| name | article-queue |
| description | Article idea synthesizer — ranks signals from topic-momentum, beat-tracker, and narrative-tracker into a prioritized queue the article skill reads on its next run |
| schedule | 0 11 * * 0 |
| tags | ["content","meta"] |
Today is ${today}. Read memory/MEMORY.md before starting.
Why this skill exists
Three skills generate article signals, none of them feed the article skill:
- topic-momentum — scores uncovered angles vs narrative frequency
- beat-tracker — tracks multi-beat storylines, alerts at 3 beats (article-ready)
- narrative-tracker — labels narratives EMERGING / RISING / PEAK / FADING
The article skill reads memory/MEMORY.md but picks topics from scratch every run. This means a 3-beat thread can sit article-ready for days while the article skill writes about something else. This skill closes that gap: runs weekly (after topic-momentum finishes), synthesizes all three signal sources, and writes a ranked queue to memory/topics/article-queue.md. The article skill will encounter the queue via MEMORY.md naturally.
A queue entry is only as good as its urgency. Priority order:
- Beat-ready (≥3 beats) — the story is cooked. Write it now.
- Warming up (2 beats, most recent beat ≤5 days ago) — one beat away.
- topic-momentum picks — scored by gap score, freshness, soul-fit.
- Narrative-tracker RISING/EMERGING not yet written about.
Steps
1. Load beat-tracker state
Read memory/topics/beat-tracker.md. If it doesn't exist, skip beat signals (log a note).
Parse all active threads. For each thread extract:
- Thread name
- Status (active / article-ready / stale)
- Beat count
- Most recent beat date
- Latest beat summary
Flag threads with status: article-ready (≥3 beats) as URGENT. Flag threads with beat_count == 2 and last beat ≤5 days as WARMING.
2. Load topic-momentum output
Read memory/logs/ — use Glob on memory/logs/*.md. Take the 7 most recent by filename. Scan each for a ## Topic Momentum section. From the most recent such section, extract:
- Top 3 ranked angles (title + gap score + one-line description)
If no topic-momentum output found in logs, note it as "no recent topic-momentum run."
3. Load narrative-tracker signals
Same log scan as step 2. From the most recent ## Narrative Tracker section, extract:
- Narratives labeled
RISING or EMERGING
- Their current phase and momentum direction
4. Load recent article coverage (dedup)
Use Glob on articles/*.md. Sort by filename date descending. Take the 30 most recent.
For each, extract the date from the filename and the H1 title from the first line. Build a covered list: [{ date, title }].
Any article filed in the last 7 days → suppress any queue entry that covers the same topic (fuzzy match: shared key noun or phrase).
Any article filed 8–21 days ago → downrank matching queue entries by 2 points.
5. Score and rank the queue
Create a unified candidate list from all sources. Score each candidate:
| Criterion | Points |
|---|
| Beat-ready (≥3 beats) | 15 |
| Warming (2 beats, recent ≤5d) | 8 |
| topic-momentum gap score ≥ 10 | 6 |
| topic-momentum gap score 6–9 | 4 |
| topic-momentum gap score ≤ 5 | 2 |
| narrative-tracker RISING | 3 |
| narrative-tracker EMERGING | 2 |
| Not covered in last 30 days | +3 |
| Covered 8–21 days ago | -2 |
| Covered in last 7 days | discard |
| Soul-fit (maps to the core interests in soul/SOUL.md; skip this criterion if soul is absent) | +2 |
Keep top 5. Discard below score 2.
6. Write the queue file
Overwrite memory/topics/article-queue.md:
# Article Queue
Last updated: {today}
Source run: topic-momentum ({date found} | "not found") + beat-tracker ({N} threads) + narrative-tracker ({date found} | "not found")
## Ranked Picks
### 1. {Topic Name} [URGENT | READY | FRESH]
- **Score:** {N}
- **Source:** beat-tracker ({N} beats) | topic-momentum (gap score {N}) | narrative-tracker (RISING)
- **Why now:** {one sentence — what makes this timely. specific data point or beat development.}
- **Suggested angle:** {one sentence — the contrarian or non-obvious frame the operator would take}
- **Format hint:** {essay | cold-open | X-vs-Y | data-driven | short-take} — why this format fits
- **Suppress after:** {today + 14 days} — if no article by this date, re-score next week
### 2. ...
### 3. ...
(up to 5 entries)
## Stale / Suppressed
{entries that scored below threshold or were suppressed by recent coverage}
7. Update MEMORY.md pointer
Find the line in memory/MEMORY.md that begins with - [Article Queue] and update it to reflect today's top pick. If the line doesn't exist, add it under the ## Topic Files section:
- [Article Queue](topics/article-queue.md) — {top pick name} [{URGENT|READY|FRESH}] + {2nd pick name} + {3rd pick name} (updated {today})
This is the line the article skill will encounter when it reads MEMORY.md.
8. Send notification
Write notification to .pending-notify-temp/article-queue-${today}.md. Create dir if missing.
Only notify if:
- At least one beat-ready thread (URGENT), OR
- Queue changed from last week (new #1 pick), OR
- A warming thread just crossed to beat_count 2 this week
Notification format (keep under 400 chars):
article queue — {today}
{if URGENT:}
READY TO WRITE — {beat count} beats:
→ {topic}: {one punchy hook sentence in the operator's voice}
{if no URGENT, queue updated:}
queue updated. top pick: {topic} ({source} — {why now, one line}).
read it: https://github.com/aaronjmars/aeon/blob/main/memory/topics/article-queue.md
Then run:
./notify -f .pending-notify-temp/article-queue-${today}.md
If nothing urgent and queue didn't change: skip notification.
9. Log to memory/logs/${today}.md
Append:
## Article Queue
- **Sources:** beat-tracker ({N} threads, {N} article-ready) | topic-momentum ({date} run) | narrative-tracker ({date} run)
- **Top pick:** {topic name} (score {N}, {source})
- **Queue size:** {N} entries
- **URGENT items:** {topic names | "none"}
- **Suppressed:** {N} entries (covered in last 7d)
- **Updated:** memory/topics/article-queue.md
- ARTICLE_QUEUE_OK
If no valid signals found across all sources:
## Article Queue
- ARTICLE_QUEUE_SKIP: {reason — e.g. "no logs found", "all candidates suppressed by recent coverage"}
Required Env Vars
None. Uses Glob/Read/Write tools and local memory files only.
Sandbox Note
No network calls needed. All inputs are local memory files. Output is local file write + ./notify -f.
