How to Connect Email Daily Summary to OpenClaw

OpenClaw's Email Daily Summary can send via standard SMTP or via transactional email APIs. SMTP is simpler to configure but has rate limits and deliverability considerations. Transactional email APIs (SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark) provide better deliverability, tracking, and higher sending limits. For SMTP with Gmail: enable 2-Step Verification on your Google account, then generate an App Password (myaccount.google.com/apppasswords). Use this app password as your SMTP password — your regular Google password will not work for programmatic SMTP access. Gmail SMTP settings are: host `smtp.gmail.com`, port `587`, encryption `STARTTLS`. For SendGrid (recommended for reliability): sign up at sendgrid.com (free tier includes 100 emails/day forever). Go to Settings > API Keys > Create API Key, select 'Restricted Access', and enable 'Mail Send'. Copy the API key — it starts with `SG.`. For Mailgun: sign up at mailgun.com, add and verify a sending domain, and get your API key from the dashboard. All three options work well. Gmail SMTP is the fastest to set up if you already have a Gmail account. SendGrid is the most reliable for long-term production use.

1# Option A: Gmail SMTP settings
2# host: smtp.gmail.com
3# port: 587
4# username: your-email@gmail.com
5# password: YOUR_APP_PASSWORD  (NOT your Gmail password — use App Password)
6
7# Generate App Password: myaccount.google.com/apppasswords
8# Select app: Mail, Select device: Other, name it 'OpenClaw'
9
10# Test SMTP connection:
11curl --url 'smtp://smtp.gmail.com:587' \
12  --ssl-reqd \
13  --mail-from 'you@gmail.com' \
14  --mail-rcpt 'you@gmail.com' \
15  -u 'you@gmail.com:YOUR_APP_PASSWORD' \
16  --upload-file <(echo -e 'From: you@gmail.com\nTo: you@gmail.com\nSubject: Test\n\nSMTP test from OpenClaw')
17
18# Option B: SendGrid API key test
19curl -X POST https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/mail/send \
20  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY" \
21  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
22  -d '{"personalizations":[{"to":[{"email":"you@gmail.com"}]}],"from":{"email":"you@gmail.com"},"subject":"SendGrid Test","content":[{"type":"text/plain","value":"Test"}]}'

Open `~/.openclaw/config.yaml` and add the `email_daily_summary` integration block. This configuration defines three things: how to send (your email provider credentials), when to send (cron schedule), and what to include (content sources). The `schedule` field uses standard cron syntax. `0 8 * * 1-5` sends at 8 AM Monday through Friday. `0 7 * * *` sends every day at 7 AM. Use a cron expression generator (crontab.guru) if you are unfamiliar with cron syntax. The `content_sources` section defines what OpenClaw pulls into the digest. Each source references an integration and specifies what data to include. The `summary_prompt` field is the AI instruction for how to format that section of the digest — this lets you customize the tone and detail level per section. The `to` field can be a single email address or an array of addresses for team distribution. The `from_name` sets the sender display name in email clients.

1# ~/.openclaw/config.yaml
2integrations:
3  email_daily_summary:
4    provider: sendgrid              # Options: sendgrid | mailgun | smtp
5    api_key: "SG.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" # For SendGrid
6    # smtp_host: smtp.gmail.com     # Uncomment for SMTP
7    # smtp_port: 587
8    # smtp_user: you@gmail.com
9    # smtp_password: APP_PASSWORD
10    from_email: "you@gmail.com"
11    from_name: "OpenClaw Daily Summary"
12    to:
13      - "you@gmail.com"
14      - "teammate@company.com"      # Optional: send to multiple recipients
15    subject: "OpenClaw Daily Digest — {{date}}"
16    schedule: "0 8 * * 1-5"        # 8 AM weekdays (cron format)
17    timezone: "America/New_York"   # Timezone for schedule
18    format: html                    # Options: html | plaintext
19    content_sources:
20      - source: activity_log
21        label: "Yesterday's Activity"
22        summary_prompt: "Summarize all completed workflows and actions in 3-5 bullet points"
23        lookback_hours: 24
24      - source: errors
25        label: "Errors & Warnings"
26        summary_prompt: "List any workflow errors or API failures, grouped by integration"
27        lookback_hours: 24
28        include_if_empty: false     # Skip this section if no errors

The default digest template covers activity log and errors, but you can add sections for any connected integration. Each integration you have configured in OpenClaw can contribute a section to the daily digest — Notion page updates, Telegram messages processed, GitHub commits, Discord interactions, or any monitored data. For each additional content source, add a new entry under `content_sources` with the integration name matching exactly the key under `integrations` in your config (e.g., `notion`, `telegram`, `discord`). The `summary_prompt` field controls how OpenClaw's AI narrates that section — you can request bullet points, paragraph prose, tables, or numbered lists. You can also configure a global `intro_prompt` that generates a short executive summary at the top of the email pulling from all content sources, and a `closing_prompt` for a forward-looking 'coming up today' section based on scheduled tasks. For HTML format, OpenClaw uses a default clean email template. If you want to customize the visual design, you can provide an `html_template_path` pointing to a custom HTML template file with `{{section_name}}` placeholders.

1# Extended content_sources configuration example
2content_sources:
3  - source: activity_log
4    label: "Completed Yesterday"
5    summary_prompt: "List all completed tasks as bullet points with integration name in brackets"
6    lookback_hours: 24
7  - source: errors
8    label: "Issues to Review"
9    summary_prompt: "List errors grouped by integration. For each error include: integration name, error type, how many times it occurred"
10    lookback_hours: 24
11    include_if_empty: false
12  - source: telegram
13    label: "Telegram Activity"
14    summary_prompt: "Summarize: how many messages were received, how many commands were processed, any unusual patterns"
15    lookback_hours: 24
16    include_if_empty: false
17  - source: notion
18    label: "Notion Updates"
19    summary_prompt: "List pages created or updated via OpenClaw with page title and change type"
20    lookback_hours: 24
21    include_if_empty: false
22
23# Global digest framing prompts (optional):
24intro_prompt: "Write a 2-sentence executive summary of yesterday's OpenClaw activity, highlighting the most important accomplishments"
25closing_prompt: "Note any upcoming scheduled tasks for the next 24 hours based on configured workflows"

Before waiting for the scheduled delivery time, trigger a manual digest send to verify that all content sources populate correctly, the email format looks right, and delivery to your inbox works. OpenClaw provides a CLI command to trigger the daily summary immediately: `clawhub run email_daily_summary`. This compiles the digest from the past 24 hours of activity (or whatever `lookback_hours` is set to), generates AI summaries for each section, and sends the email to your configured recipients. Check the resulting email for: correct recipient, formatted sections, readable AI-generated summaries, and no placeholder text like `{{date}}` that was not substituted. Also verify the 'From' display name and email address match your config. If any section shows empty content or errors, check the OpenClaw log (`~/.openclaw/logs/openclaw.log`) for details about which content source failed to populate. RapidDev recommends sending the first few test digests to just your own email before adding team members to the `to` list — tune the content and format until you are satisfied, then expand the recipient list.

1# Trigger manual digest delivery immediately:
2clawhub run email_daily_summary
3
4# View the digest generation log:
5tail -f ~/.openclaw/logs/openclaw.log | grep -i "email_daily_summary"
6
7# Check upcoming scheduled runs:
8clawhub schedule list
9
10# Expected log output:
11# [INFO] email_daily_summary: Collecting data from 3 content sources
12# [INFO] email_daily_summary: Generating AI summaries for each section
13# [INFO] email_daily_summary: Sending via SendGrid to you@gmail.com
14# [INFO] email_daily_summary: Delivered successfully. Message ID: xxxxxxx

For team distributions or important reports, it is worth verifying that emails are being delivered rather than bouncing or landing in spam. All three supported providers (SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark) offer delivery status webhooks and activity logs. In SendGrid, go to Activity > Email Activity to see delivery status for recent sends. If the digest lands in spam, add it to the SPF/DKIM configuration for your sending domain — this is the most common cause of digest emails going to spam, especially when sending from a custom domain. For personal use with Gmail SMTP, delivery issues are uncommon since Gmail is a trusted sender for Gmail recipients. For domains you own, configure SPF and DKIM records in your DNS settings — your email provider's documentation has the specific DNS records to add. If you want to receive delivery failure notifications, configure `bounce_notification_email` in the digest config — OpenClaw will alert you when a digest fails to deliver rather than silently failing.

1# Add bounce notification to config:
2# ~/.openclaw/config.yaml
3integrations:
4  email_daily_summary:
5    # ... existing config ...
6    bounce_notification_email: "you@gmail.com"
7    track_opens: true              # SendGrid/Mailgun only
8    track_clicks: false            # Disable for privacy
9    retry_on_failure: true
10    max_retries: 3
11    retry_delay_minutes: 30
12
13# Check SendGrid delivery activity:
14curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SENDGRID_API_KEY" \
15  "https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/messages?limit=5&query=to_email%3Dyou%40gmail.com"