Overview
A good butler reads every paper at dawn so you don’t have to. He throws out the gossip, double-checks the headlines against each other, and at breakfast hands you a single card: here is what actually happened, here is what’s still unconfirmed, here is who said it. No firehose. No doomscroll. Just the truth, filtered to what you care about. That’s this use case. You give Wolffish a list of topics — your beats — and it does an exhaustive sweep of the publicly available web for everything major that happened in the last 7 days, up to and including today. Then it does the part a feed never does: it cross-checks every significant claim against other outlets before printing it, flags what’s single-sourced or disputed, and runs a quick background check on each outlet it cites — what they are, where they’re based, who owns them, which way they lean, whether the industry trusts them. The result is one clean, modern, color-coded PDF with an executive summary up top, easy-to-digest numbers and charts, and just enough text — thorough where a story earns it, a single tight line everywhere else. The point is that you shouldn’t have to look anything else up. Open the PDF, read the executive summary in a minute, skim the color-coded sections, and you’re caught up on your world — with a clear signal next to every item telling you how much to trust it.This is a read-only research workflow — web search and file generation only. It doesn’t post, send, click through your accounts, or touch your system. That also makes it a great heartbeat candidate: a fresh briefing waiting for you every morning.
Video Walkthrough
What Makes This a Butler, Not a Feed
Three things separate this from a generic “summarize the news” prompt:Exhaustive on what matters
It keeps searching each topic until new searches stop surfacing new major stories — so you don’t miss anything significant — while ruthlessly cutting filler, SEO spam, and recycled wire copy.
Trusts nothing unverified
Every significant claim is cross-checked across independent outlets. Each story carries a badge: corroborated, single-source, or disputed — with the contradicting numbers shown side by side when outlets disagree.
Knows the messenger
A quick background check on every outlet cited — what it is, HQ, public or private, owner, rough revenue, political lean, and how trusted it is — so you can weigh the source, not just the story.
Capabilities Required
web-search— the engine of the whole thing.web_searchruns the exhaustive multi-query sweep across your topics;web_fetchopens and reads the actual articles so claims are judged from full text, not snippets — and powers the cross-verification and the source background checks.shell— renders the finished briefing. The agent writes styled HTML and prints it to PDF through a headless browser (Playwright/Puppeteer vianpx) — the same pipeline behind PDFs Everywhere and CV Tailor. No LaTeX, no Word, no third-party PDF API.
Setup
Read the general Setting Up for Success guide first — what’s below is specific to this workflow.Recommended Model
What matters here is reasoning effort, not price. The hard part isn’t summarizing — it’s judgment: deciding whether two outlets are independently confirming a story or just rerunning the same wire, spotting when death tolls or dollar figures don’t match, and weighing a source’s reliability. You want a model that deliberates.- DeepSeek V4 Pro on Max reasoning mode — the recommendation. Frontier-class agentic reasoning and tool-use reliability at a fraction of the cost, and Max mode gives it the full reasoning budget to make the “are these really independent sources?” calls instead of guessing. Set the reasoning effort to Max in Settings > Models. See DeepSeek configuration.
- Claude Opus / Sonnet 4.x — strong alternatives if you’re on Anthropic; Opus is the most careful at the corroborated-versus-disputed boundary, at 10–20× the price.
- Avoid low-effort configs for the verification pass — DeepSeek Flash, any model on None reasoning mode, or Haiku. They’re fine for a quick digest, but the whole value of a butler is the checking — and that’s exactly where a model that doesn’t deliberate will wave through a rumor.
Required
- Wolffish installed and running — the desktop app with a configured brain workspace.
- A capable cloud API key — DeepSeek (V4 Pro) recommended, or Anthropic (Claude); configured in Settings > Models.
Strongly Recommended
- Brave Search API key — configured in Settings > Services > Brave Search. This is “optional” for the lighter PDF prompts, but for an exhaustive seven-topic sweep with cross-verification it’s close to essential: the workflow fires dozens of searches, and the default search will rate-limit partway through and leave gaps. With a Brave key, Wolffish prefers it automatically and the sweep runs clean. The free tier is plenty for a daily run.
Optional
filesystem— for a cleaner audit trail when writing the HTML and saving the PDF (theshellpipeline works without it).- A headless browser — Wolffish installs Playwright/Puppeteer on first use if neither is present. Having
npm/npxon your PATH makes that instant.
What the Butler Tracks
These are the default beats baked into the prompt — the topics in this example. Each becomes its own color-coded section in the PDF. Swap them for your own (see Customize It).| # | Topic | Scope | Section color |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saudi Arabia | Anything major at the country level — policy, economy, Vision 2030 / NEOM / PIF / Aramco, diplomacy, major national events | Emerald |
| 2 | AI industry | Major news and breakthroughs of any kind — model releases, research milestones, landmark funding, big lab moves, regulation | Indigo |
| 3 | Fable 5 | The situation around Fable 5 being blocked in the US, and what Anthropic actually did about it — what happened, when, why, and the company’s response | Amber |
| 4 | Gaming | Major industry news only — blockbuster announcements, release dates, big studio/publisher moves, major acquisitions or shutdowns | Violet |
| 5 | Anime, TV & movies | Major news only — big announcements, major releases, renewals/cancellations, notable box-office or streaming milestones | Rose |
| 6 | Elon Musk & SpaceX | Major Musk news, and especially any SpaceX IPO developments — filings, timing, valuation, official statements | Teal |
| 7 | USA / Israel / Iran | The conflict — strikes, escalation or de-escalation, diplomacy and talks, ceasefire status, US involvement, major casualties | Crimson |
The Verification Model
This is the heart of the butler. Every significant claim gets a badge, and the badge means something precise:Corroborated
Two or more independent outlets report the same core facts. Syndication doesn’t count — three sites rerunning one AP wire is one source, not three. The butler looks for genuinely separate reporting.
Single-source / developing
Only one outlet has it, or it’s thin and early. It’s printed — you should know it exists — but flagged so you treat it as a lead, not a fact.
Disputed
Outlets contradict each other on the facts or the numbers. Both versions are shown, with who said which, so you can see the disagreement instead of being handed one side of it.
The Prompt
Send this to Wolffish on-demand, or put it on your heartbeat. It’s long because “exhaustive, verified, and beautifully laid out” is a real contract — every block below earns its place. The topics in the middle are the only part you’ll routinely change.Customize It
Change any of these to make the butler yours:| What | Where in the prompt | Ideas |
|---|---|---|
| Your topics | The 7 numbered topics | Swap in your own beats — Formula 1, biotech FDA approvals, your portfolio tickers, your city's local news, your competitors |
| Time window | the last 7 days | last 24 hours for a daily pulse, last 30 days for a monthly review |
| Trusted sources | The “Good general ones” list | Add the trade press for your field, regional outlets, or specific blogs you rely on |
| Verification strictness | two or more for green | Require three independent outlets for green (stricter), or drop to one for speed |
| Source profiling | The “size up the messenger” block | Turn it off entirely for a faster run, or expand it into a fuller dossier per outlet |
| Accent palette | The color rules | Map sections to your brand colors |
| Language | Add a line at the end | Write the entire PDF in Arabic — the headless-browser pipeline renders RTL cleanly |
How It Works
The prompt drives a five-stage pipeline. Prefrontal loads theweb-search and shell capabilities into context, the model fixes today’s date, and runs:
| Stage | What happens | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Gather | Exhaustive multi-query sweep per topic via web_search (Brave when configured), until new searches stop surfacing new major items | A raw candidate list of stories per topic |
| 2 — Read | web_fetch opens the actual articles — full text, not snippets — across multiple outlets per story | The real content, ready to compare |
| 3 — Verify | Each significant claim cross-checked across independent outlets; tagged corroborated / single-source / disputed; mismatched numbers reconciled to a range | A trust badge on every story |
| 4 — Profile | One quick background lookup per cited outlet — what/where/owner/revenue/leaning/standing/author | The source trust ledger |
| 5 — Design & render | Styled, color-coded HTML with executive summary, dashboard charts, and seven sections → printed to PDF via headless browser | news-butler-YYYY-MM-DD.pdf |
What’s in the PDF
The output is engineered to be read top-to-bottom in five minutes, or skimmed by color in one:| Section | What it gives you | Why it’s there |
|---|---|---|
| Masthead | Title + the exact week window + date | You know precisely what period this covers |
| Executive Summary | The must-know items, one line each, color + badge tagged | Caught up in 60 seconds if that’s all you read |
| By the Numbers | Story counts, sources consulted, claims checked + charts | The shape of the week at a glance — no reading required |
| 7 Topic Sections | Your beats, color-coded, each story badged and sourced | The substance — minimal text, maximum signal |
| Source Trust Ledger | Every outlet: what/where/owner/lean/standing | Weigh the messenger, not just the message |
| Methodology | Window, counts, what the badges mean, caveats | Know how the sausage was made — and its limits |
The Color System
Color does work in this PDF — it’s not decoration. Three independent color languages, each with its own legend:| Color use | Meaning | Example palette |
|---|---|---|
| Section accent | Which topic you’re reading | Emerald = Saudi, Indigo = AI, Amber = Fable 5, Violet = Gaming, Rose = Anime/TV, Teal = Musk/SpaceX, Crimson = USA/Israel/Iran |
| Verification badge | How much to trust the story | 🟢 Corroborated · 🟡 Single-source · 🔴 Disputed |
| Leaning chip | The outlet’s editorial lean | 🔵 Left · ⚪ Center · 🔴 Right (approximate, in the ledger only) |
Example Run
Here’s the shape of a finished briefing. This is an illustrative example of the layout and tone — your real run pulls live stories for the actual week. Note how most items are a single line, the badges carry the trust signal, and the disputed item shows both numbers.Example Briefing (illustrative layout)
Example Briefing (illustrative layout)
NEWS BUTLER Week of 9–15 June 2026 — everything you care about, verified
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- 🟢 🟦 AI: A major lab shipped a frontier model with a step-change on agentic benchmarks — confirmed across four independent outlets and the official release notes.
- 🟢 🟩 Saudi Arabia: PIF announced a new multi-billion-dollar industrial venture tied to Vision 2030; figure consistent across Reuters and Arab News.
- 🔴 🟥 USA / Israel / Iran: Reports of an overnight strike — outlets disagree on the casualty count (see section). Treat as developing.
- 🟡 🟧 Fable 5: Claims of a US block on Fable 5 are circulating from a single outlet; Anthropic has not published an official statement I could verify. Flagged as developing.
- 🟢 🟪 Gaming: A blockbuster sequel got a firm release date at a major showcase — confirmed by IGN, GameSpot, and the publisher.
BY THE NUMBERS
| 37 | 21 | 14 |
|---|---|---|
| major stories | outlets consulted | claims cross-checked |
AI ████████ 8
USA/Isr/Iran ███████ 7
Gaming █████ 5
Saudi Arabia █████ 5
Anime/TV ████ 4
Musk/SpaceX ████ 4
Fable 5 ███ 3Verification mix — 🟢 68% corroborated · 🟡 24% single-source · 🔴 8% disputedSource leaning — 🔵 Left 9 · ⚪ Center 8 · 🔴 Right 4🟩 SAUDI ARABIAPIF launches new industrial venture under Vision 2030 — 🟢 Corroborated (Reuters, Arab News, official PIF release agree on scope and figure). One line each; no padding.Diplomatic visit produces an energy MoU — 🟢 Corroborated (AP, Al Arabiya).
🟦 AI INDUSTRYFrontier model released with agentic-benchmark jump — 🟢 Corroborated (The Verge, Ars Technica, VentureBeat + official notes). Why it matters: resets the bar competitors were targeting for Q3.Landmark open-weights funding round closes — 🟢 Corroborated (TechCrunch, Reuters).
🟧 FABLE 5Reported US block on Fable 5 — 🟡 Single-source / developing. One outlet reports Fable 5 access was restricted in the US; I could not find a second independent confirmation, and no official Anthropic statement was verifiable at press time. Treat as a lead, not a fact — I’ll catch any confirmation next run.
🟪 GAMINGBlockbuster sequel dated at showcase — 🟢 Corroborated (IGN, GameSpot, publisher).Major studio acquisition closes — 🟢 Corroborated (Eurogamer, Reuters).
🟥 USA / ISRAEL / IRANOvernight strike reported — 🔴 Disputed. Outlet A reports ~14 casualties; Outlet B reports “dozens.” No primary-source figure confirmed yet. Both numbers shown deliberately — do not anchor on either until it firms up.Talks reportedly scheduled — 🟡 Single-source / developing (one outlet, no confirmation).
SOURCE TRUST LEDGER
| Outlet | What | HQ | Public/Private | Revenue | Leaning | Standing | Author |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reuters | Wire service | London, UK | Private (Thomson Reuters) | ~$7B (group) | ⚪ Center | High | — |
| AP News | Wire co-op | New York, US | Non-profit | ~$0.5B | ⚪ Center | High | — |
| The Verge | Tech news | New York, US | Private (Vox Media) | — | 🔵 Lean left | Trusted (tech) | — |
| Arab News | Newspaper | Riyadh, SA | Private (SRMG) | — | ⚪ Center | Regional, established | — |
METHODOLOGY & CAVEATSWindow: 9–15 June 2026 (last 7 days incl. today). 21 outlets across 30+ searches; 14 significant claims cross-checked. Paywalled sources (Bloomberg, WSJ, NYT, FT) skipped by design. Outlet profiles are a quick background pass — directional, not a full audit. “Corroborated” = ≥2 independent outlets; “disputed” = outlets disagree on the facts.Generated by Wolffish — Page 1 of 4
The example above keeps story claims deliberately generic — your run fills them with real, sourced, dated stories. Notice the Fable 5 and strike items: rather than assert something it can’t confirm, the butler prints the lead and tells you it’s unverified or disputed. That honesty is the feature.
Limits
- “Exhaustive” means exhaustive on major news, not every post on the internet. The butler stops each topic at diminishing returns — it won’t miss a significant story, but it deliberately skips minor filler, and very fresh breaking news (the last hour) may not be indexed by search engines yet.
- Verification depends on coverage. A real story that only one outlet has covered correctly will still be tagged single-source — the badge reflects how many independent outlets reported it, not absolute truth. Rare stories and very local news will skew amber.
- Source profiles are directional, not audited. Political-leaning labels come from public media-bias references and are approximate; revenue and ownership are “if readily available.” This is a quick background check, by design — not journalism-grade vetting. Don’t make high-stakes decisions on the ledger alone.
- Paywalled outlets are skipped. Bloomberg, WSJ, NYT, FT and similar return 403 to
web_fetch. Their reporting may be the primary source on a story; the butler works around them with free outlets, but occasionally that means a story is thinner than it would be with paywall access. - PDF rendering needs a headless browser. Wolffish uses Playwright or Puppeteer; if neither is installed it will try to install one, which usually works but needs
npm/npxon your PATH. - It reports, it doesn’t advise. The butler tells you what happened and how trustworthy it is. The judgment calls — what to do about it — stay yours.
Cost & Model Guide
Heavier than a simple news digest — the exhaustive sweep, the cross-verification reads, and the per-outlet lookups mean many searches and many fetches. Still inexpensive on the recommended model.Approximate Cost Per Run
| Model | Est. Cost Per Run | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Pro (Max mode) | ~$0.08–0.25 | Recommended. Frontier reasoning for the verification calls at a fraction of the price |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | ~$0.03–0.08 | Cheaper and faster; weaker at the independent-source judgment — fine for a casual digest |
| Qwen 3.7 Max | ~$0.15–0.40 | Solid alternative |
| Claude Sonnet 4.x | ~$0.40–0.90 | Polished prose; strong verification |
| Claude Opus | ~$1.50–3.50 | Most careful at corroborated-vs-disputed; overkill for daily use |
Token Budget
~250,000–600,000 tokens per run. The exhaustive multi-topic sweep and the full-text fetches dominate; the verification pass and source lookups add the rest. A configured Brave Search key keeps the run from stalling on rate limits, which is what otherwise inflates both time and tokens. Roughly 30–60 LLM calls (searches, fetches, the verification reasoning, the source profiles, and the HTML render). For a few cents a day to never miss anything you care about — and to know which claims to trust — it pays for itself the first time it flags a rumor you’d otherwise have repeated.Automating with Heartbeat
This is one of the best heartbeat candidates in the whole library: it’s read-only research that writes a single file — no posting, no sending, no destructive commands, nothing that needs a human at the approval gate. Exactly the kind of reversible, low-blast-radius job the heartbeat is for. (For the general rule on what’s safe to automate, see What to Schedule.) Open Settings > Heartbeat, paste the block below, and a fresh briefing will be waiting in your workspace every morning before you open your laptop.Make Your Own
The pattern generalizes to any “keep me informed, but verified” job:- Investor’s morning brief — your tickers, your sectors, earnings and filings, with the same corroborated/disputed discipline on rumors.
- Competitive radar — your competitors’ launches, funding, hires, and outages — sourced and trust-tagged.
- Regional desk — your country or city’s politics, economy, and events, leaning on local outlets you list as trusted.
- Fandom desk — a sport, a studio, a franchise — major news only, no rumor-mill noise.