Scheduled Digests and AI Summaries
One of the most common automation patterns is a scheduled digest: pull recent records for any entity, summarise them with AI, render the result as a PDF, and email the PDF as an attachment. ISO Mate ships this as the Summarize and Email template in the gallery, and you can adapt it to any entity in a few minutes.
The Pattern
- Trigger: scheduled (for example, every Monday at 09:00).
- For Each: iterate over recent records for the chosen entity, filtered by a rolling date window (for example, updated in the last 7 days).
- AI Summarize (optional, inside or after the loop): condense the records into a short summary.
- Generate PDF: render the digest using the entity-agnostic digest template. The PDF is exposed as a step output.
- Send Email: attach the PDF from the previous step and send to a distribution list.
Rolling Date Windows
Dynamic date placeholders make rolling windows easy:
{{now}}: the current UTC datetime at execution time.{{now -7d}},{{now -1w}},{{now -1M}}: offset from now using minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months.
Use these in the for-each query source to grab “records updated in the last 7 days” without hard-coding any date.
Loop Aggregation
Inside a for-each, the loop body can accumulate items into a collection that is exposed after the loop completes. Downstream filters like map, take, and join shape that collection into readable text for your PDF or email body.
Example
{{steps.per_record.output.items | map:'title' | take:10 | join:'<br>'}} produces a newline-separated list of the first ten record titles from a for-each that ran against the per_record step.
Record-Content PDFs
The Generate PDF action supports rendering the full content of a record. Supported entities include notes, tasks, issues, incidents, user stories, policies, and procedures. The rendered PDF picks up the latest styling from the shared PDF template, including consistent typography, improved table handling, and sanitised HTML.
Entity-Agnostic Digest Template
The digest template accepts a title, a summary block, and a list of items. Bind each field from your workflow context and the template handles layout, pagination, and styling. Combine this with the AI Summarize step to produce executive-ready digests without writing a custom template.
Email Attachments
The Send Email action accepts attachments sourced from earlier step outputs. Reference the PDF step by name (for example, {{steps.render_digest.output.attachment}}) and the email will deliver the PDF alongside the body.
Starting Point: Weekly Digest Template
The gallery includes a ready-made Weekly Stale Tickets Digest template and the general-purpose Summarize and Email template. Use either as a starting point, then adjust the entity, filters, distribution list, and styling to your needs.