git:20260704.7151f33 to git:20260705.4b7735c

---

name: pulse

description: >-

Community-pulse research on any topic — "what are people saying about X right

now." Fans out parallel sub-agents across web search, Hacker News, Reddit, and

GitHub; ranks findings by real engagement (points/upvotes/stars/comments);

flags rumors; and writes a cited brief to chat plus saved .md and .html files.

Use when the user wants the current community conversation / recent buzz /

sentiment / "last 30 days" view on a person, product, project, or concept —

e.g. "/pulse <topic>", "what's the buzz on X", "what are people saying about

X lately", "research recent discussion on X". For exhaustive, adversarially

fact-checked web reports, prefer the deep-research skill instead.

---

# pulse — community-pulse research

`/pulse <topic> [window/flags in plain language]`

Answer one question: **what is the community actually saying about this topic right

now, and what's resonating?** You ground every claim in a real source and rank by

real engagement — not by what a search engine's editors surfaced.

This skill is deliberately **keyless**: it uses only the agent's native `WebSearch`

/ `WebFetch` tools plus free public endpoints. Never ask the user for API keys.

## How this differs from `deep-research`

- `deep-research` = exhaustive, adversarially fact-checked, authoritative web report.

- `pulse` = fast, recent, **community/engagement-ranked** snapshot. Optimize for

"what's being discussed and how much it's resonating," not for proving every claim.

If the user clearly wants an exhaustive verified report, suggest `deep-research`.

## Inputs

- **Topic** (required): a person, product/company, project/repo, or concept/event.

- **Window** (optional, plain language): default **last 30 days**. Honor overrides

like "last week", "past 6 months", "this year". Record the resolved window.

- Any other plain-language steering ("focus on Reddit", "ELI5", "just the drama").

## Step 0 — Resolve scope (ask only if genuinely ambiguous)

Run immediately for clear topics. Ask **1–2 quick questions only if**:

- the name maps to multiple plausible entities (e.g. a common name, an ambiguous

product), **or**

- there's no obvious angle and the result would likely research the wrong thing.

Otherwise proceed and state your assumptions in the brief header.

**Auto-detect the topic type** and weight sources accordingly:

| Detected type | Source emphasis |

| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |

| Person (dev/tech) | GitHub (velocity) + Hacker News + web + Reddit |

| Person (non-tech) | Web + Reddit (skip/deprioritize GitHub) |

| Product / company | Reddit + web + Hacker News (GitHub if it's a tool) |

| Project / repo / tool| GitHub + Hacker News + Reddit + web |

| Concept / event | Web + Hacker News + Reddit (skip GitHub) |

Do light **entity resolution** first when useful (e.g. the canonical subreddit, the

GitHub `owner/repo` or username, the official site) so sub-agents search the right

handles rather than guessing.

## Step 1 — Fan out: parallel source sub-agents

Spawn the relevant source sub-agents **concurrently** (one message, multiple `Agent`

calls). Skip sources the topic type deprioritizes. Give each the topic, resolved

entities, and the time window. Each sub-agent must return **structured findings**:

for every item — `title`, `url`, `source`, `engagement` (the raw metric + its kind),

`date`, and a 1–2 sentence `snippet`. Then it deepens its **top 2–3** items

(below). Each gathers ~8–10 candidates before deepening.

Use `subagent_type: "Explore"` (read-only, fast) for fetch-heavy sources.

### Web sub-agent

- Use `WebSearch` with several query variations (topic + "news"/"review"/"discussion"

+ recency terms). Prefer results inside the window.

- Engagement proxy: publication prominence + how often a story recurs across results.

- Deepen top 2–3: `WebFetch` the article and extract the core claim + any quotes.

### Hacker News sub-agent (free Algolia API — most reliable signal)

- Search: `WebFetch` →

`https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=<TOPIC>&tags=story&numericFilters=created_at_i>UNIX_START`

(compute `UNIX_START` with a real shell command — e.g. `date -d '30 days ago' +%s`

— never guess the timestamp; for relevance over recency use `/search` instead

of `/search_by_date`).

- `engagement` = `points` and `num_comments`.

- Deepen top 2–3: fetch `https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/items/<objectID>` and pull the

highest-signal top-level comments (the actual takes).

### Reddit sub-agent (best-effort, keyless)

- Try `WebFetch` on public JSON:

`https://www.reddit.com/search.json?q=<TOPIC>&sort=top&t=month` (map `t` to the

window: `week`/`month`/`year`), and/or `https://www.reddit.com/r/<SUB>/search.json?...&restrict_sr=1`.

- `engagement` = `ups` (upvotes) and `num_comments`.

- Deepen top 2–3: fetch the thread JSON (`<permalink>.json`) and pull top comments.

- **Fallback chain on 403/empty:** first retry the same JSON paths on

`old.reddit.com` (often served when `www` is blocked); if that also fails, use

`WebSearch` for `site:reddit.com <topic>` and `WebFetch` the threads.

**Note in the brief that Reddit was reached via fallback.**

### GitHub sub-agent (keyless REST, 60 req/hr)

- Repo/tool topic: `https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q=<TOPIC>&sort=stars`,

then for the chosen repo pull recent `commits`, `releases`, and open/closed PR

counts to gauge shipping velocity.

- Person topic: resolve the username, then `users/<u>` + recent `users/<u>/events`

(public) to summarize what they're shipping.

- `engagement` = stars, recent commit/PR/release cadence.

If a source returns nothing usable after its fallback, record it as **unreachable**

— do not fabricate.

## Step 2 — Synthesize (main agent)

0. **Check for a previous pulse (delta memory):** look for earlier

`pulse-briefs/<slug>-*.md` files for this topic. If one exists, read the most

recent one and compute the delta for a **Since last pulse** section: which

clusters are new, which previous stories have faded, and which previously

Disputed/Unconfirmed items have since been confirmed or debunked (say which,

with a source). This is what makes repeat pulses on a tracked topic useful —

the delta, not a second snapshot. Skip silently on the first run for a topic.

1. **Dedup & cluster:** merge the same story appearing across sources into one

cluster; keep the strongest engagement signal and cite all sources in the cluster.

2. **Rank** clusters by engagement (normalize across kinds — treat HN points, Reddit

upvotes, GitHub stars, and comment volume as comparable "this resonated" signals;

weight recency within the window).

3. **Flag reliability:** explicitly tag rumors, speculation, single-source claims,

and contested items as **Disputed/Unconfirmed**. Never let a rumor read as fact.

4. **Pull Best Takes:** 2–5 genuinely notable/clever/viral quotes, each attributed

with its source and engagement.

## Step 3 — Emit the brief

Render this template **in chat**, then save it as `.md` and a self-contained `.html`

file (see Output files). Cite inline as `([source], <engagement>)` with a linked URL.

```markdown

# Pulse: <Topic>

**Window:** <resolved window> · **Run:** <YYYY-MM-DD> · **Type:** <detected type>

**Sources reached:** Web ✓ · Hacker News ✓ · Reddit ✓/fallback/�— · GitHub ✓/�—

## TL;DR

- 3–5 bullets: the headline state of the conversation right now.

## Since last pulse (<date of previous brief>)

- **New:** <clusters that weren't in the previous brief>

- **Faded:** <previous headline items with no fresh activity>

- **Resolved:** <previously unconfirmed items now confirmed/debunked, with source>

(omit this section entirely on the first pulse for a topic)

## Key Developments

For each ranked cluster:

### <Cluster headline>

What happened + why it resonates. Inline citations with engagement metrics and links.

Merge cross-source coverage here.

## Best Takes

> "<quote>" — <author/handle>, <source> (<engagement>) [link]

## Disputed / Unconfirmed

- <claim> — why it's uncertain, who's pushing back. (omit section if empty)

## Sources

Flat list of every cited URL, grouped by source, with engagement metrics.

```

If the user asked for ELI5, prepend a short plain-language summary above TL;DR.

## Output files

Save to `./pulse-briefs/` in the current working directory:

- `pulse-briefs/<slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md` — the markdown brief verbatim.

- `pulse-briefs/<slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.html` — a **bespoke, distinctively designed**

brief (see below). Self-contained: inline `<style>`, **no JavaScript**, links

preserved, engagement metrics visible, responsive, print-friendly.

`<slug>` = topic lowercased, non-alphanumerics → hyphens. Compute the date with a

shell command (e.g. `date +%F`) — do not guess it. Create `pulse-briefs/` if needed,

and ensure `.gitignore` ignores it (the skill setup adds this once).

Tell the user the two saved paths at the end.

### Designing the HTML brief

Do **not** pour the content into a fixed template — every brief gets its own design.

Invoke the **`frontend-design`** skill (Skill tool) and have it design the HTML for

this specific brief, treating the topic as the design subject:

- **Brief for the designer:** the subject is *this topic and its community

conversation*; the audience is someone scanning "what's happening now"; the page's

one job is to make the TL;DR, ranked Key Developments, Best Takes, and

Disputed/Unconfirmed items instantly scannable, with engagement metrics as

first-class visual elements. Ground the aesthetic in the topic's own world (a dev

tool, a person, a cultural event each suggest a different visual identity) so no two

briefs look alike.

- **Hard constraints (pass these to `frontend-design`):** single self-contained

`.html` file, **inline CSS only, no JavaScript, no external requests/CDNs/web

fonts** (system font stack), keep all source links and engagement numbers, must be

readable on mobile and when printed, and **must include every section** of the

brief template (header with sources-reached, TL;DR, Since last pulse when

present, Key Developments, Best Takes, Disputed/Unconfirmed, Sources) with the

exact same content as the `.md`.

- Render the markdown brief content faithfully into that design — design changes the

presentation, never the facts, citations, or engagement metrics.

If the `frontend-design` skill is unavailable, fall back to a clean self-contained

dark-mode, no-JS layout — but prefer the designed output.

## Guardrails

- **Keyless only.** Never request or use API keys. Degrade gracefully.

- **No fabrication.** Every claim → a real fetched source. Mark unreachable sources

honestly in the header.

- **Recency discipline.** Stay inside the window; if a pivotal item is older, include

it but label it as background/older context.

- **Engagement is the spine.** Order by what resonated, show the numbers inline.

- **Speed over exhaustiveness.** This is a pulse, not a dossier — for the latter,

point to `deep-research`.