Every 15 minutes

Get new PDFs in a folder summarised

Each PDF added to a folder reaches you as a short summary instead of a file to open.

Runs: Every 15 minutes
Apps: OneDrive
AI: Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access: read

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a PDF is added to my OneDrive Reports folder, summarise it in five bullets and email me the summary with a link to the file.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

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Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A researcher at a policy group has a OneDrive folder where analysts drop reports, white papers and meeting minutes, often twenty pages or more. Everyone intends to read them, few do, and the useful findings sit in files that only the author opened. When an executive asks whether anyone saw the new regulation analysis, the honest answer is that it is somewhere in the folder.

Every 15 minutes, OneDrive is checked for newly added files in that folder. Each new PDF is downloaded, ClickRuntime's built-in AI reads it, and a summary is emailed to you with the file name, who added it, and the key points, along with a link back to the original in OneDrive.

It suits anyone who receives long documents regularly: analysts, lawyers, journalists, procurement teams and managers.

What you get out of it

Long documents reach more readers
A summary of five bullet points gets read by people who would never open a thirty-page PDF, so findings influence decisions instead of staying in the author's head. Decisions made on a clear summary are better informed than decisions made on a title and a guess.
Triage in half a minute
A quick look at the summary tells you if a document needs a proper read now, later, or never. That keeps your attention on the files that matter. Each time-sensitive file, such as a response to a consultation, can then be handled well inside its deadline.
New material is announced promptly
Instead of discovering a file a week late, you see what arrived within minutes, which matters when a deadline or a response window is involved. This is especially useful when several people would otherwise ask each other what a new file contains.
Everyone gets the same starting point
Forwarding the summary to the team gives everybody an identical overview, which cuts back-and-forth about what a document actually says. That memory comes free, because every summary is already filed in the mailbox you use every day.
A searchable memory of what came in
Summaries stay in your inbox, so you can search for a topic and find which document covered it without reopening dozens of PDFs. Starting from the same short overview reduces misunderstandings, and it makes meetings about the document shorter.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every 15 minutes, ClickRuntime checks your chosen OneDrive folder for new PDFs. Files it has already summarised are skipped.
It reads the text of each new document.
AI sums up each one in five bullet points.
You get an email per document with the summary and a link to the file.

Before it runs live

Connect OneDrive

What you get

RunsEvery 15 minutes

Get new PDFs in a folder summarisedtoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Summary: Northwind Q3 board pack.pdf• Revenue up 12% on Q2, driven by Acme renewal • Hiring paused in support until January

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other OneDrive steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

ai_summary_of_new_documents_onedrive.pyexample

from pypdf import PdfReader
from io import BytesIO
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, ai, notify, report_fetched

GRAPH = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0"
FOLDER = "Reports"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    h = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('microsoft', 'work')}"}
    files = http.get(f"{GRAPH}/me/drive/root:/{FOLDER}:/children", headers=h,
                     params={"$select": "id,name,webUrl", "$orderby": "createdDateTime desc", "$top": 20}).json()["value"]
    seen = state.get("seen") or []
    new = [f for f in files if f["name"].lower().endswith(".pdf") and f["id"] not in seen]
    report_fetched(len(new))
    if not new:
        return {"summary": "Nothing new"}
    for f in new:
        pdf = PdfReader(BytesIO(http.get(f"{GRAPH}/me/drive/items/{f['id']}/content", headers=h).content))
        text = "\n".join(p.extract_text() or "" for p in pdf.pages[:10])[:15000]
        summary = ai.generate(text, system="Summarise this document in 5 bullet points.", max_output_tokens=300).text
        notify.email_me(f"Summary: {f['name']}", f"{summary}\n\n{f['webUrl']}")
        seen.append(f["id"])
    state.set("seen", seen[-500:])
    return {"summarised": len(new)}

FAQ

Common questions

Is the summary a replacement for reading the document?

No. It is a quick overview to decide what deserves a full read. For legal, financial or regulatory material, read the original before acting, since summaries can miss nuance or misread a table. Where a figure or a clause matters, always confirm it in the source file before relying on it.

What if the PDF is very long?

Long documents are read in full where possible. For very large files, the summary may rely on the beginning, headings and conclusions. Say so if you want an executive summary only or a per-section breakdown.

Are files added to subfolders picked up?

The check covers the folder you choose. Files in nested subfolders are included only if the run is set to look inside them, which is a simple option to ask for when you set it up.

What permissions does it need?

read. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Every 15 minutesAI