article-queue

name	article-queue
category	research
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:

1. Beat-ready (≥3 beats) — the story is cooked. Write it now.
2. Warming up (2 beats, most recent beat ≤5 days ago) — one beat away.
3. topic-momentum picks — scored by gap score, freshness, soul-fit.
4. 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.