News scout

Skill AlexHoudz/content-os-starter-kit/skills/news-scout

A forkable content system for AI agents that scouts signals, drafts in your voice, and edits out generic AI writing.

Install

npx -y skills add AlexHoudz/content-os-starter-kit --skill news-scout

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

0 stars0 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

What its author says it does

Copied from the file, not written here

Scout fresh content signals, rank them, and turn them into a few post-worthy angles. Use when building a daily or weekly content brief, reviewing news in a niche, comparing source quality, or deciding what is actually worth posting about. Best for workflows like source scan, angle ranking, and draft handoff.

SKILL.md

2.1 KB, 435 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

News Scout

Overview

Reduce noisy sources into a short list of angles worth writing about.

The job is not to summarize headlines. The job is to find signals, judge them, and explain why they matter now.

Core workflow

1. Read the right inputs

Start with the user's real source list.

Prefer:

the sources in templates/SOURCES.md
a narrow niche
a short freshness window
low-saturation signals

If the source list is weak, say so.

2. Filter hard

Reject items that are:

already everywhere
too generic
not relevant to the user's audience
just a headline with no second-order effect
impossible to turn into a strong point of view

Weak-day detection is part of the skill. Do not force a fake winner.

3. Rank angles, not headlines

For each candidate, define:

the angle title
the thesis
why now
why it fits the user
saturation risk
weakness
proof or source link

4. Hand off to drafting

Do not write full posts by default. End with 1 to 3 good angles unless the user explicitly asks for draft copy too.

Output pattern

Return the shortlist in a compact format:

best option first
clear reason it is worth posting
saturation note
one-line weakness

When helpful, use the criteria in references/angle-evaluation.md.

Quality bar

A good scout result should feel like:

one clear signal
one clear tension
one real reason the user should care
less noise than their feed

A bad scout result feels like:

generic AI news recap
obvious funding / launch filler
points everyone will post by noon

Important rule

Optimize for asymmetry: high relevance, low saturation, strong point of view.

Resources

Read references/angle-evaluation.md when ranking weak vs strong angles.
Read references/source-review.md when the source list or niche still feels fuzzy.