Lifestyle Hikers Content Distribution Automation

This repo now supports a single source-of-truth flow for announcing hikes and blog posts from the CMS.

Architecture

Sveltia/Decap CMS
  -> GitHub commit to main
  -> Content Distribution Webhook GitHub Action
  -> scripts/build_content_distribution_payload.rb
  -> n8n webhook
  -> Telegram and Brevo

Hikes live in _data/events.yml. Blog posts live in _posts/.

The website does not render the new automation fields. Existing homepage hike cards and blog pages should continue to behave the same way.

Live n8n Workflows

The live webhook distributor is:

• Lifestyle Hikers Content Distributor, workflow ID NNQgOBo7m5sOKzue
• Webhook path: lifestyle-hikers-content-distributor
• Current status: active

It reuses proven pieces from these existing workflows:

• Hike Announcement Auto-Broadcaster, workflow ID IlWbcMoDLTHVDPKE
• Lifestyle Hikers Telegram Updates, workflow ID uMs9wPpFYVksCxfz

The older workflows are preserved so they can be compared or rolled back if needed.

Required GitHub Secrets

Set these in the GitHub repository settings:

• N8N_CONTENT_WEBHOOK_URL: production n8n webhook URL for the content distributor workflow
• LH_WEBHOOK_SECRET: shared secret checked by n8n from the X-LH-SECRET header
• LIFESTYLE_HIKERS_SITE_URL: usually https://www.lifestylehikers.com

Optional GitHub repository variable:

• CONTENT_DISTRIBUTION_DRY_RUN: currently set to true while testing

CMS Fields

Hikes have these optional automation fields:

• flyer
• registration_url
• distribution_status
• announcement_id
• send_to_telegram
• send_to_brevo
• announcement_sent_at
• telegram_sent
• brevo_sent
• telegram_message_id
• brevo_message_id
• announcement_error

Blog posts have these optional automation fields:

• distribution_status
• announcement_id
• send_to_telegram
• send_to_brevo
• announcement_sent_at
• telegram_sent
• brevo_sent
• telegram_message_id
• brevo_message_id
• announcement_error

Publishing A Hike Announcement

1. Open the CMS.
2. Edit Upcoming Hikes.
3. Fill in the normal hike details.
4. Add a flyer and registration link if available.
5. Set Distribution Status to Ready.
6. Leave Send to Telegram on.
7. Leave Send to Brevo on if the email should go out.
8. Publish the CMS change.

The GitHub Action will only build payloads for hikes where distribution_status: ready.

Publishing A Blog Telegram Announcement

1. Open the CMS.
2. Create or edit a blog post.
3. Add the title, slug, date, description, image, and body.
4. Set Distribution Status to Ready.
5. Leave Send to Telegram on.
6. Leave Send to Brevo off unless blog email delivery has been explicitly configured in n8n.
7. Publish the CMS change.

The GitHub Action only builds blog payloads for changed blog posts where distribution_status: ready.

Dry Run

Dry run mode builds payloads without sending to n8n.

Use one of these:

• Run the workflow manually and leave dry_run as true.
• Set the repository variable CONTENT_DISTRIBUTION_DRY_RUN to true.

Local dry-run examples:

ruby scripts/build_content_distribution_payload.rb --root . --changed-files "_data/events.yml"
ruby scripts/build_content_distribution_payload.rb --root . --changed-files "_posts/2026-02-15-kwame-falls-first-hike-2026.md"

n8n Webhook Contract

n8n should:

• Accept POST requests from the GitHub Action.
• Validate the X-LH-SECRET header.
• Reject missing or invalid shared secrets.
• Route by content_type.
• Check duplicate sends by announcement_id.
• Send Telegram for hikes and blogs when send_to_telegram is true.
• Send Brevo for hikes when send_to_brevo is true.
• Keep Brevo disabled for blog posts unless intentionally configured.
• Log every result safely without storing secrets.

Recommended log fields:

• announcement_id
• content_type
• title or name
• source_file
• source_commit_sha
• telegram_status
• telegram_message_id
• brevo_status
• brevo_message_id
• sent_at
• last_error

Telegram Behavior

For hikes:

New Lifestyle Hikers Adventure



Date: 
Time: 
Location: 
Difficulty: 
Distance: 
Spots: 



Register:

For blogs:

New Lifestyle Hikers Blog Post





Read here:

Current live behavior uses Telegram sendMessage. If a flyer or image exists, the image URL is included in the message text.

A later upgrade can switch this to Telegram sendPhoto after testing against a private Telegram test channel.

Brevo Behavior

For hikes, Brevo email should include:

• hike name
• flyer image if available
• date
• time
• location
• difficulty
• distance
• spots
• description
• registration link

Use test-recipient mode before sending to the live list.

Duplicate Protection

The GitHub Action may rerun, and CMS edits may happen more than once. n8n must treat announcement_id as the idempotency key.

If the same announcement_id has already succeeded, n8n should skip sending and return a safe success response.

Troubleshooting

If nothing sends:

• Confirm distribution_status is exactly ready.
• Confirm the changed file is _data/events.yml or a file inside _posts/.
• Confirm the GitHub Action was not in dry-run mode.
• Confirm N8N_CONTENT_WEBHOOK_URL and LH_WEBHOOK_SECRET are set.
• Confirm the n8n workflow is active and its production webhook URL is being used.

If Telegram fails:

• Confirm the Lifestyle Hikers Bot credential still exists in n8n.
• Confirm the bot is still admin in the target Telegram channel.
• Confirm the Telegram chat ID is correct.

If Brevo fails:

• Confirm the Brevo credential still exists in n8n.
• Confirm the sender is verified.
• Confirm the workflow is using a test recipient before live list delivery.