daybook/skills/daybook-posting/SKILL.md
peter 4b5ec09ae2 Convert uploaded .xlsx files to csv artifacts server-side
Uploading a .xlsx file no longer becomes a generic downloadable binary -
it's read server-side with openpyxl and converted to a csv artifact,
rendering in the same interactive grid as a native CSV post. Detected by
content type or .xlsx extension (some clients send generic/incorrect
content types for multipart uploads). Only the active sheet converts;
formula cells use whatever cached result the spreadsheet software last
saved (openpyxl doesn't evaluate formulas itself). Corrupt/unreadable
files return 400.

Since the existing posting script already forwards any non-text file via
multipart with no special-casing, `daybook_post.py balance_sheet.xlsx`
already works with zero script changes - verified live.

Two real bugs found and fixed while building this, both now covered by
regression tests:
- {**a_querydict, ...} silently wrapped every value (including title) in
  a list - Python's ** spread on a dict subclass bypasses QueryDict's
  __getitem__ override and exposes its internal one-list-per-key storage
  directly. Fixed by building the delegated dict explicitly via .get().
- Pre-setting None for absent optional fields (e.g. source_prompt) defeated
  create_text_artifact's own data.get(field, default) calls, since .get()
  only falls through to its default when the key is *missing*, not when
  the value is None - caused a NOT NULL constraint failure. Fixed by only
  setting keys that were actually provided.
- csv.writer's default "\r\n" terminator was getting doubled by
  Path.write_text()'s own newline translation on Windows, producing a
  blank line between every row. Fixed with lineterminator="\n".

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-09-02 16:29:39 +01:00

6.5 KiB

name description
daybook-posting Use when you have produced a finished deliverable such as a report, summary, brief, diagram, generated HTML, PDF, deck, or status update that a human should review later outside this chat. Publishes the artifact to Daybook and returns a URL.

Daybook Posting

Daybook is a private artifact journal for completed agent outputs. It stores, indexes, and displays artifacts for human review. It does not execute commands, run workflows, or continue conversations.

Always use the helper script. Do not hand-build curl, JSON, PowerShell multipart, or inline shell content.

From the project root:

python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py --check
python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py --kind markdown --title "Build Report" --content-file report.md
cat report.md | python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py --kind markdown --title "Build Report"
python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py --file diagram.svg --title "Architecture Diagram"

The project also keeps a compatibility wrapper at scripts/daybook_post.py, but the canonical helper is bundled inside this skill.

The artifact URL is printed as the final stdout line.

Configuration

Set these as real process/shell environment variables (export on Linux/macOS, $env: or set on Windows, or your agent harness's own env config) — the helper reads os.environ directly. There is no .env file support; a .env file in the working directory is not read automatically.

DAYBOOK_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8001
DAYBOOK_TOKEN=your-personal-api-token
DAYBOOK_SOURCE=agent

DAYBOOK_TOKEN is your personal per-user API token, from Settings → Account in the app (not a token shared by everyone). Artifacts posted with your token land only in your feed.

Kind Cheat Sheet

Kind Use for Content shape
markdown Reports, briefs, notes Markdown text. Fenced code blocks get syntax highlighting.
html_fragment Themed HTML reports/cards/tables Body-only HTML. No html/head/body.
html_full Complete custom pages/frameworks Full HTML document with doctype/html/head/body. See "CDN Snippets" below.
deck Simple slide-like artifact Top-level <section>...</section> blocks.
json Structured data, metrics, run summaries Valid JSON text. Renders as a collapsible tree.
csv Tabular data CSV text, first row as header. Renders as a sortable/searchable table.

For images, PDFs, SVGs, and other files, use --file; the helper infers multipart and content type.

CDN Snippets For html_full

html_full is Daybook's escape hatch for custom pages — nothing is injected into it, so a poster wanting Tailwind or a charting library has to supply its own <link>/<script> tags. Known-good ones:

<!-- Tailwind (Play CDN - compiles in-browser on every load; fine for a
     one-off artifact, not something you'd want on a high-traffic page) -->
<script src="https://cdn.tailwindcss.com"></script>

<!-- Chart.js -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js"></script>

Offline caveat: Daybook can run fully self-hosted/air-gapped. Any artifact that links a CDN script won't render fully (or at all, for Tailwind's in-browser compiler) without internet access. If the deployment target is offline, don't reach for these — use markdown/html_fragment instead, which are styled entirely server-side with no external requests.

Self-hosted alternative for tables/JSON — no CDN needed: Daybook already vendors Grid.js and renderjson locally (used to render csv/json artifacts), and they're reachable as plain static files from any artifact, including html_full:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/vendor/gridjs/mermaid.min.css">
<script src="/static/vendor/gridjs/gridjs.umd.js"></script>
<!-- or, for a collapsible JSON tree: -->
<script src="/static/vendor/renderjson/renderjson.js"></script>

Prefer these over an external CDN for table/JSON rendering inside a custom html_full page — same libraries, but self-hosted, so they work offline and don't depend on a third party staying up. This only covers tables/JSON; there's no vendored equivalent for Tailwind/Chart.js, so the CDN snippets above are still the only option for those.

Only use this for html_full specifically — never add CDN references to markdown/html_fragment/deck. Those kinds exist so Daybook, not the poster, owns styling; injecting a default CDN habit into them would undermine that.

Images Inside Content

To embed an image within a markdown or HTML artifact (rather than posting it as its own artifact), upload it first and reference the returned URL:

# 1. Upload -> prints the URL as the last line
python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py --upload-image chart.png

# 2. Reference that URL in your markdown, then post as usual
#    ![chart](http://127.0.0.1:8001/assets/ab12cd34ef56)
python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py report.md

The image is linked to the artifact that references it and is deleted along with it. Unreferenced uploads are cleaned up after 24 hours.

For CSV and JSON, use --kind csv/--kind json with --content-file — or just post the file positionally; auto-mode detects .csv/.json and picks the right kind automatically:

python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py results.csv
python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py --kind json --title "Run Summary" --content-file summary.json

.xlsx spreadsheets work too, with no special flag needed — just --file (or post it positionally, same as any other file):

python skills/daybook-posting/scripts/daybook_post.py balance_sheet.xlsx

The server converts it to a csv artifact automatically (active sheet only; see docs/api.md for the full list of conversion limitations — notably, formulas need to have been calculated by real spreadsheet software that saved the file, and rich formatting like bold/colors/merged cells isn't preserved).

For other code that should render today, use --file path --as-markdown to post it as a Markdown fenced code block. Without --as-markdown, it uploads as a downloadable binary file.

Rules

  • Run --check first if unsure Daybook is reachable.
  • Use a stable DAYBOOK_SOURCE or pass --source (the agent-profile, script, or person name that produced this artifact).
  • Use --tags a,b,c for filtering.
  • Use --meta run_id=... --meta model=... for machine-readable context.
  • Never inline multiline content into the shell command; use a file or stdin.