blog-develop

name	blog-develop
description	On-demand workflow (/blog-develop <idea>) that develops any blog-post idea into a take-or-leave first draft — scout → interview → deep research → draft, with research and drafting run as child agents.
effort	strong
required-skills	["vault","tabstack"]
user-invocable	true
context	inline
allowed-tools	delegate_task, vault_read, vault_write, vault_list, vault_search, current_time, tabstack_research, tabstack_extract_markdown, web_fetch

Develop a blog idea

Take any blog-post idea and develop it into a take-or-leave first draft: scout → interview → deep research → draft. The idea can come from your blog-ideas weekly page or from nowhere in particular — this skill does not depend on it.

You (the orchestrator) run in this conversation and drive the phases. The heavy phases (scout, deep research, draft) run as child agents via delegate_task, so web-search noise and long source text stay in the children and never clog this conversation. Children CANNOT write to the vault — they return structured results and you write the final draft. (Best run in a fresh conversation so the interview starts from a clean slate.)

You MUST run the scout, research, and draft work through delegate_task. Do NOT do the web research or write the draft yourself in this conversation — delegating the heavy work is what keeps this context clean and the workflow reliable.

The idea

The seed idea is $ARGUMENTS. If it is empty, ask the user "What do you want to write about?", end your turn, and wait. (They may paste a headliner from their blog-ideas page, or anything else.) Once you have an idea, continue.

Phase 1: Scout (child agent)

Get a quick lay-of-the-land so your interview questions are sharp. Call delegate_task with allow_vault_read=true (so the scout can check whether the user has already written about this) and this return_schema:

{
  "summary": "2-3 sentences on the current lay of the land for this idea",
  "prior_art": [{"title": "...", "url": "...", "angle": "what it argues"}],
  "open_angles": ["under-explored angle or gap", "..."],
  "suggested_questions": ["a sharp interview question this surfaced", "..."],
  "already_written": "note if the user's own vault/blog already covers this, else null"
}

Scout task prompt (substitute {idea}):

You are a research SCOUT. Do a SHALLOW first pass on this blog-post idea so the
author can be interviewed well. Idea: "{idea}"

Use tabstack_research (and tabstack_extract_markdown only if one source is
clearly essential) for a quick survey — do NOT go deep. Also vault_search /
vault_read to see if the author has already written about this.

Return the structured JSON requested by return_schema: a short lay-of-the-land,
notable prior art, under-explored angles, a few sharp interview questions, and
whether the author's own vault already covers it. Keep prose to one line.

Phase 2: Interview (you + the user)

Using the scout brief, interview the author to shape the piece. Ask one question per turn, end your turn, and wait for the answer before the next question. Adapt each question to the prior answer. Ask at most 5–6; stop early if the author says "go" / "draft it."

Cover, roughly in this order, skipping anything already obvious from the idea or scout:

• Angle / thesis — what is the core claim or point of view?
• Audience — who is this for?
• Prior art — engage or differentiate from what the scout found?
• Scope — how deep/long; what to include vs. leave out?
• Voice / tone — anything specific for this piece?

Do not start the deep research until the interview is done.

When the interview is done, compose a tight interview_summary for yourself — a few sentences digesting the angle, audience, scope, and voice the author chose (a digest, not a transcript dump). You substitute this into the Phase 3 and Phase 4 task prompts below.

Phase 3: Deep research (child agent)

Now run the real research, steered by the idea + interview answers. Call delegate_task with allow_vault_read=true and this return_schema:

{
  "thesis_support": ["key claim or fact, with enough context to use it"],
  "sources": [{"title": "...", "url": "...", "takeaway": "why it matters here"}],
  "counterpoints": ["objection or counter-argument the draft should address"],
  "angles": ["framing / structure suggestion"],
  "notes": "anything else useful for drafting"
}

Deep-research task prompt (substitute {idea} and {interview_summary} — a tight digest of the angle, audience, scope, and voice the author chose):

You are a DEEP RESEARCHER for a blog post. Idea: "{idea}"
Author's direction from the interview: {interview_summary}

Use tabstack_research for targeted searches and tabstack_extract_markdown /
web_fetch to read the most relevant sources. Gather what's needed to write a
credible, well-sourced post on the author's chosen angle. vault_read related
pages the author has written for continuity of voice/claims.

Return the structured JSON requested by return_schema: supporting claims/facts,
sources with URLs and takeaways, counterpoints to address, and framing
suggestions. Capture real URLs — do not invent them. Keep prose to one line.

Phase 4: Draft (child agent)

First, locate the author's voice guide: vault_search for their voice/tone page (try queries like "voice and tone", "writing voice", "style"). Note its path — you'll hand it to the drafter.

Call delegate_task with allow_vault_read=true and this return_schema:

{
  "title": "post title",
  "slug": "kebab-case-slug-from-the-title",
  "draft_markdown": "the full first-draft body in the author's voice",
  "sources_used": [{"title": "...", "url": "..."}]
}

When you build the draft prompt, paste the Phase 3 research-brief JSON verbatim where {research_brief_json} appears — embed it as a literal block exactly as the worker returned it; do not paraphrase, summarize, or hand-edit it.

Draft task prompt (substitute {idea}, {interview_summary}, {voice_path}, and {research_brief_json} — the Phase 3 JSON):

You are a DRAFTER writing a blog post in the AUTHOR'S voice. Idea: "{idea}"
Author's direction: {interview_summary}

First read the author's voice guide so you match their style:
  vault_read("{voice_path}")
(If that path is empty or missing, infer voice from a recent post under blog/.)

Use this research brief — cite its sources, address its counterpoints:
{research_brief_json}

Write a complete FIRST DRAFT (it's a starting point, not a final post). Use the
author's voice, a clear structure, and real links from the brief. Do NOT invent
sources or quotes.

Return the structured JSON requested by return_schema: title, kebab-case slug,
the full draft_markdown, and the sources you used. Keep prose to one line.

Phase 5: Write the draft (you)

Children can't write the vault, so you do it. vault_write to blog/drafts/<slug>.md (use the drafter's slug; if missing, slugify the title) with this structure:

---
title: <title>
tags: [blog-draft]
status: draft
created: <today's date, YYYY-MM-DD — get it from current_time>
seed: <the original idea>
sources:
  - <url>
  - <url>
---

<draft_markdown>

## Research notes
<a compact digest of the Phase 3 research brief: key claims, sources with URLs,
counterpoints — so the sources stay with the draft for later development>

Finishing up

End with a short summary: the title, a one-line hook, and a link to [[blog/drafts/<slug>]]. State plainly that it's a take-or-leave first draft and suggest one or two next steps for developing it.

Rules

• Children cannot write the vault. Workers return structured results; you apply the single vault_write.
• Delegate the heavy work. Scout, deep research, and drafting MUST go through delegate_task — never research the web or write the draft inline in this turn.
• One interview question per turn. Ask, end the turn, wait. Cap ~5–6.
• No publishing. Output is a disposable draft in blog/drafts/. Do NOT commit, deploy, or touch the live blog. Do NOT modify the blog-ideas page.
• Real sources only. Never invent URLs or quotes. Convert relative dates to absolute (YYYY-MM-DD).