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On a schedule

Text a daily tip or question from a sheet

Each morning your subscribers get one tip or question from your sheet by text, and it's marked as used so it isn't repeated.

Runs
On a schedule
Apps
Google Sheets, Twilio
AI
Not needed
Access
Sheets edit; Twilio send

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every day at 6am, pick an unused tip from my Tips sheet, text it to everyone on my Subscribers tab, and mark the tip as used.

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

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Coaches, teachers and community groups keep people engaged with a daily nudge: a vocabulary word, a training tip, a reflection question. Texts get read, but sending one every morning by hand is a chore that soon lapses.

Writing the tips once in a sheet and letting one go out each morning keeps the habit going for months, with no repeats and no one having to remember.

What you get out of it

  • A daily habit that keeps going

    Tips go out every morning without anyone pressing send.

  • No repeats

    Each tip is marked used once sent.

  • Easy to add content

    New tips are new rows in the sheet.

  • Texts get read

    SMS reaches people who don't use apps or check email.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every morning it picks a random tip from your sheet that hasn't been used yet.

  2. The tip is texted to every number on your Subscribers tab.

  3. The tip is marked used so it isn't sent again.

  4. If no tips are left, you get an email reminder instead.

Before it runs live

  • Connect your Google Sheets account and pick the spreadsheets it may use
  • Connect Twilio

What you get

RunsOn a schedule
Text a daily tip or question from a sheettoday, 9:00Succeeded
SMS · SubscriberToday's tip: warm up for 5 minutes before any interval session. — Northwind Running Club

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

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Sheets and Twilio 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.
daily_question_or_tip_by_sms_from_a_sheet.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from twilio.rest import Client
import random
from datetime import date
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, notify

SHEET_ID = "your-spreadsheet-id"
FROM = "+15005550006"

def sms(to, body):
    return Client(credentials.secret("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID"), credentials.secret("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN")).messages.create(to=to, from_=FROM, body=body)
sheets = lambda: build("sheets", "v4", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False).spreadsheets().values()

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    tips = sheets().get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Tips!A2:B").execute().get("values", [])
    unused = [(i, r[0]) for i, r in enumerate(tips, start=2) if r and len(r) < 2]
    if not unused:
        notify.email_me("Daily tips: none left", "Add more rows to the Tips sheet.")
        return {"sent": 0}
    row, tip = random.choice(unused)
    numbers = [r[0] for r in sheets().get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Subscribers!A2:A").execute().get("values", []) if r]
    for n in numbers:
        sms(n, tip)
    sheets().update(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range=f"Tips!B{row}", valueInputOption="RAW", body={"values": [[date.today().isoformat()]]}).execute()
    return {"sent": len(numbers)}

FAQ

Common questions

Where do subscribers come from?
A Subscribers tab in the same sheet, with one phone number per row.
What happens when all tips are used?
You get an email asking you to add more, and nothing is sent until you do.
How do people unsubscribe?
They reply STOP, which Twilio handles automatically.
What permissions does it need?
Sheets edit; Twilio send. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (on a schedule). Checks that find nothing to do 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.

Set up “Text a daily tip or question from a sheet” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.