topic-scoutlisted

# Topic Scout **Finds what to cover and writes it to your idea tracker.** Built to run once a day. Where it sits in the pipeline: ```text [this skill] scout → idea tracker ↓ a human picks one and promotes it production queue ↓ topic-brief (verify → one-page brief) ↓ blog-post / carousel-post ``` **This skill never writes to the production queue.** It reads the queue only to check for duplicates. A human promoting an idea is the gate; if the model skips that gate, unverified topics end up in the production queue. ## The five ways this fails (all five are defended below) 1. **Suggests something already covered** → don't skip the three-layer duplicate check. 2. **Suggests something already over** → a candidate whose deadline you couldn't confirm does not get recorded. 3. **Mines the same beat every day** → follow the rotation from `axis.py`. Don't pick by feel. 4. **Invents something plausible with no source** → no primary-source URL, no record. 5. **Ranks by intuition** → score only with the rubric in `references/scoring.md`. ## Reference routing | When | Document | | --- | --- | | Which sources to open for each beat | `references/beats.md` | | How to score, and what disqualifies a candidate | `references/scoring.md` | | Tracker fields and how to write a row | `references/tracker.md` | | Today's beats and their sources | `python scripts/axis.py --today` | | Duplicate check | `python scripts/dedup.py` | ## Procedure — once per run