coverage-tracker

name	coverage-tracker
description	Run a Google Alerts-style keyword coverage tracker. Uses news-search for recent keyword queries, lets the LLM dedupe and classify real features versus junk, stores decisions in SQLite, and alerts only on new real coverage.
when_to_use	User wants to run coverage alerts, check new mentions, track press coverage, monitor brand/company keyword coverage, or execute a previously configured coverage tracker.

Coverage Tracker

Track whether configured keywords appeared in real coverage. Keep this simple: news-search collects dated article evidence, you dedupe and judge with the keyword's meaning snippet, and the CLI only stores config plus seen/alert state.

This is not newsjack-detector. Do not score newsjacking opportunities, generate angles, assess standing, or use monitor profiles.

Runtime Mode

• Full Mode: Use this in Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, or another capable agent harness with shell, filesystem, network, and local CLI access. Full Mode can read tracker config, check SQLite seen-state, record decisions, and suppress repeat alerts.
• Limited Mode: Use this in Claude.ai chat, ChatGPT chat, Claude Cowork, or any restricted runtime without shell/filesystem/CLI access. Do not attempt curl, npm, or on-demand CLI installation. Run a one-off manual coverage check from pasted/searchable evidence and disclose that no tracker config, SQLite state, or repeat suppression was used.

Before you decide you're in Limited Mode, check whether newsjack is installed. It ships as a prebuilt, bundled binary — you do not need Go, a compiler, or any build/install step to run it. Never look for a Go toolchain, and never declare the CLI "missing" or tell the user they need a "Go environment" without running this check first:

1. Run newsjack --version. If it prints a version, you're in Full Mode — use plain newsjack ... for every command.
2. If newsjack isn't on PATH, try the bundled location ~/.newsjack/bin/newsjack --version. If that prints a version, use that full path in place of newsjack everywhere below.
3. Only if both fail (and you genuinely have no shell) are you in Limited Mode.

The bundled binary is almost always already installed — assume Full Mode and verify, don't assume it's missing.

Workflow

In Limited Mode, skip the CLI state steps and:

1. Ask for the keyword, what it means, lookback window, and any exclusions if they are not already present.
2. Use pasted links first. If search tools are available, search the keyword plus a recency bound and keep dated, attributed article evidence when available.
3. Dedupe obvious repeats by URL/title/outlet/date.
4. Classify each item with the verdicts below.
5. Return a short inline report with new likely coverage, filtered counts, and a Limited Mode caveat that repeat suppression was unavailable.

In Full Mode, run the persistent workflow:

1. Find the tracker.

   • If the user gave a slug, run newsjack coverage status <slug>.
   • If working in a source checkout, prefer bin/newsjack.
   • If no slug is given, ask which tracker to run unless local context makes it obvious.
   • Read the returned config_path.

2. Search each keyword.

   • Read the current date from the system (e.g. run date); do not recall it from memory. Compute since_date as that date minus lookback_days from the config, defaulting to 2.

   • For each keyword, call news-search with exactly:

     "keyword" after:YYYY-MM-DD
     

   • If the keyword has aliases, search each alias the same way, but keep the original keyword entry attached.

   • Keep dated, attributed article fields from news-search: title, url, outlet, author, published_at, and snippet/summary when available.

3. Dedupe and check stored decisions before using the LLM.

   • Dedupe exact canonical URLs first, then obvious same-article duplicates by title/outlet/date.

   • Create a minimal candidate JSON file only because the CLI helper consumes a file. Put it in a temporary location, or in a timestamped run folder if your harness normally keeps run artifacts:

     {
       "items": [
         {
           "keyword": "profound",
           "title": "Article title",
           "url": "https://...",
            
            
            
            
         
       
     
     

Output Discipline

• Do not invent publication dates, outlets, or authors. If news-search cannot recover a date, classify cautiously.
• Do not use story-origin or freshness gates; this is not a newsjack opportunity scan.
• Do not call angle-generator, journalist-fit-check, or meanest-editor.
• Do not install native cron. Recurrence belongs to the agent harness.