Turn rough ideas and AI news into ready-to-review social post drafts
Starts when you email an idea or a news feed updates. Ends with X and LinkedIn drafts in your scheduling tool, never published.
Bring the step you are stuck on: 30 minutes, a straight answer and the next step. If you would rather have it built, a reply within 5 working days.
The route
7 steps: 2 rule steps, 2 AI steps and 1 person step
Copy, share, discuss
- Copy
Available once this workflow passes its checks.
- Share
todkett.com/automations/content-video/social-media-post-drafts/
- Discuss
Opens when the first workflow passes its checks. No GitHub account? Ask about this by form.
How the library, the tracks and the talk work: the community page.
At a glance
- Starts when
- Ideas emailed to a private address, daily news feeds, or a run on demand.
- Input
- Ideas from a private email address and news feeds you choose.
- Output
- X and LinkedIn drafts in your scheduling tool, never published.
- AI
- Uses AIPicking news stories and writing drafts.
- Rule checks
- 6 checks around the AI
- Tools
- Gmail, RSS feeds, OpenRouter, Typefully, n8n data tables
- Last stress test
- No recorded run yet
01Steps
The steps
7 steps: 2 rule steps, 2 AI steps and 1 person step. Founder-led content, with no time to write. Ideas pile up in notes and inboxes, and turning each one into a post in your own voice takes longer than the idea seems worth, so most never ship.
01Trigger
Ideas and news arrive
Ideas from a private email address and news feeds you choose.
02Rule step
Skip handled ideas, cap input
Skip anything already handled, using an ideas ledger; strip and cap the input at 12,000 characters.
03AI step
AI picks news stories
AI picks at most 2 news stories worth a post.
04AI step
AI drafts the posts
AI drafts an X post and a LinkedIn post in the voice guide, or skips a weak idea.
05Rule step
Check dashes, length, names
Code removes dashes, checks length, flags hype words, hashtags and semicolons, and stops any draft that names a private client.
06Person step
A person edits and posts
A person edits and publishes each draft.
07Output
Drafts and daily digest
Drafts in the scheduling tool and a daily digest email.
Drafts
02Where AI is used
Where AI is used, and what stays with you
AI reads, judges or drafts. Fixed rules check, decide and route. A person approves anything that goes out.
AI step
Steps 03, 04Picking news stories and writing drafts.
Writing in a person's voice is language work. The checks are code.
What the model reads
- Ideas and news text, stripped and capped at 12,000 characters.
- The voice guide it writes in.
What it never sees or decides
- Ideas already handled: the ideas ledger skips them.
- A draft that names a private client: code stops it.
- The publish button: a person edits and posts each draft.
Model calls: Not counted from the workflow yet. It is counted before this page goes live.
Fixed rules
They check, decide and route. 2 rule steps.
- 02Skip handled ideas, cap input
- 05Check dashes, length, names
A person
- 06A person edits and publishes each draft.
03Checks
Checks around the AI
What runs before the model, and what checks its answer after, in plain words. Build these into your version too.
- 01Ideas already handled are skipped, using an ideas ledger.
- 02Input is stripped and capped at 12,000 characters.
- 03An idea needs a fit score of at least 5 out of 10.
- 04A blocked-names list stops any draft that names a private client.
- 05Dashes are removed; X length is checked; hype words, hashtags and semicolons are flagged.
- 06Drafts only: a person publishes.
04The 8 checks
Stress test
The 8 checks we run on every workflow, and you can run too. A check marked Not needed says why.
- Status
- Not yet0 of 8 that apply have a recorded pass
- Last run
- No recorded run yet
- Model review
- Still open
Checks marked Not yet are still open. 3 of them were seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026; a check shows Passed only once its test run is recorded.
ST3Run twice
Status: Not yet
Seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026. The recorded test run is still open.
ST7Human sign-off
Status: Not yet
Seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026. The recorded test run is still open.
ST8Rules around the AI
Status: Not yet
Seen in the workflow design on 23 Oct 2026. The recorded test run is still open.
0 passed · 0 not needed · 8 not yet
What we testWe show what we tested, never the test data. The example below is made up.
05Test replay
How to test it
Before you trust a workflow, try to break it. The sample record runs the route step by step. Each break test below gets its own replay once its recorded run exists.
- Record
- IDEA-0117
- Data
- Sample run, made-up data
01Ideas and news arrive
Idea emailed by Fernway's founder
Done02Skip handled ideas, cap input
Not in the ideas ledger; within 12,000 characters
Done03AI picks news stories
An emailed idea: no news story to pick
Skipped04AI drafts the posts
Fit 7 of 10; one X draft and one LinkedIn draft
Done05Check dashes, length, names
Dashes removed, length checked, no hype words, no private names
Done06A person edits and posts
Held for a person to edit and post
Waiting for a person07Drafts and daily digest
Saved as drafts; nothing published
DraftsArrived
IDEA-0117 reached the last station: Drafts. Saved as drafts; nothing published.
Sample run on made-up data. No stress-test run is recorded yet, so this plays the example, not a test. Nothing runs live.
The break tests for this workflow
- ST3Not yet
Same input sent twice
Seen in the workflow design. No recorded run to replay yet.
- ST2Not yet
Instructions hidden in the input
No recorded run to replay yet.
- ST4Not yet
A connected service fails
No recorded run to replay yet.
- ST8Not yet
The AI returns a broken answer
Seen in the workflow design. No recorded run to replay yet.
06Example
The example, in and out
Made-up data, written to show the steps; no recorded run stands behind it yet. Fernway is a made-up small software company, and its address ends in .example, so it cannot belong to a real business.
InputExample
Example on made-up data: Fernway's founder emails the idea: most of our support tickets are the same five questions.
OutputExample
Fit score 7 out of 10, above the minimum of 5. One X draft and one LinkedIn draft in the voice guide. Dashes removed, length checked, no hype words, no private names. Saved as drafts, not published.
07Limits
When not to automate this
- It never publishes. If you want posts to go out without a person, this is not it.
- It writes in a voice guide. It cannot invent your experience or your results.
08What you need
What you need to run it
| Tool | Access |
|---|---|
| Gmail | Read one private address for ideas, and send the daily digest |
| RSS feeds | Read the news feeds you choose |
| Typefully | Create drafts, never publish |
| OpenRouter | One API key with a credit limit, for the picker and writer steps |
- Where it runs
- In n8n, self-hosted or n8n cloud.
- Model calls
- Not counted from the workflow yet. It is counted before this page goes live.
- Running costs
- Yours, paid to each service directly. Scope in writing first. A quote before any build. No prices on the site yet.
How to adapt it
Changes we have made or tested on this workflow.
- 01Add or remove news feeds; a picker step keeps at most 2 stories a day.
- 02Send ideas from a private email address, or run it on demand.
What changed
- ContentFirst version, written from the 23 Oct 2026 catalog.
09FAQ
Questions people ask about it
Does it post for me?
No. It saves drafts in a scheduling tool, and a person edits and publishes each one.
What checks run on a draft?
Code removes dashes, checks length, flags hype words, hashtags and semicolons, and stops any draft that names a private client.
Where do the ideas come from?
Ideas you email to a private address, news feeds you choose, or a run on demand. A picker step keeps at most 2 news stories a day, and weak ideas are skipped.
10Related
Where to go next
Use cases
7 steps
7 steps
Can you automate it?
Stuck on your version of this workflow?
Bring the step that does not work. In 30 minutes you get a straight answer and the next step. If you would rather have it built, tell us your tools and the rules you already follow. Scope in writing first. A quote before any build. No prices on the site yet.