    print(f"Fetch complete: {sum(len(f['items']) for f in all_news)} news items")
    return output

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

mkdir -p output && python tools/fetch_news.py

**Expected result:** News data is saved to `output/news_digest.json`.

---

🚀 Step 2: Implement Email Sending

{
  "title": "🚀 Step 2: Email Sending",
  "questions": [{
    "id": "step_action",
    "prompt": "Add email sending functionality for the fetched news.",
    "options": [
      {"id": "practice", "label": "Proceed"},
      {"id": "review", "label": "Review how smtplib works"},
      {"id": "skip", "label": "Skip"}
    ]
  }]
}

**Guidance after selection:**

Add a sending function to `tools/fetch_news.py`:

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
import os

def send_email(news_data):
    """Send a news digest email"""
    smtp_user = os.environ.get("SMTP_USER", "")
    smtp_pass = os.environ.get("SMTP_PASS", "")
    to_email = os.environ.get("NOTIFY_EMAIL", smtp_user)
    
    if not smtp_user or not smtp_pass:
        print("[SKIP] SMTP credentials not configured, skipping email")
        return

    # Build email body
    body_lines = [f"# News Digest ({news_data['generated_at'][:10]})\n"]
    for feed in news_data["feeds"]:
        body_lines.append(f"\n## {feed['source']}")
        for item in feed["items"]:
            body_lines.append(f"- [{item['title']}]({item['link']})")
    
    body = "\n".join(body_lines)
    msg = MIMEText(body, "plain", "utf-8")
    msg["Subject"] = f"News Digest {news_data['generated_at'][:10]}"
    msg["From"] = smtp_user
    msg["To"] = to_email

    with smtplib.SMTP("smtp.gmail.com", 587) as server:
        server.starttls()
        server.login(smtp_user, smtp_pass)
        server.send_message(msg)
    print(f"Email sent: {to_email}")

**Note**: For Gmail, an app password is required. Set `SMTP_USER` and `SMTP_PASS` in Secrets.

**Expected result:** The news digest is sent by email.

---

🚀 Step 3: Set Up Slack Webhook Notifications

{
  "title": "🚀 Step 3: Slack Notifications",
  "questions": [{
    "id": "step_action",
    "prompt": "Send news notifications via a Slack Incoming Webhook.",
    "options": [
      {"id": "practice", "label": "Proceed"},
      {"id": "review", "label": "Review how to create a Slack Webhook"},
      {"