chatter-scout

Chatter Scout

Run one scouting pass on a topic, then stop. Output is one findings file; nothing is drafted, sent, or published. Safe to re-run: the seen-ledger keeps every run from resurfacing what an earlier one reported.

Cost is the design constraint. The lead (this skill) does no bulk searching or page reading; it writes briefs, runs the ledger script, ranks, and writes the file. Searching fans out to cheap sweepers; page reading goes only to candidates that survive the ledger.

Files (in the target repo)

• Profile docs/chatter/<topic-slug>/profile.md: the lens, sources, and watchlist. Format and bootstrap rules: PROFILE-FORMAT.md.
• Ledger docs/chatter/<topic-slug>/seen.json: JSON array of normalized URLs already judged. Only scripts/filter-seen.sh reads or writes it; it never removes an entry.
• Findings .scratch/chatter/<topic-slug>/<YYYY-MM-DD>.md: this run's output. A second run on the same day appends -2, -3.

Steps

1. Resolve the topic. $ARGUMENTS is a profile slug or free text. Slugify free text and match it against docs/chatter/*/profile.md. No argument: use the only profile; if there are zero or several, list them and stop. No profile for the topic: bootstrap one per PROFILE-FORMAT.md. Done when one profile is loaded and today's date is known from the environment.
2. Load what is already covered. If the profile has covered: globs, collect the title (and tags, if any) from each file's frontmatter, one line each. Do not read bodies. Done when you hold a covered-titles list (possibly empty).
3. Sweep. Dispatch one sweeper per profile source group (watchlist included), at most 5, in parallel (in Claude Code with this plugin installed, subagent_type=leek-skills:chatter-sweeper; in plain Claude Code, general-purpose with model: haiku; elsewhere, any sub-agent on the cheapest model the harness offers, or run the groups inline one after another). Each brief carries: today's date, window_days, the Lens, Buckets, and Ignore sections verbatim, that one group's sources, queries, and notes, and the Sweeper section of BRIEFS.md. Nothing else. Done when every sweeper has returned its JSON array.
4. Drop what the ledger has seen. Concatenate the arrays and pipe them through bash <skill-dir>/scripts/filter-seen.sh filter docs/chatter/<slug>/seen.json. Then drop, by title, anything a covered title already covers: a genuinely new development in a covered story (new ruling, new data, new state) stays. Drop any item dated before the window (non-evergreen buckets). If more than 15 survive, keep the 15 that best fit the Lens, taking day-dated items before undated ones: an undated item takes a slot only when no dated item fits. Done when at most 15 new candidates remain; if none remain, skip to step 6.
5. Verify. Split the survivors into batches of about 5 and dispatch one verifier per batch in parallel (in Claude Code, subagent_type=leek-skills:chatter-verifier; in plain Claude Code, general-purpose with model: sonnet; elsewhere, a sub-agent on a mid-tier model, or inline). Each brief carries: today's date, window_days, the Lens, Buckets, and Ignore sections, the batch, the profile's fetch notes, and the Verifier section of BRIEFS.md. Done when every candidate has a verdict.
6. Rank and write. Keep verdict keep and community. Rank by fit to the Lens first, then freshness (for non-evergreen buckets), then how many concrete facts the item carries. Take the top max_items; the rest go under Also seen. Write the findings file in the format below. Done when the file exists.
7. Update the ledger. Pipe a JSON array of every URL with verdict keep, community, off-topic, stale, or thin to filter-seen.sh add. Leave unreachable out so a later run retries it. Done when the script reports its added count.
8. Recap in 3–6 lines: groups swept, candidates found, new after the ledger, kept; the single strongest item; the findings path; and, if the profile was bootstrapped, that it needs review.

Never write to the profile after it exists, and never edit an earlier findings file.

Findings format

# Chatter: <topic>, <YYYY-MM-DD>

Swept <n> groups · <n> candidates · <n> new · <n> kept. Purpose: <blog | digest | both>.

## 1. <title>
- **Bucket:** <bucket> · **Date:** <YYYY-MM-DD, or "undated"> · **New this week:** yes | no
- **Source:** <publication> <URL>
- **Summary:** 1–2 lines.
- **Facts:** the specific numbers, dates, names, and citations the item hangs on.
- **Why it matters:** 1–2 lines against the Lens.
- **Angle:** for blog, the search query or headline it could win; for digest, the one line a reader acts on.
- **Action:** watch | respond | build | share | write
- **Confidence:** verified | community (unverified sentiment, not fact)

## Also seen
- <title>, <URL>: one line.

## Rejected
<n> off-topic · <n> stale · <n> thin · <n> unreachable (retried next run)

With no kept items, write only the header line and No new relevant chatter.