I Built a Morning Briefing Bot in 50 Lines of Python (Weather + Crypto + News)

Every morning I used to open 5 tabs: weather, news, crypto prices, calendar, and email. That's 10 minutes of scattered attention before I even start working.

So I built a bot that sends me everything in one Telegram message at 7 AM. Here's the entire thing.

The Stack

• Python 3.10+ (no external frameworks)
• Open-Meteo API — weather (free, no key)
• CoinGecko API — crypto prices (free, no key)
• NewsAPI — headlines (free tier, key required)
• Telegram Bot API — delivery

Total cost: $0/month. Runs on any machine with cron.

Step 1: Weather (Open-Meteo)

No API key. No signup. Just works.

\`python
import requests
from datetime import datetime

def get_weather(lat=55.75, lon=37.62): # Moscow
"""Get current weather + today's forecast"""
r = requests.get('https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast', params={
'latitude': lat, 'longitude': lon,
'current_weather': True,
'daily': 'temperature_2m_max,temperature_2m_min,precipitation_sum',
'timezone': 'auto', 'forecast_days': 1
}).json()

cw = r['current_weather']
daily = r['daily']

return (
    f"🌡 Weather: {cw['temperature']}°C "
    f"(high {daily['temperature_2m_max'][0]}°, low {daily['temperature_2m_min'][0]}°)\n"
    f"💧 Rain: {daily['precipitation_sum'][0]}mm"
)

`\

Step 2: Crypto Prices (CoinGecko)

Also free, also no key needed.

\`python
def get_crypto():
"""Get top 3 crypto prices with 24h change"""
r = requests.get('https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price', params={
'ids': 'bitcoin,ethereum,solana',
'vs_currencies': 'usd',
'include_24hr_change': True
}).json()

lines = []
symbols = {'bitcoin': 'BTC', 'ethereum': 'ETH', 'solana': 'SOL'}
for coin, sym in symbols.items():
    price = r[coin]['usd']
    change = r[coin]['usd_24h_change']
    arrow = '📈' if change > 0 else '📉'
    lines.append(f"{arrow} {sym}: ${price:,.0f} ({change:+.1f}%)")

return '\n'.join(lines)

`\

Step 3: News Headlines (NewsAPI)

Free tier gives you 100 requests/day — more than enough for a daily bot.

\`python
def get_news(api_key, country='us', count=5):
"""Get top headlines"""
r = requests.get('https://newsapi.org/v2/top-headlines', params={
'country': country, 'pageSize': count, 'apiKey': api_key
}).json()

lines = []
for i, article in enumerate(r.get('articles', [])[:count], 1):
    lines.append(f"{i}. {article['title']}")

return '📰 Headlines:\n' + '\n'.join(lines)

`\

Step 4: Telegram Delivery

\python
def send_telegram(bot_token, chat_id, text):
"""Send message via Telegram"""
requests.post(
f'https://api.telegram.org/bot{bot_token}/sendMessage',
json={'chat_id': chat_id, 'text': text, 'parse_mode': 'HTML'}
)
\\

Putting It All Together

\`python

!/usr/bin/env python3

"""Morning briefing bot — runs daily via cron"""

import requests
from datetime import datetime

=== CONFIG ===

TELEGRAM_TOKEN = 'your-bot-token'
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID = 'your-chat-id'
NEWS_API_KEY = 'your-newsapi-key'
LAT, LON = 40.71, -74.01 # New York

def get_weather():
r = requests.get('https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast', params={
'latitude': LAT, 'longitude': LON, 'current_weather': True,
'daily': 'temperature_2m_max,temperature_2m_min,precipitation_sum',
'timezone': 'auto', 'forecast_days': 1
}).json()
cw = r['current_weather']
d = r['daily']
return f"🌡 {cw['temperature']}°C (↑{d['temperature_2m_max'][0]}° ↓{d['temperature_2m_min'][0]}°) 💧{d['precipitation_sum'][0]}mm"

def get_crypto():
r = requests.get('https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price', params={
'ids': 'bitcoin,ethereum,solana', 'vs_currencies': 'usd', 'include_24hr_change': True
}).json()
lines = []
for coin, sym in [('bitcoin','BTC'),('ethereum','ETH'),('solana','SOL')]:
p, c = r[coin]['usd'], r[coin]['usd_24h_change']
lines.append(f"{'📈' if c>0 else '📉'} {sym}: ${p:,.0f} ({c:+.1f}%)")
return '\n'.join(lines)

def get_news():
r = requests.get('https://newsapi.org/v2/top-headlines', params={
'country': 'us', 'pageSize': 5, 'apiKey': NEWS_API_KEY
}).json()
return '📰 ' + '\n'.join(f"{i}. {a['title']}" for i,a in enumerate(r.get('articles',[])[:5],1))

def main():
msg = f"☀️ Morning Briefing — {datetime.now().strftime('%B %d, %Y')}\n\n"
msg += get_weather() + '\n\n'
msg += get_crypto() + '\n\n'
msg += get_news()

requests.post(f'https://api.telegram.org/bot{TELEGRAM_TOKEN}/sendMessage',
              json={'chat_id': TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID, 'text': msg, 'parse_mode': 'HTML'})
print('Briefing sent!')

if name == 'main':
main()
`\

That's ~50 lines of actual logic. Save it, add a cron job, done.

Setting Up Cron

\`bash

Run every day at 7:00 AM

crontab -e
0 7 * * * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/briefing.py
`\

Extending It

I've added more modules over time:

• Calendar — Google Calendar API shows today's events
• GitHub — shows overnight stars/issues on my repos
• Exchange rates — USD/EUR/GBP via exchangerate.host

Each module is just a function that returns a string. The architecture stays dead simple.

What I Learned

1. Free APIs are incredibly powerful — most developers underuse them
2. Telegram bots are the simplest delivery mechanism — beats building a UI
3. Cron + Python + free APIs = infinite possibilities with zero infrastructure cost
4. Start with 3 data sources, not 10 — you can always add more

For a list of 300+ free APIs to build your own version, check out my curated API directory.

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What would you add to your morning briefing? I'm curious what data other developers check first thing.

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