summarize-signal

Name: summarize-signal
Author: lyndonkl/claude

$npx mdskill add lyndonkl/claude/summarize-signal

Extracts teaching signals and classifies content type for ranking.

Separates mechanism insights from capability announcements.
Fetches web pages and arXiv abstracts for analysis.
Assigns signal types based on content structure.
Outputs concise summaries framed as teaches that X.

SKILL.md

.github/skills/summarize-signalView on GitHub ↗

---
name: summarize-signal
description: Given a candidate item from the substacker Trend Scout fetch, WebFetches the full post or arXiv abstract and produces a one-line "teaches X" summary plus signal_type classification (mechanism / empirical / tool / opinion / announcement / benchmark). Distinguishes teaching-content from capability-announcement explicitly. Use during the weekly run, after fetching and before ranking. Trigger keywords: summarize, signal type, mechanism vs announcement, teaching content.
---

# Summarize Signal

## Workflow

```
Per candidate item:
- [ ] Step 1: WebFetch the URL; ask: "Extract the core argument in 300 words. What mechanism does this teach? Is there a diagram/analogy? Is this a capability announcement?"
- [ ] Step 2: Classify signal_type: mechanism | empirical | tool | opinion | announcement | benchmark
- [ ] Step 3: Classify intuition_density: high (diagram + analogy + worked example) | medium | low (prose-only announcement)
- [ ] Step 4: Compose one-line summary framed as "teaches that X" or "shows that Y"
- [ ] Step 5: Voice-check the summary against voice-profile don'ts
```

## Signal type taxonomy

- **mechanism**: teaches HOW something works (attention heads, routing, retrieval)
- **empirical**: reports a measurement/experiment (benchmark diff, ablation result)
- **tool**: introduces or reviews a specific tool/library
- **opinion**: position piece, no new data
- **announcement**: capability release, model drop, version bump — no mechanism
- **benchmark**: leaderboard update, SOTA claim without teaching

## Output per item

Appends to candidate record:

```json
{
  "summary": "Teaches that X",
  "signal_type": "mechanism",
  "intuition_density": "high",
  "teaches_mechanism": true,
  "full_text_excerpt_300w": "..."
}
```

## Guardrails

1. One WebFetch per item. Fetch failure → `summary: "FETCH_FAILED"` and let ranker drop.
2. Never hallucinate a mechanism. If the post doesn't teach one, say so explicitly.
3. Stay under 30 words in the summary.
4. Never use: delve, unpack, paradigm shift, moreover, furthermore, "it's worth noting."
5. If item is an announcement with no mechanism, `teaches_mechanism: false` — downstream ranker drops it.

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