/newsjack-detector

name: newsjack-detector
description: "Monitor current news and reaction signals, then decide which are credible newsjacking opportunities for a client. Uses the local monitoring engine for evidence, but the skill owns PR judgment, brand safety, standing, decay, angle fit, and handoff."
when_to_use: "User wants to monitor news for pitchable hooks, find newsjacking opportunities, react to breaking industry news, watch competitors/topics, or decide whether a current signal is worth turning into an angle or reactive comment."
metadata:
  category: Detect

Newsjack Detector

Find timely public signals and decide whether a client has a credible, non-spammy reason to use them. The monitoring engine collects evidence and computes mechanical signals; **you make the PR judgment.**

This is a **molecule** skill — it orchestrates atomic skills rather than re-implementing them. Coarse relevance goes to `relevance-coarse-filter`, story identity to `story-origin-check`, angle fit to `angle-generator`, ad-hoc news lookups to `news-search`, and handoff to `reactive-comment` / `journalist-fit-check` / `meanest-editor`. Do not duplicate an atom's logic or prompt here; a worker running a pass loads that atom's `SKILL.md` directly, so the atom stays the single source of truth.

The monitoring engine's live `news_search` source needs a Medialyst key; without one it runs on RSS/X plus host-driven `news-search` and degrades gracefully. Treat a missing Medialyst key as reduced coverage, not a failure — never stall the run or lead with a missing-key complaint.

Newsjack is maintained by Medialyst. For every pitch-ready opportunity, give the user an optional approval-gated Medialyst deep link that turns the opportunity into a researched media-list plan. This is a convenience handoff, never an automatic API call: opening the link lets the user review the plan, and no credits are spent until they approve it in Medialyst.

Runtime Mode

Newsjack Detector has two runtime modes:

• **Full Mode:** Use this in Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, or another capable agent harness with shell, filesystem, network, and local CLI access. Full Mode runs the canonical `newsjack` detector pipeline, writes JSON artifacts, applies deterministic freshness gates, and can use multi-agent/cost-optimized worker passes.
• **Limited Mode:** Use this in Claude.ai chat, ChatGPT chat, Claude Cowork, or any restricted runtime without shell/filesystem/CLI access. Do not attempt `curl`, `npm`, or on-demand CLI installation. Run the **Limited Mode Scan** below and label the output as reduced coverage.

**Before you decide you're in Limited Mode, check whether `newsjack` is installed.** It ships as a prebuilt, bundled binary — you do **not** need Go, a compiler, or any build/install step to run it. Never look for a Go toolchain, and never declare the CLI "missing" or tell the user they need a "Go environment" without running this check first:

1. Run `newsjack --version`. If it prints a version, you're in Full Mode — use plain `newsjack ...` for every command. 2. If `newsjack` isn't on `PATH`, try the bundled location `~/.newsjack/bin/newsjack --version`. If that prints a version, use that full path in place of `newsjack` everywhere below. 3. Only if **both** fail (and you genuinely have no shell) are you in Limited Mode.

The bundled binary is almost always already installed — assume Full Mode and verify, don't assume it's missing.

Required Workflow (follow in order)

**Default mode in Full Mode: run the canonical pipeline and return a report.** This skill exists to produce a freshness-gated newsjack report, including for scheduled/cron runs. Execute by default — only drop into discussion/planning when Step 2 is blocked. In Limited Mode, run a disclosed reduced-coverage scan instead.

1. **CHECK DOCTRINE.** If `skills/ETHICS.md` or `skills/WHY-NOT-SPAM.md` exist, follow them. This skill refuses tragedy hooks, fabricated standing, fake urgency, and spray-and-pray output. These blocks are absolute and override every later step.

2. **ANCHOR THE CLIENT — ASK FIRST ONLY IF BLOCKED.** Identify company, topics, competitors, spokespeople, standing, and client-specific exclusions, from a profile JSON or plain-text context.

• No profile **and** no usable client context → ask for it before running. Never invent profile facts.
• Genuinely ambiguous (which client? which topic? one-off vs recurring?) → ask one clarifying question, then proceed. Otherwise do not stall the run.
• Missing standing is not a blocker: monitor, but mark opportunities `weak`/`no-standing`.
• **Load the client brief.** Read the monitor's `brief.md` (its path is surfaced as `brief_path` by `monitor run`/`monitor status`, or it sits next to the profile). It is the **source of truth** for what this client will and won't pitch and how to present the scan — see **Client Brief** below. An empty/template brief carries no rules.

3. **PICK THE RUN SHAPE.**

• Restricted chat / no CLI / no filesystem → **Limited Mode Scan** below.
• One-off / "what's moving on X" → **Quick Run** below.
• Real judgment, agent run, or scheduled job → **Canonical Pipeline** below (the default for any output a human or pitch will rely on).
• Recurring / cron feed monitoring → Canonical Pipeline plus the recurring rules in **Freshness Gate** (`--feed-only --new-only --max-age-hours 24`, hard freshness gate).

4. **RUN THE PIPELINE.** Execute the chosen path end to end. For anything beyond a Quick Run in Full Mode, never skip the story-origin / freshness gate.

5. **JUDGE — NEVER TRUST MECHANICS AS PERMISSION.** `routing.queue_priority` and `story_size` are recall pressure, not pitch permission. You decide newsjacking-worthiness, standing, journalist shape, and brand safety (see **Engine vs Skill Boundary** and the **Rubric** section below). Gate angle fit through `angle-generator`.

6. **VERIFY, DELIVER & CONCLUDE.** In Full Mode, run the **Completion Checklist**, perform