warmup

name	warmup
description	The Warmup. A daily intelligence brief for the first coffee. CISO mode delivers a structured cybersecurity digest — active threat actors mapped to MITRE ATT&CK, emerging CVEs with exploitation status, research from CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Unit 42, Elastic Security Labs, and others, plus vendor M&A and regulatory movement. Product Leader mode delivers a product intelligence brief for GMs, PMs, and anyone steering a product — company signal, competitor moves, AI in product, funding and M&A, platform risk, regulatory pressure, analyst sentiment, and a vertical-specific section that adapts to what they build and who they build for. Custom mode lets any user describe their morning interests — stocks, industry news, competitor moves, policy, social signal — and maps them to a curated source suite. Output: a live Iron Log-branded HTML artifact, transparent about every source used, pulled on demand with your first coffee. Trigger phrases: "warmup", "run warmup", "run the warmup", "start my warmup", "give me my warmup", "warmup setup", "set up the warmup", "configure the warmup", "warmup config", "add source to warmup", "remove source from warmup", "show my warmup sources".
license	MIT
author	H. Michael Nichols
version	0.3.16
part_of	The Loadout

The Warmup

Why "The Warmup"

In the gym, a warmup is not optional. You do not walk under the bar cold. A warmup primes your nervous system, surfaces what is tight, and tells you whether today's session needs to be adjusted before the work begins. It is the ten minutes that makes the next ninety honest.

The Warmup does the same thing for your workday. Before you open your inbox, before you take the first meeting, before you have the conversation that shapes the next quarter — you know what moved. You know who is active. You know what the field looks like this morning.

You do not go under the bar cold.

The name comes from Mission Built, where the principle is: prepare like the result matters, because it does.

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When to use this skill

Activate this skill when the user asks you to do any of the following:

• Run their warmup
• Get today's warmup
• Set up the warmup for the first time
• Reconfigure their sources
• Add or remove a source from their brief
• See what sources are in use

Trigger phrases include: "warmup", "run warmup", "run the warmup", "start my warmup", "give me my warmup", "what's in the brief today", "warmup setup", "set up the warmup", "configure the warmup", "warmup config", "add [source] to my warmup", "remove [source] from warmup", "show my warmup sources", "exclude [source] from warmup".

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Philosophy

Signal over noise. Every source labeled. Every claim attributed.

The Warmup has a point of view: authoritative sources first, flagged sources clearly marked, nothing buried in volume. A brief that forces you to sort through noise is not a brief — it is a second inbox.

Four principles:

1. Tier before topic. Every item in the brief carries its source's trust tier visually. A Tier 1 government advisory and a Tier 3 community post are not the same weight of evidence. The brief treats them differently because they are different. The user always knows what they are reading.

2. Absence is information. If a source returns nothing today, that is reported. If a source is unavailable, that is reported. A blank section is never padded. Silence from a source that usually speaks is itself a signal.

3. The source panel is not optional. Every run of the brief ends with a full disclosure of every source that was consulted — active, quiet, or excluded. The user must always be able to audit what their brief was built on. This is the contract.

4. Recommendations, not mandates. When the skill recommends sources, it explains why. When it flags a source as lower tier, it says so and says why. The user decides what goes in their brief. The skill's job is to make sure those decisions are informed.

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Modes

Three modes. Each is triggered by a natural phrase.

Mode	When	What this skill does
SETUP	First time, or reconfiguring from scratch	Establish the user's profile, build their source suite, save to WARMUP.md, run a test brief
RUN	Any time the user wants their brief	Read WARMUP.md, fetch live intelligence from each active source, synthesize sections, render the Iron Log artifact
CONFIGURE	Modifying sources without full re-setup	Show active sources, apply changes (add / remove / exclude), update WARMUP.md

Brief types available at SETUP:

Brief type	Who it's for	Core focus
CISO	Security executives	Threat actors, CVEs, research, vendor market, regulatory
Product Leader	GMs, PMs, anyone steering a product	Company signal, competitors, AI in product, funding, platform risk, vertical-specific
Custom	Anyone	User-defined interests, fully flexible source suite

If no WARMUP.md exists in the project root and the user asks to RUN, prompt for SETUP first: "No Warmup config found. Run 'warmup setup' to build your source suite — it takes about two minutes."

---

SETUP Mode

Trigger: "warmup setup", "set up the warmup", "configure the warmup for the first time"

Step 1 — Choose a starting mode

Ask the user: "Three brief types to choose from — which fits you best? · CISO — cybersecurity executive brief · Product Leader — GM / PM intelligence brief · Custom — describe your own interests and I'll build a source suite around them"

• CISO is the flagship configuration. Pre-loaded with an authoritative source suite curated for security executives. Provide your company name and sector, region, and peer vendors are looked up automatically — one confirmation and you're done.
• Product Leader is built for GMs, PMs, and anyone steering a product. Provide your company name and competitors, vertical, region, and model are researched automatically. Confirm what's right, answer two quick follow-ups, and the brief is ready.
• Custom builds a source suite from scratch around the user's described interests. Takes a few more questions.
• The user can toggle between modes at any time via CONFIGURE.

Step 1b — Get the user's name

Once the mode is chosen, ask: "What's your name? I'll use it in your brief header." Examples: "Mike", "Sarah", "Alex" — or they can skip with anything like "doesn't matter" or "just leave it blank". Stored only in the local WARMUP.md, never sent anywhere. Save as name: in the profile. If skipped, leave blank.

Step 2a — If CISO mode

Lead with company name. Auto-fill everything derivable. Ask only what can't be looked up.

Ask: "What's your company name? I'll look up your sector, region, and typical peer vendors automatically. Or say 'skip' and I'll ask instead."

If the user provides a company name:

Call the WebSearch tool with query: "[Company]" company overview industry sector headquarters cybersecurity

From the results, determine:

• Sector — map to one of the Sector Sources table values below (Healthcare, Financial Services, Energy / Utilities, Technology, Government, Manufacturing / OT, Retail, Critical Infrastructure, or the user's own phrasing if it doesn't map cleanly)
• Region — infer from HQ location. Map to: United States, European Union, APAC, Latin America, or Global if multinational
• Peer vendors — based on the company's sector and known competitive landscape, suggest 3–5 security vendors they likely watch (e.g., a healthcare org watches CrowdStrike, Palo Alto, Microsoft Sentinel; a fintech watches Wiz, SentinelOne, Lacework)

Present all findings in a single confirmation message:

"Here's what I found for [Company]: · Sector: [X] · Region: [Y] · Peer vendors to track: [A, B, C] Does that look right? Edit anything or say 'looks good' to continue."

Accept natural-language edits. Update any field the user corrects. Save company, sector, and region to WARMUP.md.

Then ask these two follow-up questions — do not skip them:

Follow-up 1 — People to follow: "Anyone in the security world you want to follow closely — executives, CISOs, researchers, threat intel voices? I can suggest a few based on [Company]'s space." Suggest 2–3 relevant names based on sector and company (e.g., known CISOs at peer companies, prominent threat researchers, security journalists). Present as: "People like [A], [B], [C] are worth following if you're in [sector]. Anyone to add, or skip this?" Save confirmed names to track_people: in WARMUP.md. If skipped, leave blank.

Follow-up 2 — Personal interests: "Last one — anything you want at the end of your brief that's not work? Sports, markets, a hobby, a team?" Save to special_interests: in WARMUP.md. If skipped, omit the section. Accept any answer — "skip", "nothing", or an actual interest. Do not pressure.

If the user skips the company name:

Ask these four questions one at a time:

1. "What industry or sector is your organization in?" Examples: "Healthcare", "Financial Services", "Energy / Utilities", "Technology", "Government", "Manufacturing / OT", "Retail", "Critical Infrastructure" Accept open-form. Map to the Sector Sources table below.

2. "What region are you primarily operating in?" Examples: "United States", "European Union", "APAC", "Latin America", "Global"

3. "Any specific vendors or competitors you want to track?" Examples: "Palo Alto, CrowdStrike, Wiz", "Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, SentinelOne", "skip"

4. "Anything you want to stay current on outside of work? Totally optional."

Build the source suite from the CISO Source Suite tables below. Add sector-specific sources from the Sector Sources table.

Step 2b — If Product Leader mode

Lead with company name. Auto-fill sector, region, and competitors. Ask only what can't be looked up.

Ask: "What's your company name — and what product or area are you responsible for? I'll look up your sector, region, and top competitors automatically. Or describe it yourself and I'll go from there."

Examples: "Acme Corp, security platform", "Blue Yonder, supply chain", "skip — I'll describe it"

If the user provides a company name:

Call the WebSearch tool with query: "[Company]" product overview market competitors B2B B2C industry

From the results, determine:

• Product focus — what the company primarily builds and sells
• B2B / B2C / platform — infer from business model. Map to: b2b / b2c / platform / marketplace / hybrid. If ambiguous, note it and ask.
• Vertical / customer industry — who the company sells to. Map to the vertical source options below (Security, Fintech, Healthcare, Enterprise SaaS, Developer tools, E-commerce, Logistics, etc.)
• Region — infer from HQ location
• Top competitors — identify 3–5 direct competitors from search results

Present all findings in a single confirmation message:

"Here's what I found for [Company]: · Product: [what they build] · Model: [B2B / B2C / platform] · Vertical: [customer industry] · Region: [Y] · Top competitors: [A, B, C, D] Does that look right? Edit anything or say 'looks good' to continue."

Accept natural-language edits. If B2B/B2C is still unclear after the search, ask: "One quick one — are you selling to businesses, consumers, or is it a platform other developers build on?"

If the user's vertical doesn't map cleanly, ask: "What does a bad week look like for your business — what external event would most disrupt your roadmap?" Use the answer to infer the right vertical section.

Then ask these three follow-up questions — do not skip them:

Follow-up 1 — AI vendors: "Which AI vendors or tools matter most to your roadmap? I'd default to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta AI — plus any tools your team uses (Copilot, Cursor, Mistral). Anything to add or drop?" Save confirmed list to ai_vendors: in WARMUP.md. If skipped, use the default set.

Follow-up 2 — People to follow: "Anyone you want to track closely — executives, investors, analysts, journalists, or researchers? I can suggest a few based on [Company]'s space." Suggest 2–3 relevant names based on vertical and company (e.g., for a security platform: relevant VCs, CISOs at peer companies, prominent analysts). Present: "People like [A], [B], [C] are worth following if you're in [vertical]. Anyone to add, or skip this?" Save confirmed names to track_people: in WARMUP.md. If skipped, leave blank.

Follow-up 3 — Personal interests: "Last one — anything you want at the end of your brief that's not work? Sports, markets, a hobby, a team?" Save to special_interests: in WARMUP.md. If skipped, omit the section. Do not pressure.

If the user skips the company name:

Ask these five questions one at a time:

1. "What are you building and who are you building it for?" Accept open-form. Infer product focus, B2B/B2C, and vertical from the answer.

2. "What industry or vertical is your customer in — or, if B2C, who is your user?" Map to the vertical source options below.

3. "Who are your top three to five direct competitors?" Generate a suggested list based on what they've described. Present: "Based on what you've told me, I'd start with: [A, B, C]. Does that look right?"

4. "Which AI vendors or tools matter most to your roadmap?" Suggest the standard default set and let them edit.

5. "Any execs or analysts to track personally? Any non-work interests?"

Step 2c — If Custom mode

Ask: "Describe what you want in your warmup. Be specific — topics, companies, industries, markets, regions, anything that matters to how you start your day."

From the described interests, map each to one or more recommended sources using the Custom Mode Source-Building Rules below.

For each mapped source, state:

• What you are recommending and why
• Its trust tier
• A flag if it is Tier 3 or lower: "[Source] is Tier 3 (Community/Unverified). Items from it will be labeled in the brief. Worth including?"

Recommend any sources the user likely wants but did not mention.

Step 3 — Present the source list for review

Show the full proposed source suite before saving. Format:

Tier 1 — Authoritative
  ● CISA Alerts & Advisories
  ● CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV)
  ● NVD / CVE Database
  ...

Tier 2 — Research
  ◉ CrowdStrike Intelligence Blog
  ◉ Palo Alto Unit 42
  ...

Tier 3 — News
  ○ Krebs on Security
  ...

Excluded from this run: (none)

Special Interests  (if provided)
  ○ [Interest 1] — list the 1–3 sources that will cover it
    e.g. "Formula 1 → motorsport.com, ESPN F1, AP Sports"
    e.g. "SEC football → ESPN, 247Sports, AP Sports"
    e.g. "Bourbon releases → Whisky Advocate, BourbonBlog.com"
    e.g. "Markets → Reuters Markets, Yahoo Finance"
  ○ [Interest 2] — same format

If special interests were provided, always list them here. The user deserves to see what sources their brief will pull from — this section is not optional when interests exist.

Ask: "Any sources to add or remove before I save this?"

Step 4 — Ask about the lookback window

Before saving, ask: "Last thing — how far back should I look for your first brief? The default is 1 day, but since this is your first run I'd recommend 7 days to get up to speed, or 30 days for a full month of context. What works for you?"

Accept any natural phrasing: "7 days", "go back two weeks", "just today", "one month". Save the answer as window_override in WARMUP.md if the user wants a persistent window, or use it only for this run if they say so. If the user says "default" or "1 day", use adaptive lookback (no override). Remind them: "You can always override this at run time — just say 'warmup, go back 2 weeks' and I'll use that window for that run only."

Also ask about search depth:

"One more setting — search depth. By default I cap each search batch to 5 results and 200 words per article. This keeps the brief fast and token-efficient (typically 40–60K tokens for the fetch phase). If you have more token budget, 'deep' mode doubles both — 10 results per batch, 400 words per article — for broader coverage at roughly 2× the fetch cost. Standard is what I'd recommend for daily use. Which do you prefer?"

Save as search_depth: standard or search_depth: deep in WARMUP.md. If the user skips or has no preference, default to standard.

Step 5 — Save WARMUP.md

Save the config file at the project root using the WARMUP.md Config Format defined below.

Step 6 — Run a test brief

Immediately run a RUN cycle. If any sources return nothing, report: "[Source] returned no signal in the test run. It may be temporarily unavailable or the search found nothing recent. I've kept it in your config — it will be checked each run."

Do not remove sources from config due to a single empty result.

---

RUN Mode

Trigger: "warmup", "run warmup", "run the warmup", "start my warmup", "give me my warmup", "what's in the brief today"

Override trigger: The user can specify a custom lookback at run time: "run the warmup one month back", "run warmup since April 15", "give me the last two weeks", "warmup — go back 30 days". If a lookback phrase is detected, use that window instead of the computed window and note it in the chat summary line.

Step 1 — Read config and compute lookback window

Use the Read file tool (not bash) to read WARMUP.md from the user's project root. If you do not know the project root path, call list_artifacts first — the html_path from the "the-warmup" artifact reveals the workspace folder, and WARMUP.md lives in that same folder. If no artifact exists and no WARMUP.md is found, stop and prompt for SETUP.

Note: mode (CISO or Custom), user profile, active source list, excluded sources, last_run date, window_override if set.

Compute the lookback window:

today         = current date (YYYY-MM-DD)
last_run_date = parsed from WARMUP.md `last_run` field (YYYY-MM-DD)
gap_days      = (today - last_run_date) in calendar days

# Override checks — apply first, skip the rest if matched
if user stated a lookback phrase in this run (e.g. "go back 30 days", "since April 15"):
  window = user-specified value   # note in summary line, skip remaining logic
elif window_override is set in WARMUP.md:
  window = window_override
elif last_run is missing or empty:
  window = 30   # first run — bootstrap with a month of context
elif gap_days == 1 AND daily_mode: true in WARMUP.md:
  window = 2    # daily fast-path: skip re-fetching a full 7-day window
elif gap_days <= 7:
  window = 7    # standard — always covers at least a week
else:
  window = min(gap_days, 30)   # catch-up run, capped at 30 days

# Weekend bridge (run after computing window above)
region = WARMUP.md `region` field (default: Sat+Sun weekend; IL/Israel: Fri+Sat)
if today == first working day after regional weekend AND gap_days <= 2:
  window = max(window, gap_days + 2)   # cover full weekend
  note in summary: "Lookback extended to cover weekend"
if gap_days > 7 AND interval spans a user-declared holiday (Notes: "holiday: YYYY-MM-DD"):
  note in summary: "Catch-up run — verify holiday coverage manually if needed"

# Search date parameter
search_after_date = today - (window + 1) days  # +1 catches late-yesterday and early-today

Note the computed window in the summary line. Hard date filter: every item in the brief MUST have a publication date within the lookback window — no exceptions. If a source has no in-window items, mark it "status": "quiet".

Step 2 — Fetch phase

Before starting any searches, output this line in chat: "🔍 Gathering intelligence from [N] sources · [M] search batches · lookback [X] days — this takes a few minutes."

Run all batches concurrently. Do not wait for one batch to complete before starting the next — they are independent. Fire all batches in a single parallel pass, then synthesize after all return.

For each active source, search for recent content using WebSearch.

Search using compound batch queries — not one query per source. This cuts fetch volume from ~38 calls to ~10 without losing coverage. Run batches concurrently where possible; they do not depend on each other.

Batch query table (CISO mode):

Batch	Sources covered	Query pattern
Gov pulse	CISA + NSA + FBI + FTC	(site:cisa.gov OR site:nsa.gov OR site:ic3.gov OR site:ftc.gov) advisory alert after:YYYY-MM-DD
Research	MSTIC + CrowdStrike + Elastic + Wiz + Unit 42	(site:microsoft.com/security OR site:crowdstrike.com/blog OR site:elastic.co/security-labs OR site:wiz.io/blog OR site:unit42.paloaltonetworks.com) [sector] threat after:YYYY-MM-DD
CVE sweep	NVD + CISA KEV	(site:nvd.nist.gov OR site:cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities) CVE critical after:YYYY-MM-DD
News	BleepingComputer + SecurityWeek + Krebs + THN + Dark Reading	(site:bleepingcomputer.com OR site:securityweek.com OR site:krebsonsecurity.com OR site:thehackernews.com OR site:darkreading.com) [sector] after:YYYY-MM-DD
Market	Reuters + Bloomberg + sector vendors	[company OR sector] acquisition OR breach OR regulatory site:reuters.com OR site:bloomberg.com after:YYYY-MM-DD
Social	X + r/netsec + LinkedIn	[sector] security debate OR disclosure site:reddit.com/r/netsec after:YYYY-MM-DD
Interests	One per special interest	Targeted query per interest (e.g., Ironman 70.3 results 2026)

Replace YYYY-MM-DD with the computed lookback start date. Adapt queries to the user's sector and profile (e.g., a Healthcare CISO adds site:hhs.gov hc3 to the gov batch). Run Gov, Research, CVE, News, Market, and Interests batches all concurrently — fire all batches in a single parallel pass, then synthesize after all return. Do not wait for one batch before starting the next.

WebSearch result budget: Check search_depth from WARMUP.md:

• standard (default): top 5 results per batch · 200 words per article
• deep: top 10 results per batch · 400 words per article

Standard is recommended for daily use — keeps fetch-phase cost at 40–60K tokens. Deep roughly doubles that for broader coverage. If search_depth is not set or unrecognized, use standard.

Record for each found item: source name, trust tier, URL, headline, 2–3 sentence summary, relevant tags (CVE ID, MITRE TTP ID, vendor name, M&A flag, regulatory flag, community flag).

skipScan fast-path: If skip_scan: true is set in WARMUP.md, skip the URL safety check entirely. Set config.skipScan: true, safety.domains: [], and safety.totalUrls: 0 in WARMUP_DATA. Do not call URLScan.io. Do not perform Step A allowlist checks. Proceed directly to synthesis. A friendly disclaimer will render in the artifact in place of the Link Safety panel.

URL safety check — run before adding any item to the brief:

For every URL returned by search, check it against the trusted-domain allowlist and URLScan.io before including it in the report.

Step A — Allowlist check (instant, no API call):
  If the URL's registered domain matches the allowlist below → VERIFIED SAFE.
  This covers all known-good sources across CISO and Product Leader modes.

  CISO allowlist domains:
    cisa.gov, nsa.gov, ic3.gov, fbi.gov, ftc.gov, nvd.nist.gov, attack.mitre.org,
    crowdstrike.com, unit42.paloaltonetworks.com, elastic.co, cloud.google.com,
    microsoft.com, blog.talosintelligence.com, secureworks.com, recordedfuture.com,
    wiz.io, krebsonsecurity.com, thehackernews.com, darkreading.com,
    securityweek.com, bleepingcomputer.com, arstechnica.com, scmagazine.com,
    crn.com, techcrunch.com, cybersecurityventures.com,
    hhs.gov, h-isac.org, fsisac.com, occ.gov, eisac.com, cio.gov,
    pcisecuritystandards.org, dragos.com, claroty.com, nozominetworks.com

  Product Leader allowlist domains:
    sec.gov, crunchbase.com, a16z.com, sequoiacap.com, cbinsights.com,
    gartner.com, forrester.com, producthunt.com,
    techcrunch.com, theverge.com, wired.com, fastcompany.com,
    reuters.com, bloomberg.com, lennysnewsletter.com, reforge.com,
    news.ycombinator.com, linkedin.com, g2.com, capterra.com, trustpilot.com,
    openai.com, anthropic.com, deepmind.google, ai.meta.com, research.facebook.com,
    mistral.ai, huggingface.co, arxiv.org,
    github.blog, github.com, stackoverflow.com, changelog.com,
    paymentsdive.com, pymnts.com, consumerfinance.gov,
    rockhealth.com, himss.org, cms.gov, fda.gov,
    socialmediatoday.com, saastr.com, chartmogul.com,
    digitalcommerce360.com, freightwaves.com, supplychaindive.com,
    nfx.com, bvp.com

  User-configured sources (from WARMUP.md `competitors:` and `ai_vendors:` fields):
    Extract the registered domain from each configured URL. These are user-chosen
    sources that passed their initial review at SETUP. Treat as allowlisted.
    Example: if competitors includes "https://www.splunk.com", splunk.com is allowlisted.

Step B — URLScan.io check (for domains not on the allowlist):
  Query: https://urlscan.io/search/#domain:<domain>
  If result exists AND verdict is explicitly clean → VERIFIED SAFE.
  All other outcomes → NOT VERIFIED: treat as flagged and exclude.

"All other outcomes" means: suspicious verdict, malicious verdict, no result
found, API timeout, API error, rate limit, ambiguous verdict, or any condition
where a clean result cannot be positively confirmed. There is no partial credit.
A URL is either verified safe or it does not appear in the report.

If a URL is not verified safe (flagged, failed scan, or unknown):

• Do not include the URL anywhere in the report. No hyperlink, no bare URL.
• Record it in a flagged_urls list: {url, domain, verdict, source_name}. For scan failures, set verdict to "scan unavailable".
• The article's content may still appear in the brief as plain text without a link, attributed to the source name only, if the content is relevant (e.g., "CrowdStrike reported X — link omitted, domain not verified").
• The flagged_urls list feeds into the safety WARMUP_DATA block and is surfaced in the scan badge and the Link Safety section at the bottom of the artifact. The scan badge text updates to: "N links scanned · M not verified".
• If any URLs were excluded, add a brief note in the chat summary line: "⚠ [M] URL(s) excluded — not verified safe (flagged or scan unavailable)."
• The Link Safety section in the artifact must only list domains that passed verification. It must never show a domain that failed or was not checked.

After all batches complete, output in chat: "🔒 Running link safety verification on [N] URLs..."

Safety check is a Step 2 action — not a render-time assumption. The safety.domains array in WARMUP_DATA must be built from the checks actually performed during this fetch phase. Do not copy verdicts from a previous run, do not assume all sources are clean, and do not fill in the array during synthesis or render. Every domain that appears in safety.domains must have been checked in Step 2 of this run. Verdict values: "ALLOWLISTED" (Step A match, no external call), "CLEAN" (Step B URLScan.io explicitly clean). Anything else is flagged and excluded.

If a batch returns nothing: mark those sources "no signal today." Do not invent content. A quiet source is reported honestly.

Source prioritization: Tier 1 and Tier 2 sources are fetched first and given the most depth. Tier 3 and Tier 4 are supplemental. If you run out of capacity, deprioritize Tier 3 and Tier 4 before cutting Tier 1 or 2.

Step 3 — Synthesize phase

Output in chat before starting synthesis: "⚡ Synthesizing [N] items across [M] sections..."

DATE FILTER — MANDATORY GATE. No item enters WARMUP_DATA without passing this check.

lookback_start = today - lookback_days

BEFORE WRITING EACH ITEM — run this check:
  1. Parse item.date as YYYY-MM-DD
  2. Is item.date ≥ lookback_start? → INCLUDE
  3. Is item.date < lookback_start? → DISCARD immediately. Do not include it "because it's relevant."

Real violations that MUST be caught (window = 7 days, today = 2026-05-16):
  lookback_start = 2026-05-09
  item.date = 2026-05-08  → 8 days old  → REJECT  ← one day over. Still REJECT.
  item.date = 2026-05-06  → 10 days old → REJECT  ← "only two weeks ago" is still REJECT.
  item.date = 2026-05-09  → 7 days old  → ACCEPT  (exactly at boundary = OK)
  item.date = 2026-05-10  → 6 days old  → ACCEPT

No date = discard. If a result has no parseable publication date, discard it. Do not guess or assume.

"Relevant but old" = still discard. An article can be highly relevant and still violate the date filter. Relevance does not override the date gate.

If after filtering a source has zero in-window items, mark it "status": "quiet" in sources[] and exclude it from safety.domains.

This gate runs before you organize items into sections. Do not route stale items into sections intending to remove them later — discard at first sight, before any further processing.

Organize fetched items into sections using the Section Structure below (CISO mode) or the user's defined interest categories (Custom mode).

Curation rule: quality over quantity. If 25+ items come back from searches, select the 12–18 most signal-dense. Prefer Tier 1 and Tier 2 findings. Within a section, order by relevance to the user's profile, not by source tier.

Step 3b — Special Interests (optional)

If special_interests is set in WARMUP.md, the Interests batch was already fetched concurrently in Step 2. Do not run a second fetch here.

Render the results from the Step 2 Interests batch as a Special Interests section in the artifact, positioned after AI Intelligence (or Industry Intel if the AI section is not present) and before Social Signal. Use general news and sports/topic sources — label all items with ○ (Tier 3 / Community/News).

Tag format: use [NBA], [SEC FOOTBALL], [F1], etc. — whatever matches the interest. Keep summaries conversational — this is the coffee reading, not an intelligence item. Two to four sentences is enough.

If special_interests is not set or is empty, omit the section entirely. Do not add a placeholder or ask about it during RUN.

Step 4 — Render phase

ABSOLUTE RULE — NO EXCEPTIONS: The brief HTML is ALWAYS built from the engine returned by the warmup_get_template MCP tool (invoked in Step 1b) or from the existing artifact file. Never write HTML from scratch. Never read warmup-template.html from disk. Never use training-data memory of what the brief looks like. The CSS, layout, typography, and PDF builder exist only in the tool response — reproducing them from memory will produce the wrong design and break PDF export.

If you reach this step without having invoked the warmup_get_template MCP tool (first run or engine update) or confirmed the existing artifact file is readable (version match), stop and invoke the warmup_get_template MCP tool now (tool call — not a file read) before continuing.

Rule: only WARMUP_DATA changes between reports. The engine (CSS, JS, PDF builder, renderer) is fixed in warmup-template.html and touched only when the version marker changes. Always deliver via update_artifact / create_artifact — never a computer:// file link. The Save PDF button inside the artifact is the user's only download path.

Inject and render (Step 1b already determined the base HTML):

By the time you reach this step, Step 1b has already:

• Called list_artifacts and determined first run vs. daily run.
• For daily runs with a version match: the file exists at html_path.
• For first runs or engine version mismatches: warmup_get_template was already called and the engine shell is in context.

Do not call list_artifacts or warmup_get_template again here.

Path A — Version match (daily run, no engine update):
Replace only the <script id="warmup-data"> block in the existing HTML. Do NOT read the full file — the engine is 131KB and reading it wastes ~30K tokens. Use Grep to locate the exact line, read only that block, then Edit it in place.

1. Grep for <script id="warmup-data"> in html_path to find the line number.
2. Use the Read tool with offset and limit set to read only the <script id="warmup-data"> … </script> block (~10–20 lines). This gives you the exact current text to match.
3. Use the Edit tool to replace the entire block (from <script id="warmup-data"> through its closing </script>) with exactly:

   <script id="warmup-data">
   window.WARMUP_DATA = <FULL JSON of the new WARMUP_DATA dict>;
   </script>
   

   Touch no other part of the HTML. The Edit tool does a targeted string replacement — the rest of the 131KB engine is never read or re-emitted.
4. Call update_artifact with id: "the-warmup" and the same html_path.

Do not use bash for this step. Bash runs in a Linux sandbox where macOS file paths are remapped and will not resolve. Use the Grep, Read, and Edit file tools only — they accept the real macOS path from html_path directly.

Path B — First run or engine update:

The MCP server injects WARMUP_DATA server-side. You do NOT write the template then edit a placeholder — the placeholder is gone after injection. Call the tool with your data, get back filled HTML, write it once.

1. Call warmup_get_template({ warmup_data: JSON.stringify(WARMUP_DATA) }). The server injects WARMUP_DATA into the engine shell before returning. The response is complete, filled HTML — no editing needed.

2. Write the filled HTML to disk. Use the Write tool to write the response to warmup-artifact.html in the user's selected/workspace folder (e.g. ~/Documents/Claude/Projects/). Do NOT write to the outputs or temp directory; that path is cleared between sessions. Do not modify the HTML before writing — write it exactly as received.

3. Register the artifact. Call create_artifact (first run) or update_artifact (engine update) with id: "the-warmup" and html_path pointing to the written file.

Never call create_artifact when the artifact already exists — it will fail. Never call update_artifact when the artifact does not exist yet.

Do not use bash for Path B. Bash runs in a Linux sandbox where macOS file paths are remapped and will not resolve. Use the Write file tool only.

Path C — Edit in place (user requests a correction to the existing brief):
Triggered when the user asks to change something in the current report — fix a headline, correct a date, add or remove an item, rewrite a body — without running new searches. No searches. No template fetch. Extract, modify, patch.

Step 1: Use the Read tool to read the full HTML from html_path.

Step 2: Locate the <script id="warmup-data"> … </script> block. Extract the JSON object inside it. Apply the user's requested change to the relevant field(s) in WARMUP_DATA. Touch nothing else.

Step 3: Replace the entire <script id="warmup-data"> block with the modified version and use the Write tool to write the complete HTML back to html_path. Call update_artifact with id: "the-warmup" and the same html_path.

Do not use bash for Path C. Same reason as Path A — bash runs in a Linux sandbox where macOS paths do not resolve. Use the Read and Write file tools only.

Token cost summary:

Path	Trigger	Token cost
A — Data patch	Daily run, engine match	~1–2KB targeted Grep+Read (avoids reading the full 131KB engine)
B — Full engine	First run or version mismatch	~131KB filled HTML from MCP tool (one-time; no file read needed)
C — Edit in place	User correction to existing brief	~1–2KB targeted Grep+Read (same Grep+targeted-Read approach as Path A)

When an engine bug is fixed:

1. Apply the fix to warmup/warmup-template.html — this is the canonical source.
2. Apply the same fix to the active warmup-artifact.html.
3. Call update_artifact to push the fix into the live artifact.
4. The fix propagates to all future reports automatically because new reports start from the template.

WARMUP_DATA schema (v0.3.0 — Morning Edition):

Config field accuracy rule: mode, sector, company, and region MUST be copied verbatim from WARMUP.md. Do not infer, generalize, abbreviate, or replace. If the user said "Security", sector = "Security". If the user said "Global", region = "Global". These values appear as pills the user sees on every run.

{
  "config": {
    // Required
    "name": "Mike",
    "mode": "CISO",
    "company": "Elastic",
    "sector": "Cybersecurity",
    "reportDate": "Thursday, 15 May 2026",   // REQUIRED — full display string for the masthead date (e.g. "Friday, 15 May 2026").
                                               // Format: "{Weekday}, {DD} {Month} {YYYY}". Use today's date in the user's timezone.
                                               // Without this field the masthead date falls back to template placeholder text.
    "updated": "15 May 2026",                // Footer display string
    "lastRun": "2026-05-14",                 // ISO date — drives issue number
    "dateRange": "May 8 – May 15, 2026",     // Lookback window display string
    "sourcesActive": 12,
    "sourcesQuiet": 4,
    "showQuote": true,   // REQUIRED — must be true (JSON boolean). Omitting or setting false hides the daily quote.
    "scanTime": "HH:MM TZ", // REQUIRED — set to current generation time in 24-hr user-timezone format (e.g. "06:14 ET").
                              // Use timezone from WARMUP.md; default to UTC and write "HH:MM UTC" if not set.
                              // THE single timestamp source — populates masthead, signal bar, safety panel, PDF.
                              // Without this, Generated cell shows "—" and scan timestamp is blank.
    "timezone": "ET",   // REQUIRED — copy verbatim from WARMUP.md `timezone` field (e.g. "ET", "PT", "UTC").
                        // CRITICAL: this is the USER'S local timezone — NOT the company's headquarters timezone.
                        // Read it from WARMUP.md. Do not infer from the company location. Write "UTC" if not set.
                        // Without this field the time display in the masthead is missing timezone context.
    // Optional fields — include even if blank (write "" not omit)
    "region": "Global",
    "vendors": "CrowdStrike, Palo Alto",  // Copy verbatim from WARMUP.md vendors field. Write "" if blank — do not omit.
    "interests": "",
    "totalLinks": 18,  // Count of verified-safe clickable URLs in the rendered brief. Must equal safety.totalUrls.
    "skipScan": false,  // Optional — set true if skip_scan: true in WARMUP.md. Hides scan badge, skips safety panel, shows friendly disclaimer instead.
    "searchDepth": "standard"  // "standard" | "deep" — copy from WARMUP.md search_depth. Drives depth indicator in sources panel and configure modal.
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "id": "threat",
      "label": "Threat Landscape",
      "sub": "Active campaigns and fresh exploitation. What your stack should be watching for today.",
      // sub: ALWAYS populated — the section's standing editorial deck, one sentence.
      //      This renders visibly in the brief as italic text under the section heading.
      //      NEVER put lookback computation text, agent instructions, or meta-commentary here.
      //      WRONG: "1-day lookback (first run). Say 'warmup, go back 7 days' for context."
      //      RIGHT: "Active campaigns and fresh exploitation. What your stack should be watching for today."
      //      Write it as editorial voice — a standing description of what this section covers.
      // note: null unless there is a today-only run caveat (e.g. "Source X was down"). Never repeat sub here.
      "note": null,
      "items": [
        {
          // items[0] is the EDITORIAL LEAD — rendered full-width with a large
          // headline and an oxblood drop-cap on the first letter of body.
          // Choose it deliberately: most important item in the section.
          "dot": "d1", "src": "CISA",
          "tags": [{"cls": "t-alert", "text": "KEV ADDED"}, {"cls": "t-mitre", "text": "T1190"}],
          "url": "https://...",
          "hl": "Article headline.",
          "deck": "Federal agencies have until June 4 to patch.",
          // deck: LEAD ITEMS ONLY. One short italic sentence — the 'so what?'.
          // Omit entirely on non-lead items (items[1..N]).
          "body": "2–3 sentence summary in plain prose.",
          "date": "YYYY-MM-DD"
        },
        {
          // items[1..N] render in a two-column grid. No deck field. Date-sorted.
          "dot": "d2", "src": "Source Name",
          "tags": [],
          "url": "https://...",
          "hl": "Article headline",
          "body": "2–3 sentence summary.",
          "date": "YYYY-MM-DD"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    // status: "active" | "quiet" | "excluded" — exact strings only, no other values permitted.
    // ct: "N items" for active sources (e.g. "2 items"), "—" for quiet sources, "excluded" for excluded sources.
    {"nm": "CISA Alerts & Advisories", "dom": "cisa.gov", "dot": "d1", "ct": "2 items", "status": "active"},
    {"nm": "NSA Advisories", "dom": "nsa.gov", "dot": "d1", "ct": "—", "status": "quiet"}
  ],
  "safety": {
    // domains: REQUIRED — one entry per active source. Populated from Step 2 checks — never fabricated.
    // Empty array = safety panel does not render. This field must not be omitted or left empty.
    // verdict values (exact strings):
    //   "ALLOWLISTED"   — domain matched the Step A allowlist (no external call made)
    //   "CLEAN"         — domain passed URLScan.io Step B check (explicitly clean verdict)
    // Flagged domains do NOT appear here — they go in flagged_urls and are excluded from the brief.
    // INTEGRITY RULE: domains.length MUST equal the number of active sources exactly.
    "domains": [{"domain": "cisa.gov", "verdict": "ALLOWLISTED"}],
    "totalUrls": 12,   // REQUIRED — count of verified-safe clickable URLs in the rendered brief. Must equal config.totalLinks.
    "flagged": 0,
    "scannedAt": ""   // Empty string — renderer uses scanTime. Fill only to override.
  },
  // dates: REQUIRED — one entry per item using the item's hl string (or a unique prefix) as the key.
  // Used by the template to render per-item publication dates. Empty object = no dates rendered.
  "dates": {"Article headline prefix": "YYYY-MM-DD"}
}

Editorial lead rules:

• items[0] is the lead for every section. It renders full-width with a large Oswald headline and an oxblood drop-cap on the first letter of body.
• Always use deck on lead items — one italic sentence that adds the "so what?" framing.
• The lead is never re-sorted. Choose it deliberately — most important item in the section.
• Items 1..N render in a two-column grid, date-sorted descending. No deck field on these.

scanTime is the single timestamp source. Write it once as "HH:MM TZ" (24-hour, user's timezone, e.g. "06:14 ET"). The renderer uses it in the masthead, the Generated cell in the signal bar, the link-safety scanned-at line, and the PDF masthead. Do not write separate timestamp values anywhere else.

On engine bugs:

1. Apply the fix to warmup/warmup-template.html — this is the canonical source.
2. Apply the same fix to the active warmup-artifact.html.
3. Call update_artifact to push the fix into the live artifact.
4. The fix propagates to all future reports automatically because new reports start from the template.

Never build the artifact HTML from scratch. Always start from the engine shell returned by warmup_get_template. Building from scratch risks re-introducing fixed bugs and diverging from the canonical engine.

Step 5 — Summary line

After rendering, output a single summary line in the chat: "[N] items across [N] sections · [N] sources active · [N] sources quiet today · Lookback: [N] days"

If this was a catch-up run, append the reason: "… · Lookback: 12 days (catch-up from [last_run_date])"

Nothing else in chat. The brief is the artifact. Do not duplicate its content in the chat response.

Step 5b — Source emergence check (periodic)

When to run: After any successful RUN where (today - updated) >= 30 days. The updated field in WARMUP.md records when the source list was last configured. If it has been 30+ days since the user last touched their source config, scan for new sources that have emerged since then.

How to run:

During the fetch phase, note any domains that appeared in search results but are not in the user's active or excluded source list. After synthesis, evaluate each against the Source Trust Framework. Surface only sources that meet at least one of these bars:

• Tier 1 or Tier 2 by the framework criteria
• A Tier 3 source with demonstrated sector relevance (it appeared in multiple fetched items, not just once) and strong editorial reputation
• A sector-specific source that didn't exist or wasn't notable 30 days ago (new research arm, new government advisory feed, etc.)

Cap at 3 recommendations per run. Do not recommend sources already in the config (active or excluded). Do not recommend a source the user has previously excluded — they made that call deliberately.

Output format — append after the summary line in chat, separated by a blank line:

💡 New source worth adding:
  [Source Name] · Tier N · domain.com
  [One sentence: what it covers and why it's relevant to the user's sector/profile.]
  Say "add [source name] to warmup" to include it.

If more than one recommendation: list them as a short block under a single 💡 New sources worth adding: header.

If nothing new qualifies: output nothing. Do not add a "no new sources found" line — silence is the correct signal.

Frequency note: 30 days is the default check interval because a month is roughly how long it takes for a new source to establish a track record worth recommending. If the user wants tighter checks (e.g., weekly), they can add source_check_days: 7 to the Notes section of WARMUP.md and this step will use that value instead.

Step 6 — Update last_run in WARMUP.md

After a successful render, update the last_run field in WARMUP.md to today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format. This is the record the next run uses to compute its lookback window.

Do not update last_run if the run failed, produced no items, or produced fewer than 3 items total across all sections — treat these as degraded runs and preserve the window so the next run has a wider lookback to recover missing content.

---

CONFIGURE Mode

Trigger: "warmup config", "update my warmup", "add source to warmup", "remove source from warmup", "show my warmup sources", "exclude [source] from warmup", "what sources is the warmup using"

Show sources

Display the current source list in a compact table:

Source              | Tier | Domain                    | Status
--------------------|------|---------------------------|--------
CISA Alerts         |  1   | cisa.gov                  | Active
CISA KEV            |  1   | cisa.gov                  | Active
CrowdStrike Blog    |  2   | crowdstrike.com/blog       | Active
...
Krebs on Security   |  3   | krebsonsecurity.com       | Excluded

Add a source

1. Assign a trust tier using the Source Trust Framework.
2. If Tier 3 or lower, flag it explicitly.
3. Add to WARMUP.md under the appropriate tier.
4. Confirm: "Added [source] as Tier [N]. It will appear in your next brief."

Remove or exclude a source

Move from active list to Excluded Sources in WARMUP.md. The source remains in the config but is skipped at runtime and shown in the Source Transparency Panel as excluded.

Recommend additional sources

If the user asks for recommendations: suggest 3–5 sources relevant to their profile that they do not already have. For CISO mode, look for gaps in sector-specific coverage or missing Tier 2 research firms.

Switch mode

If the user wants to switch between CISO, Product Leader, and Custom modes, run the appropriate branch of SETUP Step 2 and rebuild the source suite. Carry over any manually-added sources the user wants to keep.

Ask about lookback after any configuration change

After any meaningful config change (new sector, new sources, switched mode, changed company), ask: "How far back should the next brief look? Default is 1 day — or tell me a different window for this run." This catches the case where a config change means the user wants a fresh sweep to see how the new sources perform. Do not ask after minor changes (typo fixes, timezone updates).

---

CISO Source Suite

The default source suite for CISO mode. Load all of these unless the user explicitly excludes one.

Tier 1 — Government & Authoritative

These are primary sources of truth. Treat their content as high-confidence. Never remove from the brief without user confirmation.

Source	Search target	What it contributes
CISA Alerts & Advisories	site:cisa.gov advisories	Active exploits, critical advisories, joint alerts with NSA/FBI
CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV)	site:cisa.gov known-exploited-vulnerabilities	CVEs with confirmed in-the-wild exploitation
NVD / CVE Database	site:nvd.nist.gov OR "CVE-2026" new vulnerability	New and updated CVE records, CVSS scores
MITRE ATT&CK	site:attack.mitre.org	TTP context for attributed campaigns; use for tagging items from other sources
FBI Cyber Division	site:ic3.gov OR site:fbi.gov/investigate/cyber	Public PSAs, threat actor attributions, financial fraud patterns
NSA Cybersecurity Advisories	site:nsa.gov cybersecurity advisory	Nation-state TTP guidance, hardening recommendations

Tier 2 — Premier Research Firms

High-quality, vetted research with named analysts and editorial review. Include all by default.

Source	Search target	What it contributes
CrowdStrike Intelligence Blog	site:crowdstrike.com/blog	Adversary tracking (BEAR/SPIDER/KITTEN taxonomy), campaign analysis
Palo Alto Unit 42	site:unit42.paloaltonetworks.com	Threat research, malware reverse engineering, IR findings
Elastic Security Labs	site:elastic.co/security-labs	Behavioral detection research, open-source SIEM rules
Google Mandiant	"mandiant" threat intelligence blog	APT group tracking, IR case studies, zero-day attribution
Microsoft Threat Intelligence (MSTIC)	site:microsoft.com/security/blog	Windows/Azure/cloud threat actor TTPs, nation-state activity
Cisco Talos	site:blog.talosintelligence.com	Threat telemetry, malware family analysis, email threat data
Secureworks CTU	site:secureworks.com/blog	GOLD/IRON/BRONZE group tracking, ransomware intelligence
Recorded Future	site:recordedfuture.com/blog	Dark web intelligence, global threat signals, public research

Tier 3 — Reputable Security News

Reliable reporting with editorial standards. Label items [NEWS]. Include all by default.

Source	Search target	What it contributes
Krebs on Security	site:krebsonsecurity.com	Investigative security reporting, breach coverage
The Hacker News	site:thehackernews.com	Breaking security news, vulnerability coverage
Dark Reading	site:darkreading.com	CISO-relevant analysis, industry reporting
SecurityWeek	site:securityweek.com	Vendor news, vulnerability roundups
BleepingComputer	site:bleepingcomputer.com	Ransomware tracking, active exploit news
Ars Technica Security	site:arstechnica.com/security	Technical security reporting, long-form analysis

Tier 4 — Vendor & Market Intelligence

For tracking M&A, funding, product launches, regulatory moves. Label items [VENDOR] or [REGULATORY]. Read with commercial interest context.

Source	Search target	What it contributes
CRN	site:crn.com security	Channel news, vendor M&A, partner moves
SC Magazine	site:scmagazine.com	Security product news, market coverage
TechCrunch Security	site:techcrunch.com/category/security	Startup funding, cybersecurity acquisitions
Cybersecurity Ventures	site:cybersecurityventures.com	Market reports, spending forecasts

---

---

Product Leader Source Suite

Default source suite for Product Leader mode. Core sources load for all users; vertical-specific sources added at SETUP.

Tier 1 — Primary Sources

Source	Search target	What it contributes
SEC EDGAR	site:sec.gov [company] OR [competitor]	Public filings, 8-K events, earnings, exec changes
Crunchbase News	site:crunchbase.com [sector] funding OR acquisition	Funding rounds, M&A, investor signals
Company newsroom	site:[company].com/news OR /press	Official announcements, product launches, leadership moves
Competitor newsrooms	site:[competitor].com/news OR /press	Official competitor announcements

Tier 2 — Research & Premium Coverage

Source	Search target	What it contributes
a16z	site:a16z.com [sector] OR [vertical]	Market theses, sector deep-dives, portfolio signals
Sequoia Capital	site:sequoiacap.com [sector]	Market memos, economic outlook, founder research
The Information	site:theinformation.com [company] OR [sector]	Investigative tech journalism (search for public excerpts)
Stratechery	site:stratechery.com [company] OR [sector]	Strategic analysis of tech business models
Benedict Evans	site:ben-evans.com [sector] OR [topic]	Consumer tech and market structure analysis
CB Insights	site:cbinsights.com [sector] intelligence	Market maps, funding data, industry reports
Gartner	site:gartner.com [sector] magic quadrant OR report	Analyst positioning, market category definitions
Forrester	site:forrester.com [sector] wave OR report	Enterprise buyer-focused analyst coverage
Product Hunt	site:producthunt.com [category]	New product launches, early competitor signal

Tier 3 — News & Community

Label items [NEWS] or [COMMUNITY].

Source	Search target	What it contributes
TechCrunch	site:techcrunch.com [company] OR [sector]	Funding news, product launches, startup coverage
The Verge	site:theverge.com [company] OR [product category]	Consumer tech, platform policy, product reviews
Wired	site:wired.com [company] OR [sector]	Long-form technology and business reporting
Fast Company	site:fastcompany.com [company] OR innovation	Innovation, design, product culture
Reuters / Bloomberg	site:reuters.com OR site:bloomberg.com [company] OR [sector]	Breaking M&A (Tier 1); market color (Tier 3)
Lenny's Newsletter	site:lennysnewsletter.com [topic]	Practitioner PM and growth content
Reforge Blog	site:reforge.com/blog [topic]	Product growth and retention frameworks
Hacker News	site:news.ycombinator.com [company] OR [product]	Developer community signal; earliest mention of product issues
LinkedIn	[person] OR [company] site:linkedin.com	Exec commentary, people moves, product announcements

Tier 4 — Vendor & Analyst Marketing

Source	Search target	What it contributes
G2	site:g2.com [company] OR [competitor] reviews	Customer review signal, competitive grids
Capterra	site:capterra.com [company] OR [competitor]	B2B buyer reviews, alternative discovery
Trustpilot	site:trustpilot.com [company] OR [competitor]	Consumer review signal
Vendor blogs	site:[vendor].com/blog [product area]	AI vendor product updates, API changes

AI Vendor Sources (always included for Product Leader)

Source	Search target	What it contributes
OpenAI Blog	site:openai.com/blog	Model releases, API changes, pricing
Anthropic	site:anthropic.com/news OR /research	Model releases, safety research, API updates
Google DeepMind	site:deepmind.google OR site:blog.google/technology/ai	Research, Gemini updates, infrastructure
Meta AI	site:ai.meta.com/blog OR site:research.facebook.com	Open-source models (Llama), research
Mistral AI	site:mistral.ai/news	European frontier model moves, open-weight releases
Hugging Face	site:huggingface.co/blog	Open-source model ecosystem, tooling
arXiv cs.AI	site:arxiv.org cs.AI [topic]	Pre-print research; leading indicator of capability direction

Additional AI vendor sources from ai_vendors: in WARMUP.md appended at runtime.

Vertical-Specific Sources (Product Leader)

Vertical	Add These Sources
Security product	Full CISO Tier 1–2 suite (CISA, NVD, CrowdStrike, Unit 42, MSTIC, Elastic Security Labs, etc.)
Fintech / payments	OCC (site:occ.gov), CFPB (site:consumerfinance.gov), FS-ISAC, Payments Dive, PYMNTS
Healthcare / digital health	FDA Digital Health, CMS (site:cms.gov), Rock Health, HIMSS
Consumer social / creator	Social Media Today, Creator Economy Report, platform dev blogs (Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Snap)
Enterprise SaaS	Bessemer State of Cloud, SaaStr, ChartMogul blog, Lighter Capital
Developer tools / platform	GitHub Blog, Stack Overflow Developer Survey, npm trends, CNCF reports, Changelog
E-commerce / retail	Digital Commerce 360, Shopify Engineering Blog, NRF research, Morning Brew Retail
Logistics / supply chain	FreightWaves, Supply Chain Dive, Flexport blog
Marketplace	a16z marketplace posts, NFX (site:nfx.com), a16z marketplace essays

Sector-Specific Sources

Append these when the user's sector matches. Add to the appropriate tier in the source suite.

Sector	Add These Sources
Healthcare	HHS HC3 (site:hhs.gov hc3), Health-ISAC news (site:h-isac.org), AHA cybersecurity alerts
Financial Services	FS-ISAC public blog (site:fsisac.com), OCC alerts (site:occ.gov), FFIEC guidance
Energy / Utilities	E-ISAC (site:eisac.com), CISA ICS-CERT (site:cisa.gov ics-cert), NERC CIP updates
Government / Public Sector	FedRAMP news, FISMA updates, DoD CMMC bulletins (site:dodcio.defense.gov)
Technology	GitHub Security Advisories (site:github.com/advisories), Wiz Research (site:wiz.io/blog), Snyk Vulnerability DB
Retail / Consumer	PCI Security Council (site:pcisecuritystandards.org), NRF security news
Manufacturing / OT	Dragos OT Intel (site:dragos.com/blog), Claroty Research (site:claroty.com/team82), Nozomi Research
Critical Infrastructure	Extends Energy + Government sources; add ICS-CERT advisories explicitly

---

CISO Report — Section Structure

Organize the brief into these five sections, in this order. Each section has a defined scope. Stay within it.

Section 1 — THREAT LANDSCAPE

What belongs here: Named threat actors currently active; their targeted sectors; their primary TTPs.

• Use CrowdStrike naming convention for threat groups where possible (SCATTERED SPIDER, COZY BEAR, VOLT TYPHOON, etc.). Note aliases when relevant (e.g., "APT29 / COZY BEAR").
• Tag each item with the actor name, 1–2 MITRE ATT&CK technique IDs (e.g., T1566.001 — Spearphishing Attachment), and source.
• If the user provided a sector, lead with actors known to target that sector. If no sector-specific activity exists this week, say so briefly rather than forcing items that do not fit.
• If the user provided a company name, note explicitly if the company or its sector has appeared in attribution reporting.

Scope boundary: Attribution and TTPs only. Do not put CVEs here — those go in Emerging Threats. Do not put vendor news here — that goes in Industry Intel.

Section 2 — EMERGING THREATS

What belongs here: New vulnerabilities and attack techniques entering circulation in the last 7 days.

• CISA KEV additions: any CVE added to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog this week.
• High/critical CVEs with active exploitation evidence or public POC.
• Zero-day disclosures. New malware families or significant variants.
• Each CVE entry: CVE ID, CVSS score, affected product(s), exploitation status (exploited in wild / POC available / no exploitation evidence).
• Sort by exploitation urgency, not CVSS score alone. A CVSS 7.5 with confirmed in-the-wild exploitation ranks above a CVSS 9.8 with no POC.

Scope boundary: Technical vulnerabilities and new attack techniques only.

Section 3 — RESEARCH DIGEST

What belongs here: New publications from Tier 1 and Tier 2 sources in the last 7 days.

• New threat research reports, technical blog posts, malware analyses.
• One headline + 2–3 sentence summary per item.
• Tag with source name and publication date.
• Exclude vendor marketing content. Only substantive research with named threat data, indicators, or detection guidance qualifies.

Scope boundary: Research publications only, not breaking news. If something is both news and research (e.g., a major IR firm publishes on an ongoing incident), put it here and note the news angle.

Section 4 — INDUSTRY INTEL

What belongs here: Market and vendor movement a CISO cares about for budget and vendor portfolio decisions.

• M&A activity: acquisitions, mergers, divestitures in the security market.
• Significant product launches from vendors the user tracks.
• Leadership changes at major security vendors.
• Regulatory changes: SEC disclosure rules, GDPR/HIPAA/DORA enforcement actions, CMMC updates, state-level privacy laws.
• Tag each item: [M&A], [PRODUCT], [REGULATORY], or [EXEC].
• If any news directly affects a vendor the user listed in their profile, note that explicitly.

Scope boundary: Market and regulatory movement. Not technical threat data.

Section 5 — SOCIAL SIGNAL

What belongs here: High-signal community discussion from the security field. This section is optional and should be omitted if nothing substantive is found.

• High-engagement threads or posts on r/netsec, LinkedIn security community, or X/Twitter security accounts that discuss something of professional consequence (a significant debate, a disclosed incident, a tool release that is getting traction).
• Every item in this section must carry a [COMMUNITY] tag.
• Add this note at the top of the section: "Unverified community signal. Cross-reference Tier 1–2 sources before acting."
• If nothing of consequence is found: omit the section entirely. Do not pad with low-signal posts to fill the section. Absence is better than noise.

---

---

Product Leader Report — Section Structure

Eight sections, in this order. Section 7 (Vertical Intel) is dynamic — its name and scope adapt to the user's declared vertical. Section 8 (Special Interests) is optional and omitted if not configured.

Section 1 — COMPANY INTEL

What belongs here: Your own company's external signal — what the market, analysts, customers, and press are saying about you.

• Analyst coverage: Gartner, Forrester, IDC mentions; category placement changes
• Customer review movement: G2, Capterra, Trustpilot score shifts, notable reviews, category ranking changes
• Press coverage of the company: product launches, leadership moves, partnerships
• Job posting signals: significant new role categories that suggest strategic direction (e.g., suddenly posting 20 ML roles signals an AI pivot)
• Earnings/analyst day commentary for public companies
• Tag each item: [ANALYST], [REVIEW], [PRESS], [HIRING], [EXEC]

Scope boundary: Only your own company. Competitor company signal goes in Section 2. Industry news goes in Section 7.

Section 2 — COMPETITOR INTEL

What belongs here: Strategic moves from the competitor list in WARMUP.md.

• Product launches and feature announcements — what they shipped
• Pricing changes — especially if moving toward or away from your segment
• Funding rounds, M&A activity, acqui-hires
• Executive hires and departures (CTO/CPO/CEO changes are significant)
• Customer wins or losses where named (case studies, press releases, reviews)
• Any public roadmap signals (conference talks, job posts for new product areas)
• Tag each item with the competitor name and: [PRODUCT], [FUNDING], [M&A], [EXEC], [PRICING], or [CUSTOMER]
• If a competitor ships something that directly threatens your roadmap, bold the item and put it first in the section.

Scope boundary: Named competitors only. New entrants or emerging threats go in Section 7 (Vertical Intel). Do not include your own company here.

Section 3 — AI IN PRODUCT

What belongs here: Two tracks in one section.

Track A — Frontier model and AI vendor moves:

• New model releases and benchmark results (GPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama, Mistral, etc.)
• API changes, deprecations, pricing shifts from major AI vendors
• New capabilities that change what products can realistically build
• Acquisitions or partnerships that shift the AI vendor landscape
• Tag: [MODEL RELEASE], [API], [PRICING], [ACQUISITION]

Track B — AI in product development:

• New coding tools, agent frameworks, or dev-workflow AI (Cursor, Copilot, Devin, etc.)
• Research pre-prints from arXiv cs.AI with near-term product implications
• Notable real-world deployments of AI in products similar to the user's
• Practitioner write-ups: how teams are actually shipping AI features
• Tag: [TOOLING], [RESEARCH], [DEPLOYMENT], [FRAMEWORK]

Ordering: Put Track A items first (they move the floor). Track B items follow.

Scope boundary: AI capabilities, vendors, and tooling only. Do not put general tech news here. Do not duplicate competitor AI launches — those go in Section 2.

Section 4 — FUNDING & M&A

What belongs here: Capital and consolidation moves in the user's market.

• Funding rounds in the user's category or adjacent ones: Series A+, growth rounds, late-stage. Note the lead investor — signals where smart money is pointing.
• Acquisitions: who bought whom, implied valuation, strategic rationale
• IPOs and SPACs in the sector
• Notable shutdowns or acqui-hires that signal market consolidation
• If a direct competitor raised or got acquired, this item belongs in Section 2, not here — cross-reference rather than duplicate.
• Tag: [FUNDING], [M&A], [IPO], [SHUTDOWN]

Scope boundary: Capital events only. Not product launches, not general news.

Section 5 — PLATFORM & ECOSYSTEM RISK

What belongs here: Changes to the platforms, APIs, and infrastructure your product depends on or competes within.

• App store policy changes (Apple, Google Play) — pricing, review policies, categories
• Major API changes, deprecations, or pricing shifts from platform dependencies (Stripe, Twilio, AWS, Salesforce, Shopify, etc.)
• Browser or OS changes with product implications (Safari privacy changes, Chrome deprecations, new mobile OS features)
• Cloud provider moves: new services, pricing changes, regional expansions that affect build-vs-buy decisions
• Developer platform news: GitHub, npm, open-source ecosystem shifts
• Tag: [APP STORE], [API CHANGE], [DEPRECATION], [PLATFORM], [CLOUD]

Scope boundary: Changes external to your product that affect what you can build or how your product reaches users. If it doesn't create platform risk or dependency change, it belongs elsewhere.

Section 6 — REGULATORY & POLICY

What belongs here: Policy and regulatory movement that could change your product, market, or go-to-market.

• Privacy regulation: GDPR enforcement actions, US state privacy laws (CCPA, etc.), new proposals in the user's markets
• EU AI Act milestones and compliance deadlines
• Antitrust: actions against platforms the user builds on or competes with
• Vertical-specific regulatory moves (appended from Vertical Intel sources)
• FTC, DOJ, SEC enforcement actions relevant to the user's sector
• Tag: [GDPR], [AI ACT], [ANTITRUST], [FTC], [PRIVACY], or the relevant jurisdiction

Scope boundary: Policy and compliance only. Not market news, not product news. If a regulatory action has direct competitive implications, note it here and reference Section 2.

Section 7 — [VERTICAL INTEL] (dynamic section name)

What belongs here: Market-specific intelligence that depends on what the user builds and who they build for. This section's name, sources, and scope are set at SETUP based on the user's declared vertical.

Vertical mapping — use the appropriate label and scope:

Vertical	Section label	What belongs here
Security product	THREAT LANDSCAPE	Borrow CISO Sections 1–2 scope: active threat actors, CVEs, research publications relevant to the user's customer base
Fintech / payments	FINANCIAL ECOSYSTEM	Banking regulation, payment network moves, fraud trend reports, central bank policy with product implications
Healthcare / digital health	CLINICAL & REGULATORY	FDA digital health guidance, CMS reimbursement signals, EHR ecosystem moves, health data standards
Consumer social / creator	PLATFORM & CREATOR ECONOMY	Platform API changes (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube), creator monetization updates, engagement trend data
Enterprise SaaS	BUYER SIGNAL	CIO/CFO sentiment surveys, procurement trend reports, SaaS spend benchmarks, category-level churn data
Developer tools / platform	ECOSYSTEM SIGNAL	GitHub trending, open-source project momentum, Stack Overflow data, developer community sentiment
E-commerce / retail	COMMERCE SIGNAL	Consumer spending indexes, Shopify GMV data, platform policy changes, fulfillment and logistics signals
Logistics / supply chain	SUPPLY CHAIN SIGNAL	Freight rate indexes, port congestion data, geopolitical disruption signals, carrier capacity data
Marketplace	MARKETPLACE DYNAMICS	GMV and take-rate trends, regulatory risk to marketplace models, supply/demand liquidity signals

If the user's vertical doesn't match the table, use the SETUP Question 3 inference (the "bad week" question) to name and define this section appropriately.

Scope boundary: Vertical Intel is for market forces specific to the user's industry. General tech news and competitor moves go in earlier sections.

Section 8 — SPECIAL INTERESTS (optional)

Identical to the CISO mode Special Interests section. Render only if special_interests is set in WARMUP.md. Pull 1–3 conversational items per interest, label [INTERESTS], and position last.

---

Product Leader Report — Batch Query Table

Run these batches concurrently during the fetch phase. Replace placeholders with values from WARMUP.md. Run all batches before synthesizing.

Batch	Sources covered	Query pattern
Company signal	Company newsroom + G2 + Gartner + press	"[company]" announcement OR review OR analyst after:YYYY-MM-DD
Competitor sweep	All competitors from competitors: list	([comp1] OR [comp2] OR [comp3]) launch OR funding OR acquisition OR pricing after:YYYY-MM-DD
AI frontier	OpenAI + Anthropic + Google + Meta + Mistral	(site:openai.com OR site:anthropic.com OR site:deepmind.google OR site:ai.meta.com OR site:mistral.ai) after:YYYY-MM-DD
AI in product	arXiv + Hugging Face + practitioner blogs	AI product development OR agent framework OR LLM tooling after:YYYY-MM-DD
Funding & M&A	Crunchbase + TechCrunch + SEC EDGAR	[sector] funding OR acquisition OR IPO site:techcrunch.com OR site:crunchbase.com after:YYYY-MM-DD
Platform risk	App stores + major API providers + cloud	[platform dependencies] API change OR deprecation OR policy after:YYYY-MM-DD
Regulatory	FTC + sector regulator + EU	[sector OR company] regulatory OR compliance OR enforcement after:YYYY-MM-DD
Vertical intel	Vertical-specific sources from the table above	Query pattern matched to vertical (e.g., site:hhs.gov digital health for healthcare)
Interests	One per special interest	Targeted query per interest

Adapt all queries to the user's company, sector, and competitor list from WARMUP.md. If a competitor list has more than five names, run two competitor sweep batches rather than cramming all into one query (search engines truncate long OR chains).

URL safety gate: identical to RUN Step 2 — no exceptions. Every URL from every batch passes the same allowlist → URLScan.io check. Configured competitors: and ai_vendors: domains are pre-allowlisted. Anything that cannot be confirmed clean is excluded.

---

Custom Mode — Source-Building Rules

When the user describes custom interests, map each interest to sources using these rules. Be explicit about tier and rationale for each recommendation.

Financial markets / equities:

• Yahoo Finance (Tier 2), CNBC Markets (Tier 3), Reuters Markets (Tier 1 for primary data), Bloomberg (Tier 2 — note paywall). For individual stocks, search SEC EDGAR filings (Tier 1) alongside news.

Company / competitor tracking:

• Official company newsroom / IR pages (Tier 1 for that company's announcements).
• SEC EDGAR for public companies (Tier 1). Google News for aggregated coverage (Tier 3). LinkedIn company pages (Tier 3).
• Note: press releases from companies about themselves are Tier 4 (commercial interest context applies).

Industry publications:

• Identify the 2–3 most authoritative publications for that domain. Examples:
  • AI/ML: Hugging Face blog, Arxiv cs.AI recent papers, MIT Technology Review
  • Product Management: Lenny's Newsletter, Reforge blog
  • Enterprise Tech: Stratechery (Tier 2 — paywall), The Information (Tier 2 — paywall)
  • For paywalled sources, search for public excerpts and link to the source.

Government / regulatory:

• Official agency sources are Tier 1 (SEC, FDA, FTC, EU Commission, etc.).
• Think tanks (Brookings, RAND, CSIS) are Tier 2.
• News coverage of regulatory actions is Tier 3.

Social media signals:

• Flag all social sources as Tier 3. Include only if the user explicitly requests social signal.
• Recommend that the user define which platforms and communities matter to them: a security researcher's X feed is different from a startup founder's.

Local / city news:

• Local newspaper of record for the named city (Tier 2). AP/Reuters local coverage (Tier 1). Local business journals (Tier 2).

In all cases: present the recommended source list with tier and rationale before saving. Do not assume approval — ask.

---

Source Trust Framework

Every source in the brief carries a visible trust tier indicator.

Tier	Label	Indicator	Color	Criteria
1	Authoritative	● (filled circle)	oxblood (#a8211a)	Government agencies, official standards bodies, primary-source records. Content originates from or is authorized by the named institution.
2	Research	◉ (circle-dot)	chalk (#ebe5d8)	Established research firms, major media with dedicated security or financial beats, peer-reviewed publications. Content is vetted, attributed, and editorially reviewed.
3	News / Community	○ (open circle)	chalk-dim (#a8a094)	News outlets without specialized editorial review for the domain, community forums, social media, aggregators. May be accurate; independently verify before acting.
4	Vendor	◈ (diamond)	army (#7a8b3a)	Content produced by vendors about their own products, market, or competitors. Accurate for product facts; read competitive claims with commercial interest context.

This framework applies in both CISO and Custom modes. Every item in the artifact carries its source's tier indicator. No exceptions.

---

Artifact Design Spec

The full design spec — color tokens, fonts, layout, component patterns, and the five rules — is in SKILL-DESIGN.md. It is not accessible via any MCP tool and cannot be read during a Cowork session. It is also not needed during normal operation: Path B always starts from the engine shell returned by warmup_get_template, which already embeds all design tokens. Do not attempt to read SKILL-DESIGN.md at runtime.

---

WARMUP.md Config Format

Saved at the project root when SETUP runs. Updated in place when CONFIGURE makes changes. Claude reads this file at the start of every RUN.

# Warmup Config

## Profile
mode: ciso                  # ciso | product_leader | custom
sector: healthcare
company: Example Health System
region: united-states
vendors: Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne   # CISO: vendors to track; Product Leader: AI vendors
special_interests: SEC football, NBA
name: Sam
updated: 2026-05-14
last_run: 2026-05-14        # set automatically after each successful run
window_override:            # optional: set a fixed lookback in days (e.g. 14); leave blank for adaptive
daily_mode: true            # set to true if you run the brief every day; enables 2-day lookback fast-path
source_check_days:          # optional: days between source emergence checks (default: 30)
skip_scan: false            # set to true to skip URL safety checks — saves tokens, but links are unverified. Recommended: false.
# ── Search Depth ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# Controls how many results per batch and how much article text is extracted.
# Why we cap it: at standard depth the fetch phase uses ~40–60K tokens.
# Deep mode doubles that for broader coverage — useful when your budget allows.
#   standard (default)  5 results per batch · 200 words/article  ← recommended for daily use
#   deep                10 results per batch · 400 words/article  ← ~2× fetch cost, broader coverage
# Switch at any time: say "use deep search" or "use standard search" in chat.
search_depth: standard

# Product Leader fields (populated when mode: product_leader)
product_area:               # e.g. "Security product line", "creator tools", "developer platform"
build_type:                 # b2b | b2c | platform | marketplace | hybrid
vertical:                   # e.g. security | fintech | healthcare | consumer_social | enterprise_saas | developer_tools | ecommerce | logistics | marketplace
competitors:                # comma-separated list; auto-generated at SETUP, editable anytime
ai_vendors:                 # comma-separated AI vendors/tools relevant to roadmap
track_people:               # optional: exec, analyst, investor, journalist names to watch

## Active Sources

### Tier 1 — Authoritative
- CISA Alerts | https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories | active
- CISA KEV | https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog | active
- NVD CVE | https://nvd.nist.gov | active
- MITRE ATT&CK | https://attack.mitre.org | active
- FBI Cyber | https://www.ic3.gov | active
- NSA Advisories | https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Cybersecurity-Advisories-Guidance | active
- HHS HC3 | https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/asa/ocio/hc3 | active

### Tier 2 — Research
- CrowdStrike Blog | https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog | active
- Palo Alto Unit 42 | https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com | active
- Elastic Security Labs | https://www.elastic.co/security-labs | active
- Google Mandiant | https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence | active
- Microsoft MSTIC | https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog | active
- Cisco Talos | https://blog.talosintelligence.com | active
- Secureworks CTU | https://www.secureworks.com/blog | active
- Recorded Future | https://www.recordedfuture.com/blog | active

### Tier 3 — News
- Krebs on Security | https://krebsonsecurity.com | active
- The Hacker News | https://thehackernews.com | active
- Dark Reading | https://www.darkreading.com | active
- SecurityWeek | https://www.securityweek.com | active
- BleepingComputer | https://www.bleepingcomputer.com | active

### Tier 4 — Vendor Intel
- CRN | https://www.crn.com | active
- TechCrunch Security | https://techcrunch.com/category/security | active

## Excluded Sources
(none)

## Notes
(none)

---

Anti-Patterns

Do not do these. Each one was added because it is a real failure mode.

1. Do not invent items. If a source search returns nothing, mark it "no signal today." The worst version of this skill is a brief that feels complete because it made things up.

2. Do not skip the Source Transparency Panel. The user must always be able to see what built their brief. This is the contract. Omitting it is a trust failure.

3. Do not run without reading WARMUP.md. If the config doesn't exist, ask for SETUP. Guessing at sources produces a brief that is not the user's brief.

4. Do not mix Tier 3 items into sections without labels. A community post should not appear in Threat Landscape without a [COMMUNITY]