--- name: daily-wisdom description: | Daily wisdom, anecdotes & historical stories delivered via cron. Use when: "daily anecdote", "daily wisdom", "wisdom cron", "daily story", "morning wisdom", setting up recurring cultural/historical content delivery. Don't use when: one-off trivia (just answer directly), news digests, social media posts. Outputs: A rich daily message with original-language quote, story, and modern connection. Writes to history file to prevent repeats. metadata: emoji: 📜 category: content tags: [wisdom, history, culture, cron, daily, anecdote, stoic, turkish, mythology] ---

Daily Wisdom

Deliver a daily historical anecdote, philosophical insight, or cultural story as a recurring cron job. Designed for depth, variety, and zero repeats.

What It Does

This is NOT a database of pre-written stories. Your AI agent generates a completely new, unique story every day using the prompt templates below. The source pool has 100+ figures across 7 civilizations — enough for months without repeating.

Each day, the agent:

1. Reads the history file to see what's been covered
2. Generates a brand new story from the source pool, avoiding anything in history
3. Writes a rich message: original-language quote → translation → story (5-8 sentences) → modern connection
4. Delivers via the configured channel (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, etc.)
5. Appends today's topic to the history file

Source Pool

All traditions are drawn from equally — no fixed percentages. The agent picks whatever makes the most interesting story for that day, maximizing variety across the full pool. The only rule: don't repeat a tradition back-to-back.

Turkic & Central Asian

• Dede Korkut — Kan Turalı, Basat & Tepegöz, Deli Dumrul, Bamsı Beyrek, Salur Kazan
• Orhon Yazıtları — Bilge Kağan, Kül Tigin, Tonyukuk
• Göktürk & Hun — Mete Han, Bumin Kağan, İstemi Yabgu, Attila
• Manas Destanı — Kırgız epic, largest oral tradition in the world
• Nasreddin Hoca — Timeless wit and paradox

Islamic Golden Age & Sufi

• İbn Sina, Al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Khaldun, Al-Biruni — Science & philosophy
• Mevlana, Yunus Emre, Hacı Bektaş Veli, Ahmed Yesevi — Sufi poetry & wisdom
• Ibn Battuta — The greatest traveler
• Selçuklu & Osmanlı — Alparslan, Fatih, Mimar Sinan, Piri Reis, Evliya Çelebi

Classical Mediterranean

• Stoicism — Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus
• Greek — Heraclitus, Diogenes, Thales, Aristotle, Socrates
• Roman — Cicero, Cato, Plutarch

Far East

• Sun Tzu — Art of War
• Miyamoto Musashi — Book of Five Rings
• Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi — Eastern philosophy
• Zen koans — Paradox and insight
• Chanakya (Kautilya) — Indian statecraft

Ancient & Pre-Classical

• Gilgamesh — The oldest story
• Egyptian — Ptahhotep, Book of the Dead, Imhotep
• Norse — Hávamál, Odin's wisdom, Ragnarök
• Sumerian proverbs
• Zoroastrian — Avesta, good thoughts/words/deeds

African & Indigenous

• Sundiata Keita — Mali Empire founder
• Mansa Musa — Richest human in history
• Anansi stories — West African trickster wisdom
• Ubuntu philosophy — "I am because we are"
• Timbuktu scholars — Sankore University

Renaissance & Early Modern

• Machiavelli, Leonardo, Montaigne
• Copernicus, Galileo — Paradigm shifts
• Ada Lovelace, Nikola Tesla — Visionaries ahead of their time

Prompt Templates

Standard Daily (recommended)

You are a cultural historian and storyteller. Deliver today's wisdom.

RULES:
1. Pick any source from the pool. Maximize variety — don't repeat the same tradition back-to-back. Favor sources that haven't appeared recently in the history.
2. DO NOT repeat anything from the history file below.
3. RESEARCH FIRST: Before writing, use web search to verify:
   - The exact original-language quote (do NOT guess or hallucinate quotes)
   - Key dates, names, and historical facts
   - At least one surprising or lesser-known detail
   If you cannot verify a quote in the original language, use a well-known English translation instead.
4. WRITE RICHLY. This is not a tweet. This is a mini-essay. Minimum 500 words, ideally 700-900.
5. Format:

📜 **[Title — Person/Source, Era]**

> *"[Original language quote]"*
> — [Attribution]

🌍 [English translation if quote is in another language]

---

**The Story:**

[Write a rich, layered narrative. NOT a Wikipedia summary. Make the reader feel like they're there. Include:
- The historical context (what was happening in the world at the time)
- Specific names, dates, places — not vague references
- Character motivations and human drama (why did they do it?)
- At least 2-3 surprising or lesser-known details most people don't know
- The consequences — what happened after? How did it change things?
- Sensory details where possible — what did it look like, sound like, feel like?
This section should be 300-500 words minimum. Tell the FULL story, not a summary.]

---

💡 **Modern Connection:**

[Don't just say "this is relevant today." Show the specific, surprising parallel. Use concrete examples — name companies, people, technologies. Make connections the reader wouldn't have made themselves. If the connection feels forced, pick a different angle. 100-200 words minimum.]

---
_daily wisdom • [source tradition]_

HISTORY (do not repeat these):
{history_file_contents}

Region-Focused Variant

Same as above but lock to a specific tradition for the day:

Today MUST be from [REGION] sources only.
Examples:
- African: Sundiata, Mansa Musa, Anansi, Ubuntu, Timbuktu
- Classical: Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Diogenes, Heraclitus
- Far East: Sun Tzu, Musashi, Confucius, Laozi, Zen koans
- Norse: Hávamál, Odin, Ragnarök, Viking sagas
- Islamic Golden Age: Ibn Sina, Al-Khwarizmi, Mevlana, Ibn Battuta
- Turkic/Central Asian: Dede Korkut, Orhon, Nasreddin Hoca, Manas

Deep Dive Variant (weekend edition)

Today is a DEEP DIVE. Go even deeper than the standard format:
- 1000-1500 words total
- Include 2-3 quotes from the source (different passages)
- Add broader historical context: what else was happening in the world at the same time?
- Trace the aftermath: what happened in the decades/centuries after?
- Connect to at least 2-3 modern parallels with specific examples
- End with a question or provocation the reader can sit with

Setup

1. Create the history file

touch memory/anecdote-history.md

Or with initial content:

# Daily Wisdom History
<!-- One entry per line: YYYY-MM-DD | Source | Topic -->
2026-02-15 | Seneca | De Brevitate Vitae - time is the only non-renewable resource
2026-02-16 | Dede Korkut | Kan Turalı & Selcen Hatun - warrior couple vs 3 beasts

2. Create the cron job

Use the cron tool to create a daily job:

Schedule: cron expression for your preferred time (e.g., "30 7 * * *" for 07:30)
Timezone: Your timezone (e.g., "Europe/Istanbul")
Session target: isolated
Payload kind: agentTurn
Delivery: announce (to your preferred channel)

Message: Use the Standard Daily prompt template above, 
with the history file path substituted in.

3. Example cron configuration

{
  "name": "daily-wisdom",
  "schedule": {
    "kind": "cron",
    "expr": "30 7 * * *",
    "tz": "Europe/Istanbul"
  },
  "sessionTarget": "isolated",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "agentTurn",
    "message": "[Standard Daily prompt with history]"
  },
  "delivery": {
    "mode": "announce"
  },
  "enabled": true
}

History File Format

The history file prevents repeats. Each line = one delivered anecdote:

...