Project 2: Read-it-Later with AI Summaries

This is Project 2 of The 12-Project Hit List (a series where I build 12 AI and automation projects in public and document everything, including the parts that don’t go as planned). You can grab the full Hit List PDF here and build alongside me.

You have got tabs you have been meaning to read since last Tuesday. A Pocket account you opened in 2025 and never look at. Three bookmark folders named “good stuff” containing 47 links you will never open. This automation does not fix your reading habits. But it does mean the next time you find something worth reading, a clean three-bullet summary hits your inbox before you have even closed the tab.

What You Are Building

A scenario that takes any URL you submit through a simple form, fetches the article content using Jina AI, sends it through OpenAI, and delivers a three-bullet summary to your inbox within 60 seconds. Everything also gets logged to a Google Sheet as a searchable archive.

Time to build: 45 to 60 minutes Cost: Relative (a small OpenAI API cost — roughly $0.002 per summary) Tools: Tally, Make.com, Jina AI, OpenAI, Gmail, Google Sheets

A Note on What Went Wrong During the Build

I want to flag this upfront because you will likely hit the same thing.

The original plan was to use Make.com’s generic Custom Webhook as the trigger and connect Tally to it manually. That is a standard approach. It did not work cleanly.

Tally sends form fields as an array when using a generic webhook. Instead of getting a clean “Article URL” variable to map, Make.com bundles everything into a single object. In testing, the variable picker only ever showed one field no matter how many times I resubmitted test data. All three fields — the URL, the why note, the email — were buried inside the same array entry with no clean way to pull them apart.

The fix was simple once found. Make.com has a native Tally module. Use that instead of the Custom Webhook. It maps each form field as its own clean named variable and the rest of the build becomes completely straightforward. That one switch saved about an hour of unnecessary troubleshooting.

What Works and What Does Not

Jina AI fetches article content by visiting a URL and extracting the readable text. It works brilliantly on most of the open web but some sites will block it.

Works well:

Will not work:

If a site blocks Jina, the automation still runs but OpenAI receives the security page instead of the article. You will get a message in your inbox saying it could not summarise the content. This is normal and affects a minority of URLs. The open web works without issues.

What the finished automation does

Tools You Will Need

Everything in this build is free or very close to free. Here is what you need and why:

Part 1: Get Your OpenAI API Key

Before you build anything in Make.com, you need an OpenAI API key. This is what gives your automation permission to use ChatGPT behind the scenes. The process takes about five minutes.

Step-by-step

Add credit and set a spending limit

The API is not free like ChatGPT, but it is very cheap. You need to add at least $5 to get started.

Part 2: Build the Tally Form

Tally is a free form builder. You are building a simple two-field form.

Step 1: Go to tally.so and create a free account.

Step 2: Click New form, then Start from scratch. Give your form a title — Save Article for Summary works well.

Step 3: Add your first field. Click the + button and select Website as the field type. Label it Article URL and mark it as required.

Step 4: Add your second field. Click + again and select Short answer. Label it Why are you saving this? Add a hint underneath: Optional. Tell the AI what you want to get from this article and the summary will be tailored to that. Leave this field as optional.

No email field on the form. You will hardcode your own email address directly inside the Gmail module in Make.com later. This means one less thing to fill in every time you save an article. If you ever want to share this automation with others so they can receive their own summaries, you can add the email field back — each person would enter their own address and get their own email.

Step 5: Click Publish in the top right corner and copy the public form URL.

Part 3: Build the Make.com Scenario

Log in to make.com, click Scenarios in the left sidebar, then Create a new scenario, then Build from scratch.

Your scenario has five modules in a straight chain:

Tally (Watch New Responses) → HTTP (Make a Request) → OpenAI (Create a Chat Completion) → Gmail (Send an Email) → Google Sheets (Add a Row)

Module 1: Tally (Watch New Responses)

Step 1: Click the large + button on the canvas. Search for Tally and select Watch New Responses. Do not use the generic Custom Webhook — use the native Tally module.

Step 2: Click Add a connection and sign in with your Tally account when prompted.

Step 3: Once connected, select your Save Article for Summary form from the dropdown.

Step 4: When asked about scheduling, select Immediately. This means the scenario fires the moment you submit a URL — no waiting, no batch delays.

Step 5: Click OK to save the module.

Step 6: Now submit a test entry through your Tally form. Use a real URL and fill in the why field as well. Make.com needs a complete test submission to recognise all your fields and make them available for mapping in the next modules.

Step 7: Click Run once on the Tally module to capture that test submission.

Important: Make sure your test submission includes the why field filled in, even though it is optional in real use. If you submit with it empty, Make.com will not see that field exists and you will not be able to map it in later modules.

Module 2: HTTP (Make a Request)

Step 1: Click the + button to the right of the Tally module. Search for HTTP and select Make a Request.

Step 2: Set Authentication type to No authentication.

Step 3: Click inside the URL field and type the following Jina prefix:

https://r.jina.ai

Step 4: Immediately after typing the prefix, open the variable picker and select Article Url from the Tally module. The field should read: https://r.jina.ai/ followed by the Article Url variable pill.

This is how Jina works. You prepend r.jina.ai/ to any URL and it visits the page, strips out all the clutter, and returns clean readable text. No account needed, no API key, completely free.

Step 5: Set Method to GET.

Step 6: Leave Headers, Query parameters, and Body content type all empty.

Step 7: Click Save.

Module 3: OpenAI (Create a Chat Completion)

Step 1: Click the + button to the right of the HTTP module. Search for OpenAI and select Create a Chat Completion.

Step 2: Click Add a connection. Paste your OpenAI API key into the field and click Save.

Step 3: Set the Model to GPT-4o: gpt-4o-mini.

Step 4: Under Messages, leave Role set to User.

Step 5: Click inside the Text Content field and build your prompt in three parts:

First, paste this instruction text:

You are a helpful reading assistant. Read the following article and produce a summary with exactly three bullet points covering the key points. Then write one sentence explaining why this matters. Keep it clear and conversational, not corporate.

On a new line, add:

If the reader provided a reason for saving this article, tailor your summary toward that goal. Reader’s note:

After the colon, use the variable picker to map Why are you saving this from the Tally module.

On a final line, type:

Article content:

After the colon, use the variable picker to map Data from the HTTP module.

Step 6: Scroll down and set Max tokens to 500.

Step 7: Leave everything else as default and click Save.

Module 4: Gmail (Send an Email)

Step 1: Click the + button to the right of the OpenAI module. Search for Gmail and select Send an Email.

Step 2: Click Add a connection and sign in with your Gmail account. Make.com will ask for permission to send emails on your behalf.

Step 3: In the To field, type your email address directly. Do not map a variable here — just type it in plain text.

Step 4: In the Subject field type:

Your summary is ready

Step 5: In the Content field build your email body. Type the following and map the variables as indicated:

Here is your article summary.

On the next line, map Choices[]: Message Content from the OpenAI module. This is the AI summary.

On the next line type:

Original article:

After the colon, map Article Url from the Tally module.

On a final line type:

Saved via August Wheel Read-it-Later

Step 6: Click Save.

Module 5: Google Sheets (Add a Row)

Before adding this module, go to Google Sheets and create a new spreadsheet. Name it Article Summary Log. Add these column headers in row 1:

After creating the google sheet, head back to Make.com

Step 1: Click the + button to the right of the Gmail module. Search for Google Sheets and select Add a Row.

Step 2: Click Add a connection and sign in with your Google account.

Step 3: Select your Article Summary Log spreadsheet and Sheet1.

Step 4: Map each column:

Step 5: Click Save.

Part 4: Activate and Test

Toggle the scenario from Off to On using the toggle at the bottom of the screen. Make sure Immediately as data arrives is also switched on.

Open your Tally form using the public URL and submit a real test. Use a URL from an open site — a BBC article, a Medium post, a YouTube video, or a Substack. Check your inbox. The summary should arrive within 60 seconds. Check your Google Sheet. A new row should have appeared with all the details logged.

Common Issues

The variable picker only shows one Tally field — This happens when your initial test submission was incomplete. Go back to your Tally form, submit a new test with all fields filled in including the optional why field, then click Redetermine data structure on the Tally module. All fields will appear correctly after that.

OpenAI says it could not access the article — The site returned a security page to Jina instead of the article content. Try a different URL from an open site to confirm the build is working. Not all websites are accessible to automated tools.

OpenAI authentication error — Delete the OpenAI connection in Make.com and add it again. Check that your OpenAI account has credit loaded in the Billing section at platform.openai.com.

Google Sheets is not logging rows –Confirm the spreadsheet and sheet name match exactly what is selected in Make.com. Make sure the column headers in row 1 are in the same order as the fields you mapped.

Gmail is not sending — Check that Make.com has permission to send from your Gmail account. Go to your Google account security settings and confirm Make.com is listed as a connected app.

What Comes Next

This is Project 2 in the Automation pillar of The 12-Project Hit List. Project 3 is a Personal Morning Briefing Bot that sends your weather, a news headline, and your top task for the day via Telegram before you get out of bed.

Get the full Hit List here, and subscribe to get notified when each walkthrough drops.

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