Use Case: Personal Assistant

calendar · email · memory · daily briefings · knowledge base

What you'll build

A Telegram bot that starts your day with a briefing (weather, calendar, top emails), remembers context across conversations, manages your schedule on request, and answers questions using your personal knowledge base.

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Skills you need SOUL.md template Google Calendar setup Memory & knowledge base Morning briefing cron Example conversations

Skills you need

Skill	What it unlocks	Required?
gmail-reader	Read inbox, summarise unread emails, extract action items	Core
google-calendar	Read upcoming events, create/modify events, check availability	Core
memory-core	Persistent memory across conversations — remember preferences, notes, tasks	Core
web-search	Look up anything on demand — flights, restaurants, definitions, current events	Recommended
file-writer	Save notes, shopping lists, or journal entries to local files	Recommended
http-request	Fetch weather, stock prices, or any JSON API for briefing data	Optional

SOUL.md template

SOUL.md — personal assistant

# Personal Assistant

You are my personal AI assistant. You help me manage my schedule, inbox, and information.

## Identity
- Name: Assistant (or whatever I call you)
- Timezone: Asia/Shanghai (adjust to your TZ)
- Tone: Casual and direct — we talk every day

## Memory rules
- Remember things I tell you: preferences, recurring tasks, people I mention
- At the start of each morning briefing, recall anything I asked you to follow up on
- If I say "remember that..." or "note that...", store it immediately
- Never ask me to repeat context I've given before

## Morning briefing format (run at 8am)
1. Date and day of week
2. Weather: current + high/low (use wttr.in API)
3. Today's calendar events (time + title only, no details)
4. Top 3 unread emails that need attention (sender + subject + one sentence)
5. Any reminders I set yesterday

## Calendar rules
- When creating events, confirm before saving: show "Creating: [title] on [date] at [time] — ok?"
- Default event duration: 1 hour unless I specify
- If I ask "am I free on Thursday afternoon", check the calendar and give a yes/no with any conflicts

## Behaviour
- Keep responses short — I'm usually on my phone
- If something needs more than 3 steps, ask if I want the full breakdown
- Use my first name when you know it

Google Calendar setup

Same OAuth flow as Gmail — one Google Cloud project can enable both the Gmail API and Google Calendar API simultaneously.

Go to console.cloud.google.com → your project → APIs & Services → Library
Enable both Gmail API and Google Calendar API
Use the same OAuth 2.0 credentials file, but add the Calendar scope when authorising:

openclaw.json — personal assistant

{
  "skills": [
    "official-gmail-reader",
    "official-google-calendar",
    "official-memory-core",
    "official-web-search",
    "official-file-writer"
  ],
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
  "soulPath": "./SOUL.md",
  "env": {
    "GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_PATH": "./google-credentials.json",
    "GOOGLE_SCOPES": "gmail.readonly,calendar"
  },
  "channel": {
    "type": "telegram",
    "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
    "chatId": "YOUR_CHAT_ID"
  }
}

Memory & knowledge base

The memory-core skill stores facts in a local Markdown file that persists across sessions. The agent reads it at the start of each conversation, so context carries over automatically.

Memory is stored at ~/openclaw/memory.md by default

# Configuring memory location in openclaw.json
{
  "skills": [
    {
      "name": "official-memory-core",
      "config": {
        "memoryPath": "~/documents/assistant-memory.md",
        "maxEntries": 500
      }
    }
  ]
}

Tell the agent things to remember explicitly:

"Remember: I prefer afternoon meetings, never before 10am"

"Note: John from Acme is our main sales contact, email: [email protected]"

"Remember: dentist appointment is every 6 months, last one was March 2026"

Morning briefing cron

Add to openclaw.json — 8am daily briefing

{
  "crons": [
    {
      "name": "Morning briefing",
      "schedule": "0 8 * * *",
      "task": "Run the morning briefing defined in SOUL.md. Fetch weather from wttr.in/Shanghai?format=3, check today's Google Calendar events, summarise the top 3 unread emails. Post to Telegram."
    },
    {
      "name": "End of day wrap-up",
      "schedule": "0 18 * * 1-5",
      "task": "Check if any of today's calendar events had action items I mentioned. List tomorrow's first 3 events. Ask if there's anything I want to remember for tomorrow."
    }
  ]
}

Example conversations

Schedule a meeting

"Schedule a call with Sarah on Thursday at 2pm for 30 minutes — title: "Q2 planning sync""

Check calendar

"Am I free next Monday afternoon? I need 2 hours for a workshop."

Inbox triage

"Any urgent emails from the last 4 hours?"

Quick lookup

"What's the weather in Tokyo next Tuesday? I might have a flight."

Save a note

"Remember: the AWS bill renews on the 15th of every month, around $340"

Recall context

"What did I ask you to follow up on yesterday?"

Privacy note: The memory-core skill stores data locally in a plain Markdown file. Nothing is sent to external services. If you're storing sensitive information (passwords, financial data), keep the memory file in an encrypted folder or use disk encryption.

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