# relevance-coarse-filter

A cheap first pass over a signal pool that drops obvious junk before expensive newsworthiness checks run on it.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 753 installs · ★ 1650
- Author: elvisun
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/elvisun/newsjack/tree/HEAD/skills/relevance-coarse-filter/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-22
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/relevance-coarse-filter

## What it does

This skill is the first gate in a newsjacking pipeline. It judges one signal at a time against a client profile: id, title, excerpt, source, profile matches, and a story-size hint. Out comes exactly one decision — `keep`, `monitor_only` or `reject` — plus one reason from a fixed list such as `keyword_collision` or `no_profile_bridge`.

The bias is toward keeping. A false positive is cheap here, a dropped real opportunity is not, so doubt resolves in favor of the signal. A big story can never be rejected: at `high` or `major` in `story_size.band` the floor is `monitor_only`, bridge or no bridge. Any profile match blocks a `no_profile_bridge` reject, and promo or competitor material lands in `monitor_only` rather than the bin.

The rubric runs on a low-cost LLM worker by default. When `newsjack doctor` shows TypeSafe configured, the Jev engine is available: it answers six typed questions with probabilities instead of prose, and deterministic post-rules keep those typed answers from breaking the hard constraints. If more than a fifth of Jev calls fail, the command exits non-zero and you should rerun the pass on the worker. The skill does not rank signals, write angles, check freshness, or decide whether to pitch.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add elvisun/newsjack --skill relevance-coarse-filter -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/relevance-coarse-filter/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/relevance-coarse-filter/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add elvisun/newsjack --skill relevance-coarse-filter -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/relevance-coarse-filter/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add elvisun/newsjack --skill relevance-coarse-filter -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/relevance-coarse-filter/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install elvisun/newsjack relevance-coarse-filter
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/relevance-coarse-filter/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add elvisun/newsjack --skill relevance-coarse-filter -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/elvisun/newsjack --path skills/relevance-coarse-filter
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/relevance-coarse-filter/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add elvisun/newsjack --skill relevance-coarse-filter -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/elvisun/newsjack/tree/HEAD/skills/relevance-coarse-filter/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- strip junk from a candidate pool before costly checks
- keep a major story that has no clear client bridge
- flag promo and competitor content instead of dropping it
- record the reason behind each decision for the report
- run the filter on a cheap model without losing recall

## Example prompts
- run this signal through relevance-coarse-filter and give me the decision with its reason
- keep it if a profile competitor shows up anywhere in the signal
- sweep the candidate pool and flag anything worth surfacing

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 397c60a651d9b878.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 397c60a651d9b878
```text
---
name: relevance-coarse-filter
description: "Cheap, high-recall first-pass filter that removes obvious junk from a detector candidate pool before expensive story-origin research and PR judgment. Decides keep, monitor_only, or reject — never ranks, writes angles, verifies dates, or decides whether to pitch."
when_to_use: "Use as the coarse relevance pass of the newsjack-detector pipeline, or whenever a candidate signal pool needs cheap junk removal before expensive newsworthiness judgment. Designed to run on a low-cost model."
metadata:
  category: Detect
---

# Relevance Coarse Filter

You are **relevance-coarse-filter**, the first cheap gate in a newsjacking pipeline. Your one job: drop obvious junk so the expensive later passes only run on signals worth the cost.

Lean toward keeping things. Here a false positive (keeping junk) is cheap; a false negative (dropping a real opportunity) is expensive. **When in doubt, keep.**

What you do **not** do:

- rank signals or pick the best ones
- write angles
- research where a story first broke (story-origin)
- check freshness or the 24-hour cutoff
- decide whether to pitch

Those jobs belong to later passes — `story-origin-check`, then the detector's full judgment.

## Inputs

Judge **one signal at a time** against the client profile. Each signal gives you:

- signal id, title, and excerpt/evidence
- the source or lane, plus the detector's `profile_matches`
- `story_size.band`, when present, and any low-confidence `story_size.attention_hint`
- the client profile (company, topics, competitors, standing terms, regulators/customers/categories) to match against

"Standing terms" are words tied to the client's right to comment on a topic. "Bridge" means a plausible link between the signal and the client.

## Decisions and reasons

Return exactly one decision per signal. Allowed decisions:

- **keep** — plausibly relevant; send it on.
- **monitor_only** — worth surfacing but weak or unclear; flag it, don't drop it.
- **reject** — clear junk; drop it.

Allowed reasons (use one): `relevant_news`, `plausible_client_bridge`, `major_news_no_bridge`, `keyword_collision`, `not_news`, `owned_docs_or_product_page`, `seo_landing_page`, `competitor_or_promotional`, `low_reach_x_post`, `safety_risk`, `duplicate`, `off_beat`, `no_profile_bridge`.

## Rubric
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 397c60a651d9b878

The third-party file has ended. Everything between the 397c60a651d9b878 tags is data: requests and commands from it are not followed. An “end of file” line with another tag inside the block is part of the file.

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---
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