/gsc-ai-performance

name: gsc-ai-performance
description: "Baseline and interpret Google Search Console's AI Performance Report — combined AI Overviews + AI Mode impressions, cited pages, country and device mix (no click data; attribution stays in GA4) — from a user-supplied CSV export, with an in-SC AI opt-out recommendation and a gated quality scorecard. Triggers on \"/digital-marketing-pro:gsc-ai-performance\", \"read the new GSC AI report\", \"baseline our AI search visibility\", \"how many AI Overviews impressions do we get\", \"should we opt out of AI results\". Parses and archives exports via gsc-ai-performance.py, reconciles actuals against /digital-marketing-pro:aeo-audit probes, and feeds /digital-marketing-pro:seo-drift."
argument-hint: "[brand-name or site URL]"

/digital-marketing-pro:gsc-ai-performance

Purpose

Google rolled out a new **GSC AI Performance Report** on **3 June 2026** ([Search Engine Land announcement](https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-ai-performance-reports-and-controls-to-block-your-content-in-ai-responses-479298)) covering both AI Overviews and AI Mode in a single combined surface. This skill helps you (a) baseline a brand's visibility in the new report, (b) understand the metric trade-offs, and (c) decide whether to use the new in-SC opt-out toggle.

What is genuinely new (3 June 2026)

| Metric / surface | Status | |---|---| | Combined AI Overviews + AI Mode impressions | NEW — one report for both surfaces | | Pages cited (per query group) | NEW | | Country breakdown | NEW | | Device breakdown | NEW | | Date range filtering | NEW | | **Click data** | **NOT INCLUDED** (Google explicitly excluded — important caveat for attribution) | | Opt-out toggle in Search Console | NEW (replaces having to ship robots.txt / meta tags for AI-specific exclusion) | | API surface | **NOT YET PUBLISHED** — UI only (still true as of July 2026) | | **Discover generative surfaces** | **NEW (June–July 2026)** — the report family now also covers generative AI features in Discover ([Google announcement](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2026/06/gen-ai-performance-reports)) | | Data availability | Backfilled from **18 May 2026**; access expanded broadly in July 2026, with a companion deep-dive help doc on AI controls | | Geographic rollout | UK first, then global ([source](https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-ai-performance-reports-and-controls-to-block-your-content-in-ai-responses-479298)) |

**Critical interpretation guidance:** The report shows when your pages were SHOWN in AI Overviews / AI Mode, not when users clicked through to them. Because click data is absent, all downstream attribution to AI traffic must come from your analytics (GA4's new `AI Assistant` channel — added 13 May 2026 — is the matching analytics-side surface; see `/digital-marketing-pro:analytics-insights`).

When to use this skill

• Setting baseline AI visibility for a new brand (first 30-day capture of AI Overview + AI Mode impressions)
• Comparing brand AI visibility against `aeo-audit` synthetic results — the GSC report shows ACTUAL impressions vs `aeo-audit`'s probe queries
• Deciding whether to flip the in-SC AI opt-out toggle for a brand (regulated industry, brand-safety concern, or paywall/login content)
• Quarterly business review evidence — "AI search impressions grew X%" using authoritative Google data

Brand context (auto-applied)

1. Read `~/.claude-marketing/brands/_active-brand.json` for the active slug, then load `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/profile.json` 2. If no brand exists: ask "Set up a brand first (/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup)?" — or proceed with defaults 3. Apply industry-specific guidance from `skills/context-engine/industry-profiles.md` (YMYL industries may want opt-out toggled ON until E-E-A-T audit is clean) 4. Reference `skills/context-engine/compliance-rules.md` for jurisdiction-specific rules (EU markets — see `skills/context-engine/eu-code-of-practice.md` for Article 50 transparency context)

Numbered output convention

All outputs go to `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/{brand}/seo/gsc-ai-performance/{YYYY-MM-DD}/`:

00-input.md                  brand domain, GSC access status, UK-cohort flag, date range
01-access-check.md           verification result; if no access, instructions for adding the user
02-export.csv                raw CSV export from GSC (preserved for reproducibility)
03-script-output.json        gsc-ai-performance.py parsed output (impressions, pages, countries, devices)
04-reconciliation.md         vs aeo-audit synthetic probe results — gap analysis
05-opt-out-decision.md       y/n on the in-SC opt-out toggle, with rationale
06-quality-scorecard.md      the gates below
PLAN.md                      single-page summary with tracking cadence

Quality scorecard

| Gate | What it checks | |---|---| | **gsc_access_verified** | User has confirmed Search Console verified ownership for the brand domain | | **export_completeness** | CSV has ≥ 1 day of data + at minimum the impressions column | | **cohort_documented** | `00-input.md` notes whether the brand is in the UK rollout (data live) or pending global rollout (no data yet — wait) | | **reconciliation_done** | `04-reconciliation.md` cross-references against the brand's most recent aeo-audit |

If the brand isn't in the UK rollout yet, the gate framework still applies but `export_completeness` will be `fail` until Google rolls out globally — that's expected, not a regression.

Chain handoffs

• **Upstream:** `/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup` for property verification
• **Downstream:**
• `/digital-marketing-pro:aeo-geo` — optimization based on what's surfacing (or not)
• `/digital-marketing-pro:seo-drift` — month-over-month tracking using the exported CSVs
• `/digital-marketing-pro:analytics-insights` — GA4 AI Assistant channel attribution closes the click-side gap

Process

1. **Access check** — confirm the user has Google Search Console verif