A reliable daily digest needs three separate jobs: collect candidate links, let a person decide what is worth sending, then distribute one batch and record exactly what was sent.
Do not combine discovery, AI summarisation, publication and email into one unreviewed flow. One bad source or retry can otherwise become a public mistake.
Fact-checked against current Microsoft RSS, SharePoint, Outlook and Power Automate documentation on 24 August 2026.
The three-flow design
| Flow | Job | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | Add candidate stories to SharePoint | RSS item or manual submission |
| Review | Record Keep or Reject decisions | Human action in SharePoint |
| Distribution | Send one digest and mark its items | Scheduled cloud flow |
Separating the jobs makes retries safer and gives the editorial decision a visible home.
1. Build the SharePoint review list
Useful columns include:
- Title
- Source URL
- Source name
- Source item ID
- Published at
- Captured at
- Summary
- Review status: New, Keep, Reject
- Digest batch ID
- Sent at
- Processing key
Make the processing key unique where possible. Use the feed's stable item ID or a carefully normalised canonical URL.
2. Collect candidates
Power Automate's RSS connector provides When a feed item is published and List all RSS feed items.
Microsoft documents an important trigger limitation: polling uses the feed item's pubDate. Items can be skipped when a publisher reuses or fails to increase timestamps. A successful flow is therefore not proof that every publisher item arrived.
For each candidate:
- check the processing key;
- create the SharePoint item only if it is new;
- store the original source URL;
- leave Review status as New.
Add a manual submission route for sources without dependable feeds.
3. Review the story
A curator should open the source, confirm the claim and write a short original summary.
The digest should link to the publisher rather than reproduce substantial article text. Keep enough source metadata to explain what was reviewed and when.
If an AI tool drafts the summary, treat the draft as untrusted. A person must compare it with the source, remove unsupported claims and approve the final wording before Review status becomes Keep.
4. Build the scheduled distribution flow
Run the distribution flow at the chosen time and:
- create a unique batch ID;
- query SharePoint for Review status equals Keep and Sent at is blank;
- stop cleanly when no items are due;
- order the items deliberately;
- build a compact HTML list with title, original summary and source link;
- send one email;
- mark each included item with the same batch ID and Sent at time only after the email action succeeds.
Do not mark stories sent before the email succeeds. Do not resend the complete query blindly after a partial update. The batch ID is what lets you reconcile a failed run.
5. Handle failure and retry
Use Scopes for Build, Send and Record. Configure a failure Scope to capture the batch ID and safe error details.
Before retrying, check whether the send action completed. Email systems do not give exactly-once delivery guarantees, so an idempotent data model and a human reconciliation path matter more than another automatic retry.
6. Protect recipients
Use a mailing system and consent model appropriate to the audience. Do not put a large subscriber list in the To or CC field.
Test unsubscribe, suppression and sender-domain requirements outside this editorial flow. Power Automate moving data successfully does not prove marketing compliance or inbox delivery.
Common failure modes
The same story appears twice
The source URL differed or two flows overlapped. Use a stable source ID plus a unique data constraint.
RSS stories are missing
Inspect the feed's pubDate behaviour and connector run history. Add a scheduled reconciliation or manual intake for important sources.
The digest sends with no stories
Count the selected rows before building or sending the email. Terminate successfully when the count is zero.
A retry sends a second digest
Query and reconcile the batch record before retrying. Do not rely only on the flow run status.
Microsoft sources
- Microsoft RSS connector reference
- SharePoint connector reference
- Office 365 Outlook connector reference
- Power Automate error handling
Turn the architecture into a supportable flow
Bring the three flow boundaries and batch fields to the Power Automate Builders Space.