Slack + Gemini: a daily news digest your team reads

You start the day with good intentions. Then the “quick news check” turns into 15 tabs, three half-read threads, and a Slack channel full of duplicate links nobody has time to open.

Slack news digest automation fixes that mess. It hits marketing leads and analysts hardest, but founders and agency owners feel it too, because you can’t brief a team on “I skimmed a few things.”

This workflow pulls fresh industry articles, summarizes them with Gemini, deduplicates the clutter, and posts one clean digest to Slack. You’ll see what it does, what you need, and how to make it fit your topics.

How This Automation Works

The full n8n workflow, from trigger to final output:

n8n Workflow Template: Slack + Gemini: a daily news digest your team reads

Click to explore

flowchart LR

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        n0@{ icon: "mdi:wrench", form: "rounded", label: "Decodo MCP", pos: "b", h: 48 }
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        n3@{ icon: "mdi:brain", form: "rounded", label: "Gemini Chat Model", pos: "b", h: 48 }
        n4@{ icon: "mdi:cog", form: "rounded", label: "Remove Duplicates", pos: "b", h: 48 }
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        n8@{ icon: "mdi:play-circle", form: "rounded", label: "Schedule Trigger", pos: "b", h: 48 }
        n9@{ icon: "mdi:robot", form: "rounded", label: "Agent: News Finder", pos: "b", h: 48 }
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        n4 --> n5
        n9 --> n7
    end

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The Problem: News Monitoring Turns Into Tab Chaos

Keeping up with industry news sounds simple until you’re responsible for turning it into decisions. You search, skim, open “just one more” result, then realize half the links repeat the same story with different headlines. Meanwhile, your team asks for “a quick update,” and you either dump raw links into Slack (nobody reads them) or you spend your first hour writing a summary you’ll have to rewrite tomorrow. The worst part is the mental load: you’re always wondering what you missed.

It adds up fast. Here’s where it breaks down in real teams:

People share the same story from five sources, which makes the channel noisy and easy to ignore.
Manual skimming steals about an hour most mornings, and it’s rarely the “best” hour you’ll work.
Important updates get buried because there’s no single, consistent daily briefing.
When you finally summarize, you’re doing it from memory and half-open tabs, so details slip.

The Solution: A Gemini-Powered Slack Digest, Automatically

This n8n workflow runs on a schedule (typically daily at 9 AM) and builds a ready-to-read digest for your Slack channel. You define the topics you care about (AI, competitors, regulations, product category keywords, whatever matters). Then an AI Agent, powered by the Gemini chat model and a Decodo MCP client, searches for fresh articles from roughly the last 48 hours, scrapes the content, and returns structured results. n8n normalizes that output, splits it into individual items, removes duplicates, and aggregates everything into a single clean post. Finally, Slack receives one message with concise summaries and clickable links your team can scan in a minute.

The workflow starts with a scheduled trigger, then the agent gathers and parses the news. After cleanup (formatting and deduplication), it compiles the final briefing and posts it to Slack so you don’t play “human RSS reader” every morning.

What You Get: Automation vs. Results

What This Workflow Automates

Results You’ll Get

Runs every morning on a schedule, without someone remembering to do it.
Uses an AI agent to search, scrape, and parse articles into structured data.
Cleans messy outputs, splits items, and removes duplicate stories before anyone sees them.
Aggregates summaries and links into a single Slack digest post.

Save about 5 hours a week by cutting the daily “news skim” down to a quick read.
Your Slack channel becomes calmer, because duplicates stop flooding the feed.
Teams align faster in standups, since everyone starts from the same briefing.
You spot trends earlier, because the agent pulls fresh items from the last couple days.
Less context switching, which honestly makes the whole morning feel lighter.

Example: What This Looks Like

Say you track 6 topics and you post a “daily links” message to Slack. Manually, it’s maybe 10 minutes per topic to search, open results, skim, and paste links, so about an hour a day (and that’s on a good day). With this workflow, you spend about 5 minutes adjusting topics when needed, then wait for processing while n8n gathers and summarizes. Slack gets one digest automatically at 9 AM. That’s roughly 5 hours back each week.

What You’ll Need

n8n instance (try n8n Cloud free)
Self-hosting option if you prefer (Hostinger works well)
Slack for posting the daily digest.
Decodo MCP to search and scrape news sources.
Gemini API key (get it from Google AI Studio / Gemini API console)

Skill level: Beginner. You’ll connect accounts, paste API keys, and edit your topics in a simple “Set” step.

Don’t want to set this up yourself? Talk to an automation expert (free 15-minute consultation).

How It Works

A scheduled run kicks it off. The workflow starts with a daily schedule trigger (commonly 9 AM), so the digest arrives before your team’s first check-in.

You define the topics once. In the “Define Topics” step (a simple Set/Edit Fields node), you list what you want tracked: competitor names, product keywords, regulations, or specific niches like MCP and web scraping.

The AI agent hunts and reads. The News Scout Agent uses the Gemini Chat Engine plus Decodo MCP tools to search Google, scrape pages, and parse content into structured results from the last couple of days. This is where most of the “manual browsing” disappears.

Cleanup happens before Slack sees anything. n8n normalizes the output, splits it into individual items, removes duplicates, aggregates the best results, then posts a polished digest into Slack with links and summaries.

You can easily modify the topics and recency rules to match your industry, then post to a different channel (or multiple channels) based on your needs. See the full implementation guide below for customization options.

Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

Step 1: Configure the Schedule Trigger

This workflow runs on a daily schedule and kicks off the news collection process.

Add the Scheduled Start node as the trigger.
Set the schedule rule to run at triggerAtHour: 9 (as configured in the node).
Connect Scheduled Start to Define Topics.

Tip: If you want a different time, update the Scheduled Start rule while keeping the hourly structure intact.

Step 2: Define the Topics to Track

This step builds the topic list used by the AI agent.

Open Define Topics and set Mode to raw.
Set JSON Output to { "topics": [ "model context protocol (mcp)", "generative AI", "agentic AI", "web scraping" ] }.
Ensure Define Topics connects to News Scout Agent.

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Keep dotNotation disabled (false) so the JSON array stays intact for the agent prompt.

Step 3: Set Up the AI News Scout Agent

The agent gathers fresh news using the MCP tool and Gemini as the language model.

Open News Scout Agent and set Text to the full prompt provided, including the expression {{$json.topics}}.
Connect Gemini Chat Engine as the language model for News Scout Agent. Credential Required: Connect your googlePalmApi credentials in Gemini Chat Engine.
Connect Decodo MCP Client as the tool for News Scout Agent. Update Endpoint URL to include your API key: https://server.smithery.ai/@Decodo/decodo-mcp-server/mcp?api_key=[CONFIGURE_YOUR_API_KEY]&profile=[YOUR_ID].

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Decodo MCP Client does not have credentials configured. You must add your API key in the endpoint URL or the tool calls will fail.

Tip: The Decodo MCP Client is a tool sub-node—credentials and keys must be set in the parent tool node, not in News Scout Agent.

Step 4: Normalize, Split, and Deduplicate Articles

These nodes clean the AI output, split items, and remove duplicates before aggregation.

In Normalize Output, keep the provided JavaScript to parse JSON and return { output: { items } }.
Configure Split Items with Field to Split Out set to output.items.
Set Deduplicate Records to Compare selectedFields and Fields to Compare url, title.

Tip: If the agent returns malformed JSON, Normalize Output will strip code fences and recover the array automatically.

Step 5: Aggregate and Post to Slack

Articles are aggregated into a digest and posted to Slack.

Set Aggregate Articles to Aggregate aggregateAllItemData and Destination Field Name to articles.
In Slack Digest Post, keep the Text expression as configured to format the digest: {{ ( () => { ... } )() }}.
Set Select to channel and choose the channel #random (or your desired channel).
Credential Required: Connect your slackApi credentials in Slack Digest Post.

Step 6: Test and Activate Your Workflow

Run a manual test to verify the AI output and Slack message formatting before turning on the schedule.

Click Execute Workflow and confirm that News Scout Agent returns a JSON array and Normalize Output produces output.items.
Verify that Slack Digest Post sends a formatted message or No fresh items today. if nothing is found.
If the output looks correct, toggle the workflow to Active to enable scheduled runs from Scheduled Start.

🔒

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Common Gotchas

Slack credentials can expire or need specific permissions. If things break, check the n8n Slack node credential settings and your Slack app scopes first.
If you’re using Wait nodes or external rendering, processing times vary. Bump up the wait duration if downstream nodes fail on empty responses.
Default prompts in AI nodes are generic. Add your brand voice early or you’ll be editing outputs forever.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to set up this Slack news digest automation?

About 30 minutes if your Slack and Gemini keys are ready.

Do I need coding skills to automate Slack news digests?

No. You’ll mostly paste credentials and edit the topic list. The workflow handles the hard parts like parsing and deduplication.

Is n8n free to use for this Slack news digest workflow?

Yes. n8n has a free self-hosted option and a free trial on n8n Cloud. Cloud plans start at $20/month for higher volume. You’ll also need to factor in Gemini API usage costs (usually small for short daily summaries) and any Decodo MCP plan you choose.

Where can I host n8n to run this automation?

Two options: n8n Cloud (managed, easiest setup) or self-hosting on a VPS. For self-hosting, Hostinger VPS is affordable and handles n8n well. Self-hosting gives you unlimited executions but requires basic server management.

Can I customize this Slack news digest workflow for competitor tracking instead of general industry news?

Yes, and it’s the most common tweak. Update the “Define Topics” Set node with competitor names, product lines, and exclusions, then adjust the agent prompt inside the News Scout Agent to prioritize product launches, pricing pages, and press releases. Many teams also tighten the “last 48 hours” rule to “last day” for faster-moving spaces. If you want to route different competitors to different channels, add a simple Switch before the Slack Digest Post.

Why is my Slack connection failing in this workflow?

Most of the time it’s an expired Slack token or missing channel permissions. Reconnect the Slack credential in n8n, then confirm the app can post to the target channel. If it works in one channel but not another, it’s usually a private-channel access issue rather than the workflow itself.

How many articles can this Slack news digest automation handle?

Plenty for a daily digest.

Is this Slack news digest automation better than using Zapier or Make?

For this workflow, n8n has a few advantages: more complex logic with unlimited branching at no extra cost, a self-hosting option for unlimited executions, and native AI agent + tool-use patterns that are awkward (or pricey) elsewhere. Zapier or Make can still work if you only want “RSS in, Slack out” with minimal logic, but deduplication and structured summaries tend to get messy fast. Also, this setup benefits from running multiple actions in one place: search, scrape, summarize, clean, aggregate, publish. If you’re not sure, Talk to an automation expert and we’ll help you choose based on volume and complexity.

One clean Slack post beats a morning of scattered tabs. Set it up once, then let the workflow deliver the briefing while you get on with real work.

Slack + Gemini: a daily news digest your team reads

How This Automation Works

n8n Workflow Template: Slack + Gemini: a daily news digest your team reads

The Problem: News Monitoring Turns Into Tab Chaos