COG Daily Brief Skill

Purpose

Find verified, relevant news for personalized daily briefings with strict verification standards and strategic relevance analysis tailored to user's specific interests and projects.

When to Invoke

• User wants their daily news briefing
• User says "daily brief", "news", "what's happening", "morning brief"
• User wants to stay updated on their interests
• Morning routine or regular check-in time

Agent Mode Awareness

Check agent_mode in 00-inbox/MY-PROFILE.md frontmatter:

• If agent_mode: team — delegate news research across different interest areas to parallel sub-agents (e.g., one agent per topic cluster). Each agent searches, verifies sources, and returns findings. Combine and synthesize results into the final brief.
• If agent_mode: solo (default) — handle all research and synthesis 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! Daily briefs work best when personalized.
   
   Let's quickly set up your profile (takes 2 minutes).
   
   Would you like to run onboarding first, or should I generate a general brief?

3. If found:
   • Read MY-INTERESTS.md to get topics for news curation
   • Read MY-PROFILE.md to get user's name and active projects
   • Read 03-professional/COMPETITIVE-WATCHLIST.md if exists for competitive tracking
   • Use topics to curate relevant news
   • Connect news to user's active projects when relevant

Get current timestamp (REQUIRED before generating any files):

1. Run date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M' using Bash to get the actual current date and time
2. Store this value and use it for the created: frontmatter field
3. NEVER guess or fabricate the time — always use the value returned by the date command

Process Flow

1. Gather Context

Collect the information needed for personalized curation:

• Read 00-inbox/MY-PROFILE.md for:

  • User's name
  • User's role/job
  • Active projects

• Read 00-inbox/MY-INTERESTS.md for:

  • Topics they're interested in
  • Preferred news sources

• Read 03-professional/COMPETITIVE-WATCHLIST.md (if exists) for:

  • Companies/people to track

Deduplication — Previous Brief Scan

Read up to 3 most recent daily briefs from 01-daily/briefs/ (most recent first):

• Extract dedup_urls from their frontmatter (if present)
• Also scan their headlines/story titles as semantic fallback for cross-source matching
• Build a set of covered stories to avoid repeating

Matching rules (in priority order):

1. URL match (primary): If a candidate story's main source URL already appears in dedup_urls, it's a known story
2. Headline match (fallback): If the URL is different but the headline describes the same event as a previous story, treat as duplicate — this catches the same story reported by different outlets

During news research (Step 2), apply dedup rules:

• Skip stories already covered unless there is a material update (new data, resolution, escalation, reversal)
• If including an update, prefix with "Update: first covered [date]"
• Stories older than 3 briefs are eligible for re-inclusion if still developing

2. News Research and Curation

Apply comprehensive news research methodology:

Interest-Based Research

• Search based on user's current interest profile
• Focus on strategic relevance to user's role and projects
• Identify emerging patterns and developments
• Diversify sources for balanced perspective

Verification Standards (MANDATORY)

Date Verification:

• ALL news MUST be from last 7 days ONLY
• Verify publication dates with verified timestamps
• NEVER include older news without explicit disclosure

Source Credibility Assessment:

• Tier 1 Sources (Highest Credibility): Major news organizations (Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, WSJ, NYT), official company announcements, government statements
• Tier 2 Sources (High Credibility): Industry publications, credible tech/business blogs, research reports from reputable firms
• Tier 3 Sources (Moderate - Verify Carefully): Social media from verified accounts, company blogs, community discussions
• Minimum 2 credible sources for any claim
• Cross-reference key facts and figures

Fact Cross-Reference:

• Verify claims across multiple independent sources
• Use WebFetch to verify any statistics before including them
• Identify potential bias and provide balanced perspective

Strategic Relevance Analysis

Assess impact on user:

Direct Impact (High Priority):

• News directly affecting user's projects or companies
• Regulatory changes affecting user's industry
• Competitive moves by direct competitors
• Technology developments affecting user's tech stack

Strategic Impact (Medium Priority):

• Market trends affecting user's target customers
• Investment patterns in user's industry
• Talent market changes affecting hiring
• Partnership opportunities or threats

Contextual Impact (Lower Priority):

• Broader economic trends affecting business climate
• Technology trends affecting future planning
• Industry thought leadership and opinion
• Educational content for professional development

Opportunity and Threat Identification

Opportunities:

• Market Opportunities: New markets or customer segments opening
• Technology Opportunities: New tools or platforms to leverage
• Partnership Opportunities: Potential collaboration partners
• Competitive Opportunities: Competitor weaknesses or market gaps

Threats:

• Competitive Threats: New competitors or competitive advantages
• Technology Threats: Disruptive technologies or obsolescence risks
• Market Threats: Market shifts or customer behavior changes
• Regulatory Threats: New regulations or compliance requirements

3. Generate Daily Brief

Create structured briefing document:

---
type: "daily-brief"
domain: "shared"
date: "YYYY-MM-DD"
created: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"
sources_verified: true
news_age_verified: true
confidence: "high"
tags: ["#daily-brief", "#news", "#strategic-intelligence"]
interests: ["interest1", "interest2"]
projects_referenced: ["project1"]
items_count: [number]
dedup_urls: ["https://primary-source-url-for-each-story-covered"]
---

# Daily Brief - [Date]

**Good [morning/afternoon], [Name]!**

## Executive Summary
[2-3 sentences highlighting the most important developments across all your interest areas]

---

## High Impact News

### [News Item 1 - Direct Impact]
**Relevance:** [Why this matters to you specifically]

[Detailed summary of the news]

**Impact Assessment:**
- **Projects Affected:** [Which of your projects this impacts]
- **Potential Effects:** [Specific implications]
- **Action Suggested:** [Recommended response or follow-up]

**Sources:**
- [Source Name 1] (Tier [1/2/3]) - [Publication Date] - [Link]
- [Source Name 2] (Tier [1/2/3]) - [Publication Date] - [Link]

**Confidence:** [High/Medium/Low] - [Reasoning]

---

### [News Item 2 - Direct Impact]
[Same structure as above]

---

## Strategic Developments

### [News Item 3 - Strategic Impact]
**Relevance:** [Why this matters strategically]

[Detailed summary]

**Strategic Implications:**
- [Implication 1]
- [Implication 2]
- [Implication 3]

**Sources:**
- [Source listings with credibility tiers and links]

**Confidence:** [High/Medium/Low] - [Reasoning]

---

## Market Intelligence

### [News Item 4 - Market Trends]
**Relevance:** [Why this market trend matters]

[Detailed summary]

**Market Impact:**
- [Impact on target customers]
- [Industry trends]
- [Investment patterns]

**Sources:**
- [Source listings with credibility tiers and links]

**Confidence:** [High/Medium/Low] - [Reasoning]

---

## Technology Watch

### [News Item 5 - Tech Developments]
**Relevance:** [Why this technology matters]

[Detailed summary]

**Technology Implications:**
- [Impact on tech stack]
- [New tools or platforms]
- [Emerging technologies]

**Sources:**
- [Source listings with credibility tiers and links]

**Confidence:** [High/Medium/Low] - [Reasoning]

---

## Competitive Landscape

### [Competitor/Company Name - From Watchlist]
**Recent Activity:**

[Summary of competitive intelligence gathered]

**Competitive Implications:**
- [What this means for your projects]
- [Opportunities or threats]
- [Recommended responses]

**Sources:**
- [Source listings with credibility tiers and links]

**Confidence:** [High/Medium/Low] - [Reasoning]

---

## Opportunities & Recommendations

**Note:** Calculate actual due dates from today's date and append Obsidian Tasks emoji format.

### Immediate Actions (Today/This Week)
- [ ] [Specific action item 1] 📅 [YYYY-MM-DD = today's date]
- [ ] [Specific action item 2] 📅 [YYYY-MM-DD = today's date]
- [ ] [Specific action item 3] 📅 [YYYY-MM-DD = end of this week]

### Research Needed
- [Area 1 requiring deeper investigation]
- [Area 2 to monitor closely]

### People to Inform/Consult
- [Stakeholder 1]: [About what]
- [Stakeholder 2]: [About what]

---

## Risks & Threats

### Active Threats
- **Threat 1:** [Description and mitigation approach]
- **Threat 2:** [Description and mitigation approach]

### Emerging Risks to Monitor
- [Risk 1 to watch]
- [Risk 2 to watch]

---

## Verification Report

### Source Analysis
- **Tier 1 Sources:** [count] - [list main ones]
- **Tier 2 Sources:** [count] - [list main ones]
- **Cross-References Performed:** [number]

### Fact-Checking Results
- **Verified Claims:** [count]
- **Unverified Claims:** [count with explanation if any]
- **Conflicting Information:** [count with resolution approach if any]

### Freshness Verification
- ✅ All news items verified within 7-day window
- Publication date range: [Oldest date] to [Newest date]

### Confidence Assessment
- **Overall Confidence:** [percentage]%
- **High Confidence Items:** [count]
- **Medium Confidence Items:** [count]
- **Low Confidence Items:** [count] - [reasons if any]

---

## Complete Sources

### Strategic News
1. [Full source citation with link]
2. [Full source citation with link]

### Market Intelligence
1. [Full source citation with link]
2. [Full source citation with link]

### Technology Watch
1. [Full source citation with link]
2. [Full source citation with link]

### Competitive Intelligence
1. [Full source citation with link]
2. [Full source citation with link]

---

*Curated by COG News Curator | All news verified within 7-day freshness window | Sources cross-referenced for accuracy*

Save to: 01-daily/briefs/daily-brief-YYYY-MM-DD.md

4. Handle Special Cases

When No Recent News Found: If no relevant news found in last 7 days for a particular interest area:

### [Interest Area]
**No significant news found in last 7 days**

Last significant development was [date if known] regarding [topic if known].

**Suggestions:**
- Consider expanding search criteria
- Check [alternative sources suggested]
- This area may be experiencing a quiet period

NEVER fabricate or use older news without explicit date disclosure.

When Information Cannot Be Verified:

### [Potential News Item]
**⚠️ Unable to verify from independent sources**

**Original Source:** [source] - Credibility: [assessment]

**What We Know:**
[What can be stated based on single source]

**What's Uncertain:**
[Specific claims that couldn't be verified]

**Recommendation:** Monitor for additional confirmation before acting

**Confidence:** Low - [reasoning]

When Sources Conflict:

### [News Item with Conflicting Reports]
**⚠️ Conflicting information from multiple sources**

**Perspective 1:**
[Summary] - **Source:** [source with credibility tier]

**Perspective 2:**
[Summary] - **Source:** [source with credibility tier]

**Areas of Agreement:**
- [What sources agree on]

**Areas of Disagreement:**
- [Where sources conflict]

**Recommendation:** [Approach for resolution or further research]

**Confidence:** Medium - [reasoning]

5. Confirm Completion

• Confirm file was created
• Show user: "Daily brief saved to [file path]"
• Optionally show executive summary
• Ask if they want to explore any topic deeper or capture thoughts via braindump skill

Loop Engineering

Daily brief is a verify-retry loop, not a single search. See .claude/skills/loop-engineering/SKILL.md for the shared vocabulary.

The loop (per interest area): search → fetch a candidate → run the verifier → keep it or discard and re-search with an adjusted query → repeat until enough verified items or a stop condition fires. In agent_mode: team, run one loop per interest cluster as isolated workers (orchestrator-workers), then synthesize.

The verifier (deterministic, runs every candidate):

• Publication date is within the last 7 days. Mechanical date check, not a guess.
• At least 2 independent credible sources for the claim.
• Source tier is identified (1 / 2 / 3). Tier 3 needs cross-reference before it survives.
• Not already seen (story dedup): a candidate whose URL or headline is already in the brief is dropped.

A candidate that fails any check is discarded, not softened. This is COG's verification-first rule applied inside the loop: never let an item in on the agent's own "this looks recent enough."

Termination conditions (layered):

• Goal met: target item count reached for the interest area.
• Hard cap: stop after ~5 searches per interest area.
• No-progress: 2 consecutive searches surface nothing new (after dedup) → emit the "No significant news found" block (see Handle Special Cases) and move on. Never backfill with older or fabricated news.
• Budget guard: overall fetch budget across all areas.

Patterns: evaluator-optimizer (each item scored against the verifier) + reflect-retry (a failed search informs the next query) + orchestrator-workers (team mode).

In-loop context: write verified items straight into the brief file as they pass; drop raw fetched page text once the summary and sources are extracted.

Integration with Other Skills

Follow-up Actions

After daily brief, suggest:

• braindump skill - Capture thoughts sparked by news
• weekly-checkin skill - Reflect on news patterns over the week
• Project-specific analysis if news impacts active projects

Performance Metrics

Verification Quality

• Source Credibility Score: Average credibility rating of sources used
• Fact Accuracy Rate: Percentage of facts that remain accurate over time
• Cross-Reference Rate: Percentage of claims verified through multiple sources
• Date Accuracy: 100% compliance with 7-day freshness requirement (MANDATORY)

Relevance Quality

• User Engagement: Percentage of news items user finds valuable
• Action Generation: Percentage of news items leading to user action
• Strategic Value: User assessment of strategic importance
• Timing Relevance: How well news timing aligns with user needs

Learning and Adaptation

Interest Profile Refinement

• Monitor which news items user finds most valuable
• Incorporate user feedback on relevance and importance
• Identify patterns in user interest evolution
• Anticipate interest changes based on project evolution

Source Quality Learning

• Track accuracy of different sources over time
• Build understanding of source reliability patterns
• Learn to identify and account for source bias patterns
• Continuously improve source selection criteria

Relevance Algorithm Improvement

• Improve ability to predict news impact on user
• Learn optimal framing for different types of news
• Better understanding of user's strategic context
• Improve identification of actionable news items

Success Criteria

• All news within 7-day window (100% compliance)
• All sources verified and linked
• User finds briefing relevant and actionable
• Confidence levels clearly stated
• Opportunities and risks identified
• Follow-up actions suggested

Philosophy

The daily brief skill embodies COG's verification-first approach:

• No AI hallucinations - everything sourced and verified
• Transparency in confidence levels
• Explicit uncertainty when information can't be verified
• User empowered to make informed decisions based on reliable intelligence