Run weekly standups with Groq AI summaries via Telegram and Google Sheets

Description

📋 Weekly Standup with AI Summary — Telegram + Google Sheets

Automate your weekly team standups end-to-end. Bot asks each team member three questions on Telegram, waits for responses, then AI summarizes the entire team's update and sends a clean executive summary to the team lead. All logged to Google Sheets for history.

Why This Is Useful

Standups are essential but consume hours every week. Slack/Teams threads get messy. Calendar invites get ignored. This template runs your standup automatically — questions go out Monday at 9 AM, the team replies on their phone via Telegram, and by lunchtime the team lead has a clean AI-generated summary.

No more "what did everyone do last week?" meetings. No more chasing replies. No more manually writing summaries.

How It Works

Monday 9 AM — workflow triggers automatically (or run manually anytime)
Bot sends questions to each team member privately on Telegram
Team replies to the bot with their update (1-2 minute task per person)
Workflow waits 4 hours (configurable) for everyone to respond
AI reads all responses and generates an executive summary
Team lead receives the formatted summary on Telegram
Everything logged to Google Sheets for history

What You Need

Telegram bot** — free, 2 minutes via @BotFather
Groq API key** — free, no credit card required (console.groq.com)
Google Sheet** with a tab named Standup_Log

Smart Features

🤖 AI-Generated Executive Summary

Powered by Groq's llama-3.1-8b-instant (free tier). Every summary follows the same structured format:

📌 KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS LAST WEEK
bullet point 1
bullet point 2

🎯 THIS WEEK'S PLAN
bullet point 1
bullet point 2

🚧 BLOCKERS & RISKS
list any blockers, or "None reported"

💪 TEAM HEALTH
One sentence assessment: on track / needs attention / at risk

Consistent format means leads can scan summaries in seconds across weeks.

🔄 Smart Retry on Rate Limits

When Groq hits rate limits (429), the workflow waits and retries automatically. Up to 2 retries per call. Falls back to raw responses if AI is unavailable — never breaks.

📊 Built-in Tracking

Standup_Log sheet** — every "sent" event tracked
Missing members** flagged in summary (⚠️ Missing: Sarah, Omar)
Response count** shown (👥 Responded: 4/5)
Run history** queryable for trends over time

🛡️ Resilient by Design

continueOnFail on all Telegram and Sheets nodes
One member's network error doesn't break the rest
AI failure falls back to raw text — team lead still gets the data
Manual trigger lets you test anytime without waiting for Monday

Customizable

Questions** — edit all three in the Settings node
Schedule** — change the cron (default: 0 9 * * 1 = Monday 9 AM)
Wait time** — default 4 hours, change to whatever suits your team
AI model** — swap to any Groq-supported model in the AI node
Team size** — works with 1 to 50+ members (just add chat IDs)

Setup Time

10 minutes:

Create a Telegram bot via @BotFather (get token)
Each team member sends /start to your bot once
Get each person's chat ID via @userinfobot
Import the JSON into n8n
Paste credentials in ⚙️ Settings
Connect Telegram credential and Google Sheets credential
Click ▶️ Manual Test to verify
Activate the workflow

Setup Step-by-Step

1. Create Your Bot

Open @BotFather on Telegram → /newbot → choose a name → copy the token (looks like 7654321:AAGfHJ...).

2. Get Team Chat IDs

Each team member opens @userinfobot → /start → copies the Id: number.

Important: every team member must send /start to your bot once before the bot can message them. This is a Telegram security policy.

3. Configure ⚙️ Settings

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| team_chat_ids | 123456789,987654321,555555555 |
| team_names | Ahmad,Sarah,Omar |
| team_lead_chat_id | 123456789 (whoever gets the summary) |
| question_1, _2, _3 | Customize for your team |
| telegram_bot_token | Token from @BotFather |
| groq_api_key | Free key from console.groq.com |

4. Connect Credentials

📲 Send to Team** → add Telegram credential (token from step 1)
📲 Send Summary to Lead** → same credential
💾 Log Sent** → add Google Sheets credential, select tab Standup_Log

5. Test

Click ▶️ Manual Test → you'll get the standup questions on Telegram → reply to the bot → wait 4 hours (or temporarily change to 2 minutes for testing) → receive AI summary.

Use Cases

Distributed teams** across timezones — async standups via Telegram
Engineering teams** — fast 1-minute updates instead of 30-minute meetings
Sales teams** — weekly pipeline updates auto-summarized for the manager
Remote startups** — keep founders informed without daily syncs
Agency project teams** — stakeholder updates compiled automatically

Architecture

⏰ Every Monday 9 AM ──→
▶️ Manual Test ─────────→ ⚙️ Settings
↓
📝 Prepare Messages
↓
📲 Send to Team (Telegram)
↓
💾 Log Sent (Google Sheets)
↓
⏳ Wait 4 Hours
↓
📥 Fetch Responses (Telegram getUpdates)
↓
🤖 AI Summarize (Groq + retry)
↓
📲 Send Summary to Lead (Telegram)

10 nodes. Single workflow. Production-ready.

Monthly Cost

$0. Telegram bots are free. Groq's free tier handles 14,400 requests/day on llama-3.1-8b-instant — way more than weekly standups need. Google Sheets is free.

What You Get

A team that runs itself. Standups happen on autopilot. The team lead gets a structured weekly summary with zero manual effort. New team members ramp up faster because every week's update is searchable in Google Sheets.

Time saved per week: 30-45 minutes per team member + 2-3 hours for the team lead.