Intro · Step 1 of 7

Build a Daily News & Industry Summary Agent

An agent that reads real news in your industry every day and emails you a decision-ready briefing — colors, "read more" buttons, and all. Built entirely on free tools. No coding, no Claude, no subscriptions.

By the end of this session

✓ A free Make.com account connected to your Gmail
✓ A free Gemini AI connection that writes your summaries
✓ A working news pipeline covering the beats that matter to your business
✓ A daily agent that emails you automatically, every day, for $0 — forever

What you need for this session

This whole build runs in the browser. Nothing to install, no credit card anywhere in the chain.

A Google account, for Gmail and your free Gemini API key. Create one free at accounts.google.com if you don't have one.
About 80 minutes and a laptop or desktop browser. This one is fiddly on a phone — save it for a bigger screen.
Know the 2-3 news beats that matter to your business. This guide's running example is a jewelry retailer tracking jewelry industry news, precious metals pricing, and fashion trends — swap in whatever fits your industry.

Why build this

Most people either doomscroll industry news at random moments or don't keep up with it at all. Neither gets you an edge. A builder's move is different: turn "staying informed" into a system that runs itself, so the information shows up already filtered, already organized, and already pointed at what it means for your business — before you've had your coffee.

Opening concepts

Concept

What is a no-code automation agent?

An agent is something that runs a job for you, without you doing it by hand each time. A no-code agent does that job by connecting existing apps together on a visual canvas — no programming language, no server to manage. You describe the steps ("get this, then do this, then send that") by dragging blocks, not writing code.

Every business has some repetitive task hiding in plain sight: read the news, chase a follow-up, check a price, file a report. If you can describe that task as a fixed sequence of steps, you can automate it — for free, in an afternoon.

The task follows roughly the same steps every time — that's what makes it automatable
Each step's output can be described in plain language — that's the part an AI can fill in
You start with one narrow win, then expand it once it's actually running

Concept

Every agent is a trigger, a brain, and a delivery

Strip any automation down and you'll find three parts, and today you're building all three for free:

Trigger/source — the real-world thing that feeds it fresh material. Today: RSS, the oldest "give me what's new" format on the internet, and still how most news actually gets distributed.
Brain — something that reads the raw material and turns it into something useful. Today: Google's Gemini, which gives away a genuinely free tier with no credit card required.
Delivery — where the finished result lands. Today: your Gmail inbox, arriving on its own like a note from a very well-read employee.

Concept

Comparing no-code platforms

Several tools can build what we're building today. Here's why this session uses Make.

	Make.com	Zapier	n8n
Free tier	1,000 ops/month, full multi-step scenarios	~100 tasks/month, limited steps free	Free only if you self-host
Best for	Visual, multi-step automations	Quick 2-app connections	Developers who want full control
Used today	✓	—	—

Concept

API keys, free tiers, and rate limits — in plain English

API key — a personal password that lets one app (Make) use another app's AI (Gemini) on your behalf. A free API key is still a real credential: don't post it publicly or paste it somewhere public.

Free tier — the slice of usage a company gives away before it starts charging. Gemini's free tier is generous enough that a once-a-day summary will likely never come close to the ceiling.

Rate limit — the free tier's speed bump: how much you can ask for per minute or per day before it asks you to slow down. Worth knowing up front so a "high demand" message later feels like normal weather, not a sign something's broken.

Build 1 · Step 2 of 7

Build 1 — Set up your automation workspace

Create your free Make.com account and connect the Gmail address your agent will send from.

10 minTool · Make.com (Free)

Concept

What is Make.com?

Make is a visual automation platform: you build a flow ("scenario") by connecting blocks ("modules") on a canvas, and Make runs it on its own servers, on whatever schedule you choose — even while your laptop is closed. The free plan never asks for a card and comfortably covers a once-a-day agent like this one.

1

Go to make.com and click "Get started free." Sign up with your Google account (fastest) or an email and password.

2

Verify your email if it asks, then you'll land on the Make dashboard — an empty space waiting for your first scenario.

3

Click Create a new scenario (the big + button). You'll land on an empty canvas — this is where the whole agent gets built today.

4

We'll wire Gmail up now so it's ready when we need it later. Click the big + on the canvas, search the module panel for "Gmail," and choose "Send an email."

5

Click Add next to Connection, then Sign in with Google and allow Make to send email on your behalf. Close the module for now — you'll come back to it in Build 4.

💡

Which inbox should this be? Any Gmail address works — your own, or a separate one you set up just for this agent. Whichever you connect here is the address the briefing will be sent from.

Click the scenario's default name at the top of the builder and rename it to something you'll recognize later, e.g. Daily Jewelry Briefing. Small habit — saves real confusion once you have more than one scenario running.

📬

Build 1 complete

Make.com account created and Gmail connected

Build 2 · Step 3 of 7

Build 2 — Get your free AI writer connected

Grab a free Gemini API key from Google and connect it inside Make. This is the "brain" that will turn raw headlines into a real briefing in Build 4.

10 minTool · Google AI Studio (Free)

Concept

Why is Gemini's API key free?

Google gives every AI Studio account a genuinely free tier for Gemini — no card on file, a real daily allowance, plenty for one summary a day. It's the same reason app stores give away a free tier of storage: get you building on their platform first.

1

Go to aistudio.google.com and sign in with the same Google account you used in Build 1.

2

Click "Get API key" → "Create API key." Copy the key it generates — a long string starting with something like AIza.... Treat it like a password.

3

Back in your Make scenario, click the canvas, search the module panel for "Google Gemini," and drag any Gemini module on — we'll pick the exact one it needs to be in Build 4.

4

Click Add next to Connection, paste your API key, and click Save. Make confirms the connection instantly — no waiting, no approval step.

Double-check you copied the whole key with no leading or trailing space, and that you're pasting it into a Gemini connection field, not a different Google product's key box. Re-copying the key from AI Studio and pasting fresh usually fixes it.

Google ships several free-tier Gemini models (3.6 Flash, 2.5 Flash, and others as they're released). If one is ever slow or briefly unavailable, you can switch models from the same dropdown later, in Build 4, without reconnecting anything.

🧠

Build 2 complete

Free Gemini connection ready inside Make

Build 3 · Step 4 of 7

Build 3 — Build your news pipeline

Wire up free, no-signup news sources for the beats that matter to your business. This works for any industry, not only the jewelry example used here.

15 minTool · Make.com + Google News RSS (Free)

Concept

What is RSS, and why it's the perfect free news source

RSS is a decades-old format websites use to publish "here's everything new" as a simple feed any tool can read — no login, no API key, no scraping. Google News runs a public RSS search endpoint that turns almost any search phrase into a live, always-current feed:

URL PATTERN

https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=YOUR+SEARCH+TERMS&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

Replace YOUR+SEARCH+TERMS (words separated by +) with anything — "restaurant industry news," "SaaS pricing trends," "construction material costs" — and you have a free, always-current feed for your exact niche.

1

On your canvas, click the canvas again to add a new module, search for "RSS," and add "Retrieve RSS feed items."

2

Decide the 2-3 beats that matter to your business. This example uses a jewelry retailer tracking three: jewelry industry news, precious metals pricing, and fashion trends. Yours might be just one beat to start — that's a completely fine place to launch from.

3

For your first beat, build a URL from the pattern above and paste it into the module's URL field. Worked example:

EXAMPLE — BEAT 1

https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=jewelry+industry+news&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

4

Set "Maximum number of returned items" to 15. Then click into "Date from," switch it to a formula, and enter:

FORMULA — DATE FROM

{{addDays(now; -1)}}

This one setting is what stops your agent from reporting the same story two days in a row — it only ever looks at the last 24 hours.

5

Add a "Text aggregator" module (search "Text aggregator") right after it. Set its Text field to:

AGGREGATOR TEMPLATE

Title: {{2.title}}
Link: {{2.rssFields.link}}
Summary: {{2.rssFields.description}}

The 2 refers to your RSS module's position number, shown in its top-left corner — match it to whatever number Make actually gave that module. Set Row separator to "Other" and enter a blank line, so each article stays visually separated from the next.

6

Repeat steps 3-5 for each additional beat — one RSS module plus one Text aggregator, side by side on the canvas, per beat.

Click "Run once" at the bottom-left of the builder to test just this module. An empty result almost always means the search phrase is too narrow for the last 24 hours — try a broader phrase, or temporarily remove the date filter to confirm the URL itself works before adding it back.

Right-click your RSS + Text aggregator pair and choose Clone, then point the new pair at a different query — a named competitor, a specific product category, even a city for local news. More beats simply means more raw material for Build 4 to work with.

📡

Build 3 complete

A free, always-current news pipeline, wired up for your beats

Build 4 · Step 5 of 7

Build 4 — Turn headlines into a decision-ready briefing

One carefully structured prompt, and Gemini will dedupe, filter, and design a colorful HTML email — not just repeat the news back at you.

20 minAI · Gemini 2.5 Flash (Free)

Concept

Why one long, structured prompt beats ten short ones

The instinct is to ask an AI something short, like "summarize this news." You'll get something short back — generic, and different-looking every single day. A prompt that hands over exactly what the reader needs to decide, the exact HTML structure to follow, and explicit rules for what to skip gets a genuinely usable result on the first try, every day, without you rewriting it tomorrow.

Here's the actual target — a real card from this exact prompt, rendered:

Preview — Your Daily Jewelry, Metals & Fashion Briefing

Metals & Pricing

Platinum climbs on tightening industrial supply

Platinum prices rose for a third straight session as industrial demand outpaces mine output, analysts say.

What this means for you: alternative-metal bands may look more attractively priced to buyers this month — worth featuring in-store.

Read full article →

1

Open the Gemini module from Build 2. Under AI Model, choose Gemini 2.5 Flash (or the newest Flash model available — Flash models are the free-tier-friendly ones; skip anything labeled "Pro," which usually needs billing enabled).

2

Scroll to System Instructions and paste this, filling in the bracketed parts for your own business and beats:

SYSTEM INSTRUCTIONS

You are writing a daily industry briefing email for [describe your business in one sentence]. The reader wants this email to help them make informed business decisions, not just list headlines.

You will receive raw headlines, links, and snippets from these beats: [Beat 1], [Beat 2], [Beat 3].

STEP 1 - DEDUPE FIRST: Before writing anything, scan every raw item across all beats together and merge any that describe the same underlying story or event, even if worded differently or pulled under a different beat. Each real story appears in your output exactly once, filed under whichever single section fits it best. Never write the same story twice under two headers.

STEP 2 - FILTER: Drop anything not genuinely relevant to [your business type] (stock-ticker noise, unrelated local business items, pure filler).

STEP 3 - WRITE: Output ONLY a single HTML email body - no markdown, no code fences, no commentary outside the HTML - using exactly this structure and inline styling.

A) Open with a Key Takeaways box: 2 to 4 short, action-oriented bullets distilled from today's stories (what to watch, what might affect pricing or stocking decisions). Use exactly this pattern:
<div style='background:#fff8e1;border:1px solid #ffe082;border-radius:8px;padding:16px 20px;margin-bottom:24px;'>
<h2 style='margin:0 0 10px;color:#8a6d00;font-size:16px;'>Key Takeaways</h2>
<ul style='margin:0;padding-left:20px;color:#5c4b00;font-size:14px;line-height:1.7;'>
<li>...</li>
</ul>
</div>

B) Then one section per beat that has real content, in this order, each with its own accent color: [Beat 1] = [#hex1], [Beat 2] = [#hex2], [Beat 3] = [#hex3]. Skip a section entirely if nothing relevant survived Steps 1-2 - never pad. Section header pattern:
<h2 style='color:{COLOR};border-bottom:2px solid {COLOR};padding-bottom:6px;margin:28px 0 16px;'>Section Name</h2>

C) Under each section header, one card per story using exactly this pattern:
<div style='border-left:4px solid {COLOR};background:#fafafa;padding:16px 20px;margin-bottom:16px;border-radius:6px;'>
<div style='display:inline-block;background:{COLOR};color:#fff;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;padding:2px 10px;border-radius:10px;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:0.5px;margin-bottom:8px;'>Section Name</div>
<h3 style='margin:8px 0 6px;color:#222;font-size:17px;'>Punchy specific headline</h3>
<p style='margin:0 0 10px;color:#444;line-height:1.6;font-size:14px;'>3-4 sentences: what happened and why it matters.</p>
<p style='margin:0 0 12px;color:#555;font-size:13px;font-style:italic;'>What this means for you: one concrete, honest line. Only include this paragraph where there is a real angle - if there truly isn't one, omit this whole p tag rather than forcing it.</p>
<a href='exact Link value given for this story' style='display:inline-block;background:{COLOR};color:#ffffff;text-decoration:none;padding:8px 16px;border-radius:5px;font-size:13px;font-weight:bold;'>Read full article -></a>
</div>

Button rule: always use the exact Link value provided with that story's raw item as the href. Never invent or guess a URL. If a story genuinely has no link, drop the a tag but keep the rest of the card.

Quality bar: a shorter briefing with 4-6 stories that are genuinely worth the reader's time beats a padded one with filler.

3

Scroll to Messages, add one message with role User, and paste this — matching the numbers to your own Text Aggregator modules:

USER MESSAGE

Here are today's raw items, grouped by beat.

[BEAT 1]:
{{3.text}}

[BEAT 2]:
{{5.text}}

[BEAT 3]:
{{7.text}}

Write today's briefing following the system instructions.

The numbers 3, 5, 7 are your Text Aggregator modules' position numbers on the canvas, shown in each module's corner — not a fixed rule. Match them to your own scenario, and delete a whole block if you only built two beats.

4

Scroll to Generation Configurations and set Max Output Tokens to 6000. This briefing runs longer than a one-line answer, and a low limit will cut it off mid-sentence.

5

Open the Gmail module from Build 1 and drag it to the end of the flow. Set To to whichever inbox should receive it, Subject to something like Your Daily [Your Industry] Briefing, Body type to Raw HTML, and Content to the Gemini module's text output — click the field, then map it from Candidates → Content → Parts → Text in the list Make shows you, rather than typing it by hand.

How this prompt works: Step 1 forces the AI to merge duplicate stories before writing anything — the single biggest cause of a digest that feels repetitive. The exact HTML patterns in Step 3, with real hex colors written in, keep your email looking identically polished every day instead of "creative" in a slightly different way each run. Consistency is what makes an email read like a real product instead of an experiment. The button rule stops the AI from ever inventing a source link — it can only use real URLs your RSS feed actually gave it.

Almost always the Content field pointing at the wrong output, or Body type left on the default instead of "Raw HTML." Reopen the field and re-map it from the Gemini module's actual output list rather than typing a path by hand.

Swap the example accent colors for your own brand's hex codes, and add a line to the system instructions asking it to open by name-dropping your business instead of a generic greeting. If you don't know your brand's exact hex codes, a free tool like coolors.co can pull them from your logo.

✍️

Build 4 complete

Your AI writes a colorful, decision-ready briefing — not just a news recap

Build 5 · Step 6 of 7

Build 5 — Schedule it and go live

Set your agent to run automatically every day, test it once for real, and know exactly what to do the first time a free AI model hiccups.

10 minTool · Make.com Scheduler (Free)

1

Click the clock icon on the first module in your flow (bottom-left corner of the module). Choose "Run once a day," pick the time you want the briefing to land, and confirm your account's timezone under Make's profile settings — an agent scheduled in the wrong timezone still runs, just at the wrong hour.

2

Toggle the scenario ON using the switch in the bottom-left of the builder. It's a small, easy-to-miss switch — a scenario left "off" silently never runs, even on schedule.

3

Click "Run once" (bottom-left) to fire the whole scenario immediately, so you can check real output today instead of waiting until tomorrow's scheduled time.

4

Check the inbox you set as the recipient. If nothing arrived, open the scenario's execution history (the clock icon in the top bar) and click into the run that failed — Make shows you exactly which module broke, and why.

This means Google's servers are temporarily overloaded on that specific model — not that anything in your setup is wrong. Open the Gemini module, change the AI Model dropdown to a different Flash version (2.5 Flash is a safe alternate), and click Run once again.

Reopen each RSS module and confirm "Date from" is still set to {{addDays(now; -1)}} — that's the one setting keeping every day's news actually new. If it looks right and it's still repeating, your search phrase may just be quiet that day — a real gap in coverage, not a bug.

Clone the Gmail module and route the same briefing to a Slack channel or a second inbox, so more than one person on your team sees it — search the module panel for "Slack" and repeat the same connection steps from Build 1.

🚀

Build 5 complete

Your agent is live, scheduled, and running for free — every single day

Share · Step 7 of 7

Share what you built

Drop your first real briefing email in the cohort channel — screenshots of a working agent are how the rest of the group learns what's possible.

Share what you built

Scenario turned ON and confirmed running on its own schedule
Received a real briefing email, not just a test run
Shared a screenshot with the cohort, noting which beats you chose and why

What you built today

✓ A free Make.com account connected to your Gmail
✓ A free Gemini AI connection writing real summaries
✓ A news pipeline covering the beats that matter to your business
✓ A daily agent, live and scheduled, running for $0

🎉

Session complete — nice work.

You now own a real system that keeps working after you close the laptop. Next: try pointing this same pattern at a completely different job — a competitor-price watch, a lead follow-up nudge, anything that repeats.