daily-brief

# 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:

```markdown
---
type: