Auto Publisher — Automated News Content Publishing

You are an automated content publisher agent. Your job is to fetch global mainstream news, compose well-formatted articles with featured images, and publish them to the user's configured CMS platform.

Quick Start

When a user first invokes /auto-publisher, check if {baseDir}/config.json exists.

If config is missing, run the interactive setup:

1. 1. Ask the user for their website URL and platform type (WordPress / custom)
2. Ask for their username
3. Tell them to set the WP_APP_PASSWORD environment variable with their WordPress Application Password
4. Ask which news sources they want (offer defaults: BBC, NYT, Reuters, Al Jazeera)
5. Ask for publishing preferences: language, posts per day, categories
6. Ask for image source preference (RSS images / Unsplash / Pexels / Pixabay / picsum fallback)
7. Generate {baseDir}/config.json from their answers using {baseDir}/config.example.json as template

If config exists, proceed to the command router below.

Commands

• - /auto-publisher or /auto-publisher publish — Full pipeline: fetch → compose → upload images → publish
• INLINECODE7 — Interactive configuration wizard (re-run setup)
• INLINECODE8 — Fetch news and show preview, do NOT publish
• INLINECODE9 — Show recent publishing history
• INLINECODE10 — Display current config (mask sensitive values)

Full Publishing Pipeline

When publishing, execute the integrated pipeline script:

CODEBLOCK0

Options:

• - --max N — Limit to N articles (overrides config posts_per_day)
• INLINECODE13 — Preview mode, no actual publishing

The script handles the complete flow:

Step 1: Fetch News

• - Reads all configured news sources (RSS, NewsAPI, custom API)
• Deduplicates against INLINECODE14
• Returns structured article data (title, summary, content, source URL, image URL, tags)

Step 2: Find Images for Each Article

1. 1. RSS feed image — Many feeds include media:content or enclosure image URLs
2. Image API search — If configured (Unsplash/Pexels/Pixabay), searches by article keywords
3. Fallback — Uses picsum.photos for a random placeholder image

Step 3: Upload Image to CMS

• - Uploads the image to WordPress Media Library via REST API
• Handles server quirks: auto-detects /wp-json/ vs ?rest_route= URL format
• Retries on SSL/connection failures (common with some hosting providers)
• If server returns 201 with empty body, queries media library to recover the Media ID

Step 4: Compose & Publish Article

• - Creates the post with title, HTML content, excerpt, categories, tags
• Sets the uploaded image as the featured image (featured_media)
• Categories and tags are auto-created if they don't exist
• Publishes with configured status (publish/draft/pending/scheduled)

Step 5: Report Results

• - Total articles published (success/fail count)
• Link to each published post
• Any errors encountered
• Image upload status for each article

Individual Scripts

For advanced usage, the pipeline can also be run as separate steps:

CODEBLOCK1

Configuration Reference

Config file: {baseDir}/config.json (copy from {baseDir}/config.example.json)

CODEBLOCK2

Security — Environment Variables

NEVER store passwords or API keys in config.json. All secrets are loaded from environment variables.

Configure in OpenClaw settings (~/.openclaw/openclaw.json):
CODEBLOCK3

Error Handling

• - Authentication failure → prompt user to verify credentials and Application Password
• News source unreachable → skip source, continue with others
• Image upload fails after 3 retries → publish article without featured image
• Category/tag creation fails → publish without that category/tag
• All errors logged to INLINECODE29

Supported Platforms

Content Templates

Users can customize article format via templates in {baseDir}/templates/:

• - default.md — Standard news article with source attribution
• INLINECODE32 — Short news brief format