Scout

What the source does

• FilesystemNone observedNo reads or writes in the source
• NetworkNone observedNo outbound calls in the source
• ShellNone observedNo commands run in the source
• DependenciesPinnedNothing floats
• SecretsNone foundNo keys in source

Five audit layers

Gates applied: no behavioural pass.

Audit 0.4.1 · source sha 6ea1a6ff2160 · 14 Oct 2026Report an issue or request a re-scan

• Publisherhuytieu GitHub userOwner of the repository this skill is read from
• Source folderhuytieu/COG-second-brain/.claude/skills/scoutThe exact folder we audited
• LicenceMITAs the repository states it
• Commit pinned for this verdict6ea1a6ff2160A new audit runs when the source changes
• Repository statusNot archivedLast push 11 days ago
• Sandboxed runNot runSkills are read, not executed; layer L4 is skipped

Its description: Evaluate URLs and tools — check vault coverage, assess relevance, recommend save or skip

---
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 

Excerpt, first 6,001 characters of SKILL.md, verbatim from the audited commit. It is text from someone else’s repository, quoted so you can judge it before your agent reads it.

git clone https://github.com/huytieu/COG-second-brain
git -C COG-second-brain checkout 6ea1a6ff2160

Works in

1. 2026-10-14
   ✓SAFE B 89 / 100

   first audit · source 6ea1a6ff2160

Questions about Scout

• github.com/huytieu/COG-second-brain/tree/main/.claude/skills/sco — the audited source at commit 6ea1a6ff2160 and every finding aboveObserved · 14 Oct 2026

Spotted something wrong? Report a correction · Methodology