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Morning Brain Starter uses a combination of environment variables and YAML configuration files to manage integrations and customize behavior.

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Configuration File Locations

Morning Brain Starter stores configuration in two main locations:

Environment Variables

Location: resources/secrets/.envContains sensitive credentials and API tokens:
  • Google OAuth credentials (Client ID, Secret, Refresh Token)
  • Asana access token (optional)
  • Calendar email override (optional)

YAML Configuration Files

Location: config/ directoryContains service and client configuration:
  • calendar.yaml - Calendar selection
  • email.yaml - Gmail integration settings
  • asana_order.yaml - Task prioritization by day
  • clients.yaml - Client name-to-keyword mapping
Never commit resources/secrets/.env to version control. This file contains sensitive credentials.

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Mandatory vs Optional Integrations

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Mandatory

Google Calendar integration is required for Morning Brain Starter to function. The tool reads your daily schedule, identifies meetings, and helps you prepare.Required setup:
  • Google Cloud project with Calendar API enabled
  • OAuth 2.0 credentials (Client ID and Secret)
  • Refresh token generated via setup_oauth.py
See Google Calendar Setup for detailed instructions.

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Optional

Integrate with Asana to sync tasks and prioritize your daily work.What it enables:
  • Display today’s tasks in morning briefing
  • Task prioritization by day of week
  • Workspace and project filtering
See Asana Integration for setup.
Read recent emails to include in your morning context.What it enables:
  • Recent email summaries
  • Inbox filtering by label
  • Configurable message count and date range
See Gmail Integration for setup.

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Configuration Workflow

Follow this recommended workflow to configure Morning Brain Starter:
1

Copy environment template

Copy .env.example to resources/secrets/.env:
mkdir -p resources/secrets
cp .env.example resources/secrets/.env
2

Set up Google Cloud project

Create a Google Cloud project and enable required APIs:
  • Google Calendar API (required)
  • Gmail API (optional)
  • Google Docs API (optional, for reading transcriptions)
  • Google Meet API (optional, for enabling transcriptions)
See Google Calendar Setup for detailed steps.
3

Configure OAuth credentials

Create OAuth 2.0 credentials in Google Cloud Console and add them to .env:
  • GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
  • GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET
Then run the OAuth setup script to generate your refresh token:
.venv/bin/python scripts/setup_oauth.py
4

Configure calendar selection (optional)

Edit config/calendar.yaml to specify which calendars to monitor. If not configured, only your primary calendar is used.
calendars:
  - Work
  - Personal
5

Set up optional integrations

Configure Asana and Gmail if desired:
6

Configure client mappings

Edit config/clients.yaml to map calendar event keywords to client names:
clients:
  acme:
    - acme
  tycho:
    - tycho
See Client Bitácora Configuration for details.
7

Test your configuration

Run the morning routine to verify everything works:
.venv/bin/python run_morning.py

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Environment Variable Reference

For a complete reference of all environment variables, see .env.example in the project root or the specific integration pages:

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Next Steps

Google Calendar Setup

Set up mandatory Google Calendar integration

Client Configuration

Configure client mappings and bitácoras

Asana Integration

Optional task management integration

Gmail Integration

Optional email integration

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