| name | heartbeat |
| description | Proactive intelligence pulse โ scans user's memory files (USER.md, SOUL.md) to identify current interests, investments, projects, and concerns, then performs targeted web searches to find noteworthy updates. Returns a concise briefing if something deserves attention, or `[SKIPPED]` if nothing warrants interruption. Use this skill when the system needs to check if there's anything worth proactively notifying the user about โ like a scheduled heartbeat check, a "what's new" sweep, or when the user asks "anything I should know?", "what did I miss?", or "any updates?". Also triggers on requests like "check my interests", "scan for news", "morning briefing", or "pulse check". |
Heartbeat โ Proactive Intelligence Pulse
You are performing a heartbeat check: scanning the user's world for things that matter to them right now, and deciding whether any of it is worth their attention.
Philosophy
The user's time and attention are sacred. A heartbeat that cries wolf is worse than no heartbeat at all. Only surface information that is actionable, time-sensitive, or significantly changes the user's understanding of something they care about. When in doubt, return [SKIPPED].
Step 1: Read Memory
Read the user's memory files to build a profile of current interests and concerns:
Extract a prioritized list of watchlist topics. Typical categories:
| Category | Examples | Alert Threshold |
|---|
| Investments | Stock positions, crypto holdings | Price moves >5% in a day, major company news (earnings, lawsuits, leadership changes), analyst upgrades/downgrades |
| Current project | Active codebase, architecture decisions | Major version releases of key dependencies, breaking changes, security vulnerabilities |
| Career/Industry | Employer news, role-relevant trends | Company announcements, industry shifts directly affecting the user's role |
| Tech stack | Frameworks, tools, languages used daily | New major releases, deprecation notices, critical CVEs |
| Upcoming events | Travel plans, deadlines | Weather alerts, schedule changes, booking reminders within 7 days |
| Personal interests | Photography gear, anime, content creation | Notable releases or events only (not routine content) |
Step 2: Read News
Fetch the following sources directly by URL โ no search needed, just fetch:
Weighting guidance: Product Hunt and GitHub Trending are real-time ranked signals โ their top items reflect what's genuinely popular today. Prioritize items from these two sources over generic news articles when relevance is comparable. A trending repo or a #1 Product Hunt launch that matches the user's stack or project is almost always worth mentioning.
Step 3: Search
For each high-priority watchlist topic (aim for 3-5 topics, no more than 8), perform a focused web search. Use queries that are specific enough to surface real news, not evergreen content.
Good search patterns:
"ByteDance" news March 3 2026 โ catches employer newsๅฐ่ท AI health news March 3 2026 โ catches project news"BABA stock" March 3 2026 โ catches daily movers"LangChain" release 2026 โ catches recent releases"Claude" OR "Anthropic" announcement โ catches AI tooling updates
Skip topics where nothing meaningful could have changed since the last check (e.g., stable personal preferences, unchanging habits).
Step 4: Evaluate โ The "Worth Interrupting" Test
Hard filter: Date verification (run this FIRST, before anything else)
For every item found in Step 2 or Step 3, you must verify its publication date by checking the article page or search result metadata. Record the date explicitly.
- If the publication date is within the last 48 hours (T or T-1 relative to today): eligible, proceed to the Worth Interrupting test below.
- If the publication date is older than 48 hours, or cannot be determined: discard immediately, do not include.
This is a hard gate โ relevance does not override staleness. A perfectly relevant article from last week is still discarded. When in doubt about a date, discard.
Worth Interrupting test (only for items that passed the date filter)
For each remaining finding, apply this filter:
- Is it genuinely new? (not something the user already knows from memory or the previous briefing)
- Is it actionable or time-sensitive? (the user should do something, or the window to act is closing)
- Does it meaningfully change the picture? (not incremental noise, but a real shift)
A finding must pass at least 2 of 3 to be included.
Examples of WORTH reporting:
- BABA drops 8% on earnings miss โ actionable + time-sensitive
- LangChain 2.0 released with breaking changes โ new + changes the picture
- ByteDance announces major restructuring โ new + actionable + changes the picture
- Claude releases new model with relevant capabilities โ new + changes the picture
- Severe weather warning for upcoming travel destination โ time-sensitive + actionable
Examples of NOT worth reporting:
- BABA moves 0.3% on a random Tuesday โ noise
- A blog post about "10 tips for street photography" โ not new or actionable
- Minor patch release of a dependency โ incremental
- General AI industry commentary โ not specific enough
Step 5: Output
The evaluation process (date filtering, Worth Interrupting reasoning) is internal only โ never show it to the user. Output starts directly with the briefing or [SKIPPED], nothing else.
If noteworthy findings exist:
Return a concise briefing in the user's preferred language (Chinese primary, English for tech terms). Format:
๐ก Heartbeat | {date}
{emoji} **[{Topic}]({URL})**
{1-2 sentence summary of what happened and why it matters}
{Optional: suggested action}
{emoji} **[{Topic}]({URL})**
...
---
Sources: {URLs}
Keep it to 5 items max. Ruthlessly prioritize. The user should be able to read the entire briefing in under 60 seconds.
Emoji guide: ๐๐ for markets, ๐ง for tech/tools, ๐ข for career/employer, โ ๏ธ for alerts, ๐ธ for creative interests, ๐๏ธ for schedule/travel.
If nothing noteworthy:
Return exactly (without "```"):
[SKIPPED]
No explanation, no "I checked and found nothing interesting." Just [SKIPPED]. The system calling this skill knows what that means.
Important Notes
- This skill is designed to be called programmatically (e.g., by a scheduler, cron job, or another agent). Keep output machine-parseable: either a formatted briefing or
[SKIPPED]. If the briefing is similar to the previous one, or nothing new/interesting/important is found, also return [SKIPPED].
- Err heavily on the side of
[SKIPPED]. A heartbeat that returns noise trains the user to ignore it.
- The search step should be fast โ don't do deep research. Quick web searches only. If something looks interesting but needs deep investigation, mention it briefly and suggest the user use
deep-research to dig in.
- Respect the user's time of day if known. Financial news matters more during market hours. Tech releases matter more during work hours.
