---
name: scout
description: Evaluate URLs and tools — check vault coverage, assess relevance, recommend save or skip
roles: [all]
integrations: [web-fetch, web-search]
---

# COG Scout Skill

## Purpose
Lightweight URL/tool triage that sits between "ignore" and `/url-dump`. Evaluates whether a URL or tool is worth saving or skipping — checking existing vault coverage, assessing relevance to the user's profile and interests, and recommending a clear next action.

## When to Invoke
- User wants to evaluate a URL or tool before committing to a full save
- User says "scout this", "evaluate this", "should I save this?", "is this relevant?"
- User shares one or more URLs and wants a quick relevance assessment
- User mentions a tool/service name and wants to know if it's worth investigating

## Agent Mode Awareness

**Check `agent_mode` in `00-inbox/MY-PROFILE.md` frontmatter:**
- If `agent_mode: team` — delegate vault scanning and web fetching to parallel sub-agents (one for vault search, one for content fetch/analysis). Combine results for recommendation.
- If `agent_mode: solo` (default) — handle all scanning and analysis directly in the conversation. No delegation.

## Pre-Flight Check

**Before executing, check for user profile:**

1. Look for `00-inbox/MY-PROFILE.md` and `00-inbox/MY-INTERESTS.md` in the vault
2. If NOT found:
   ```
   Welcome to COG! Scout works best with a profile for relevance matching.

   Would you like to run /onboarding first, or should I evaluate with general criteria?
   ```
3. If found:
   - Read `MY-PROFILE.md` for active projects and role
   - Read `MY-INTERESTS.md` for topic areas
   - Read `00-inbox/MY-INTEGRATIONS.md` for active integrations (check if `web-fetch` and `web-search` are available)

## Boundary with `/url-dump`

**Scout evaluates** ("should I save this?"). **URL-dump saves** ("save this now").

- Scout checks existing coverage, assesses relevance, and recommends an action
- If the recommendation is **Save**, scout hands off to `/url-dump` with pre-filled category
- Users who already know they want to save should use `/url-dump` directly

## Process Flow

### 1. Accept Input

Accept one or more of:
- **URL(s):** Direct links to evaluate
- **Tool/service name(s):** Will search for the tool first
- **Mixed:** Combination of URLs and names

**Prompt (if no input provided):**
```
What URL(s) or tool(s) would you like me to evaluate?
(You can paste URLs, tool names, or a mix)
```

**Batch mode:** Multiple URLs/names in one invocation are processed together with a summary table at the end.

### 2. Vault Coverage Check

For each URL or tool name, search the **entire vault** for existing coverage.

**Search strategy:**
- Extract domain from URL (e.g., `github.com/owner/repo` → search for repo name)
- Search for tool/service name across the whole vault (grep for domain, repo name, tool name)
- Match against URL strings in frontmatter (`url:` fields) and inline links

**If found:**
```
🔍 Existing coverage found for [name]:
- [file path] — saved [date], category: [category]
- [file path] — mentioned in [context]

Want me to check if an update is needed, or skip this one?
```

### 3. Content Fetch & Analysis

**If URL provided and web-fetch is active:**
- Fetch the URL content using WebFetch
- Extract: title, description, content type, author, date

**If tool name provided (no URL):**
- Use WebSearch to find the tool's primary page
- Fetch and analyze the top result

**Content type detection:**
- **Tool/Service:** Software, SaaS, API, library, framework
- **Article/Blog:** Long-form content, tutorial, opinion piece
- **Repository:** GitHub/GitLab repo (extract stars, last commit, language)
- **Research:** Paper, study, academic content
- **News:** Industry news, announcement
- **Reference:** Documentation, spec, standard

### 4. Relevance Assessment

Score relevance against user context:

**Profile Match (from MY-PROFILE.md):**
- Does it relate to an active project? Which one?
- Does it align with the user's role?
- Does it fit the user's tech stack?

**Interest Match (from MY-INTERESTS.md):**
- Does it match any declared interest topics?
- How directly relevant is it?

**Quality Signals:**
- For repos: stars, recent activity, maintainer health
- For tools: pricing model, maturity, adoption
- For articles: author credibility, publication quality, recency
- For all: uniqueness vs. what's already in the vault

### 5. Recommendation

Based on analysis, recommend one of two actions:

#### **Save** — Worth adding to the knowledge base
```
✅ SAVE — [Title/Name]
Category: [suggested category for url-dump]
Relevance: [High/Medium] — [why it matters]
Projects: [affected project(s) if any]

Shall I hand off to /url-dump to save it?
```

#### **Skip** — Not relevant or not worth the time
```
⏭️ SKIP — [Title/Name]
Reason: [clear explanation — wrong stack, low quality, already covered, irrelevant to interests]
```

### 6. Batch Summary (for multiple items)

When processing multiple URLs/tools, end with a summary table:

```markdown
## Scout Summary

| # | Item | Verdict | Reason |
|---|------|---------|--------|
| 1 | [Name 1] | ✅ Save | [brief reason] |
| 2 | [Name 2] | ⏭️ Skip | [brief reason] |

**Actions:**
- [X] items ready to save via /url-dump
```

### 7. Execute Follow-up Actions

Based on user confirmation:
- **Save items:** Hand off to `/url-dump` with pre-filled category suggestion
- **Skip items:** No action needed

## Fallback Behavior

| Scenario | Behavior |
|----------|----------|
| web-fetch unavailable | Evaluate based on URL structure, domain reputation, and vault search only. Note that content wasn't fetched. |
| web-search unavailable | For tool-name inputs (no URL), ask the user for a direct URL instead. For URL inputs, proceed normally — web-search is not needed. |
| No user profile | Evaluate with general quality/relevance criteria, skip personalized relevance scoring |
| URL is paywalled | Note limitation, evaluate based on available preview and metadata |
| Tool not found via search | Ask user for more context or a direct URL |

## Uncertainty Handling

- **High confidence:** Clear relevance match or clear irrelevance — give direct recommendation
- **Medium confidence:** Partial match — present pros/cons, let user decide
- **Low confidence:** Can't determine relevance — explain what's unclear, ask user for context

## Integration with Other Skills

### Downstream
- **Save** → hands off to `/url-dump` with pre-filled category

### Upstream
- `/daily-brief` may surface new tools/services → user can run `/scout` to evaluate
- `/auto-research` may discover tools during research → scout can triage them

## Success Metrics
- Quick triage (< 1 minute for single URL in solo mode)
- Clear, actionable recommendations
- Accurate vault coverage detection (no duplicate saves)
- Relevance scoring matches user expectations
- Smooth handoff to `/url-dump` when saving

## Philosophy

Scout embodies COG's "evaluate before you accumulate" principle:
- Not everything deserves a bookmark — be selective
- Existing coverage should be surfaced before creating duplicates
- Binary save/skip keeps decisions fast and avoids half-measures
- Clear recommendations reduce decision fatigue