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On a schedule

Publish blog posts from a topic sheet to your GitHub site

On your schedule, the next topic in your sheet becomes a blog post committed to your site's repository, and the row is marked done.

Runs
On a schedule
Apps
GitHub, Google Sheets
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
GitHub contents write; sheet editor

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every Tuesday, take the next topic marked Ready in my Blog sheet, write a post in Markdown with front matter and tags, commit it to src/content/blog in acme/website, and mark the row Published.

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

A developer tools startup runs its website on a static site generator in GitHub. The team keeps a sheet of blog ideas, but turning an idea into a post means writing, formatting front matter, creating a branch and committing, so the sheet grows and the blog does not.

Writing and committing the next post from the sheet on a schedule keeps the blog moving. The team owns the topic list and edits the result, while the formatting and publishing steps happen on their own.

What you get out of it

  • The topic list becomes posts

    Ideas in the sheet turn into posts on a steady schedule. The backlog shrinks instead of growing.

  • Correct format every time

    Each post has the front matter, tags and file name your site expects. Builds do not break on a missing field.

  • Everyone can suggest topics

    Anyone can add a row to the sheet with a topic and notes. No Git knowledge is needed to contribute an idea.

  • Review through your usual process

    Posts can go to a branch with a pull request instead of straight to main. Edits happen in your normal review flow.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. On your schedule, ClickRuntime reads your Blog sheet and takes the first row marked Ready.

  2. AI writes the post in Markdown, with a title, description and tags at the top in the format your site expects.

  3. The post is saved as a new file in your website's GitHub repository.

  4. The row is marked Published with the file name, so the topic is not used again.

Before it runs live

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

What you get

RunsOn a schedule
Publish blog posts from a topic sheet to your GitHub sitetoday, 9:00Succeeded
Google Sheets · BlogHow we cut CI time in half | Published src/content/blog/2026-10-14-how-we-cut-ci-time-in-half.md

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
  • 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 GitHub and Google Sheets 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.
publish_blog_posts_from_a_sheet_to_a_github_hosted_site.pyexample
import base64, re
from datetime import date
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, ai

def gh(method, path, **kw):
    resp = http.request(method, f"https://api.github.com{path}", headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('github', 'work')}", "Accept": "application/vnd.github+json"}, **kw)
    return resp.raise_for_status() or (resp.json() if resp.content else None)

REPO, FOLDER, SHEET_ID = "acme/website", "src/content/blog", "your-spreadsheet-id"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    values = build("sheets", "v4", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False).spreadsheets().values()
    rows = values.get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Blog!A2:C").execute().get("values", [])
    nxt = next(((i, r) for i, r in enumerate(rows, start=2) if len(r) > 1 and r[1] == "Ready"), None)
    if not nxt:
        return {"published": None}
    i, (topic, _, *notes) = nxt
    md = ai.generate(f"Topic: {topic}\nNotes: {notes[0] if notes else ''}", max_output_tokens=2000,
                     system="Write a 700-word blog post in Markdown. Start with YAML front matter: title, description, pubDate, tags.").text
    slug = re.sub(r"[^a-z0-9]+", "-", topic.lower()).strip("-")[:60]
    path = f"{FOLDER}/{date.today()}-{slug}.md"
    gh("PUT", f"/repos/{REPO}/contents/{path}", json={"message": f"Add post: {topic}", "content": base64.b64encode(md.encode()).decode()})
    values.update(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range=f"Blog!B{i}", valueInputOption="RAW", body={"values": [[f"Published {path}"]]}).execute()
    return {"published": path}

FAQ

Common questions

Which site generators does it work with?
Any that build from Markdown files in a repository, such as Jekyll, Hugo or Astro. You tell it the folder and the front matter fields to use.
Can I review posts before they go live?
Yes. Ask for pull request mode and each post is committed to a new branch with a pull request, so it only goes live when you merge it.
What should a row contain?
A topic, a status column set to Ready, and any notes or key points you want covered. The more detail in the notes, the closer the post is to what you want.
What permissions does it need?
GitHub contents write; sheet editor. 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 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 “Publish blog posts from a topic sheet to your GitHub site” from your assistant

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