Capuchin

Capuchin is a tool for writing email newsletters. It allows you to write content in Markdown and schedule the resulting campaign for delivery via the MailChimp API.

You can think of Capuchin as "Jekyll for email newsletters".

If you want fancy HTML you probably want to stick to MailChimp's WYSIWYG editor, but for a newsletter where the primary content is text (and some links) give Capuchin a shot.

Installation

You don't need to add it to your Gemfile - it's best kept as a system-wide gem. All you need to do is install it from the command line:

$ gem install capuchin

This installs the command line tool capuchin.

Usage

The directory structure is as follows:

.
├── .env
├── _config.yml
└── _emails
    ├── 2013-09-01-selling-software-products.md
    └── 2013-09-08-creating-value-as-a-consultant.md

Commands

• capuchin new PATH will scaffold the directory structure in PATH

• capuchin create "Email Subject" will generate a Markdown email file with the provided subject

• capuchin schedule _emails/PATH_TO_EMAIL.md will process the input email, and schedule it for MailChimp delivery based on the date in the YAML front-matter (defaults to the date in the filename)

Templating

Capuchin leverages MailChimps templating system (instead of doing templating locally). To have your content inserted into your email, make sure your template has mc:edit="main" in it.

You need to set the template ID from MailChimp in _config.yml (see below).

Configuration

Set your MailChimp API key (You can see your API keys here) in the .env file.

DO NOT CHECK THIS INTO SOURCE CODE IF YOUR REPOSITORY IS PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE!!

MAILCHIMP_API_KEY=your-mailchimp-key

Specify Capuchin configuration in _config.yml

capuchin:
  from_email: "[email protected]"
  from_name: "Joe Cool"
  list_id: "ee90847678"
  template_id: 71337

  # Delivery time is 24 Hour format in GMT
  delivery_time: "08:30:00"

Example email

Given a file _emails\2013-09-01-selling-software-products.md with these contents (and the same configuration as above):

---
subject: Selling Software Products
---

This is an email about how to sell software!

Run capuchin schedule _emails\2013-09-01-selling-software-products.md to schedule this campaign in MailChimp to be sent on 2013-09-01 at 08:30 AM (GMT) to all members of the list with a Subject of "Selling Software Products".

Colophon

A capuchin monkey are New World monkeys of the subfamily Cebinae. They are considered the most intelligent New World monkeys, known especially for their long-term tool usage and social structures. Capuchin monkeys are sometimes referred to as "nature's butlers" because of their historic use as service animals.

Contact

Matt Swanson, mdswanson.com @_swanson

License

MIT