Daily Competition Scout

Daily Competition Scout

Automated end-to-end workflow for cron/​scheduled execution. Orchestrates other skills rather than duplicating their logic.

CRITICAL: Fully Unattended Operation

This skill MUST run completely unattended with NO user prompts.

When this skill is invoked:

1. DO NOT ask "Would you like me to..." at any point
2. DO NOT wait for user confirmation before persisting
3. DO NOT ask permission to analyze or compose entries
4. JUST DO IT - scrape, persist, analyze, compose, notify - all automatically

If you find yourself about to ask a question, STOP and use the default behavior instead.

CRITICAL: Check for Duplicates Before Persisting

Each competition should only be stored ONCE, even if it appears on multiple sites.

Before creating any issue, you MUST:

1. Get all existing issues: gh issue list -R $TARGET_REPO --label competition --state all --json number,title,body --limit 500
2. For each scraped competition, check if it already exists by:
   • URL appears anywhere in any issue body (search full text - issues may have multiple URLs from different sites)
   • OR normalized title similarity >80% to any existing issue title
3. If URL found in existing issue → SKIP (already tracked)
4. If title >80% similar but different URL → add comment to existing issue with the alternate URL
5. If truly new (URL not found AND title <80% similar) → create issue

Word limit clarification: "25WOL" is a category name. Competitions with 25, 50, or 100 word limits are all valid - persist them (if new).

Auto-tagging (for-kids, cruise) is for LABELING, not skipping:

• Tagged competitions ARE STILL CREATED as issues (if new)
• They just get a label and are closed automatically

What This Skill Does

This skill is a workflow orchestrator that invokes other skills in sequence:

┌─────────────────┐
│ comp-scout-daily│
└────────┬────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐     Scrapes listings, fetches details,
│ comp-scout-scrape│────▶ checks duplicates, persists issues
└────────┬────────┘
         │
         ▼ (for each new, non-filtered issue)
┌─────────────────┐
│comp-scout-analyze│────▶ Generates strategy (--unattended)
└────────┬────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│comp-scout-compose│────▶ Drafts entries (--unattended)
└────────┬────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│comp-scout-notify │────▶ Sends email digest
└─────────────────┘

Runs completely unattended - no user prompts during execution.

Prerequisites

• gh CLI authenticated
• Playwright installed: pip install playwright && playwright install chromium
• Target repository with CLAUDE.md containing user preferences
• SMTP credentials for email notifications (optional)

Invocation

Via Claude Code

"Perform daily competition scout"
"Run the daily comp scout workflow"
"Do the morning competition scrape and analysis"

Via Cron

# Daily at 7am
0 7 * * * claude -p "Perform daily competition scout" >> /​var/​log/​comp-scout.log 2>&1

Workflow

Phase 1: Configuration

Determine target repository and load user preferences:

TARGET_REPO="${TARGET_REPO:-discreteds/​competition-scout-25WOL}"

# Fetch user preferences from data repo
gh api repos/​$TARGET_REPO/​contents/​CLAUDE.md -H "Accept: application/​vnd.github.raw" 2>/​dev/​null

Parse from CLAUDE.md:

• Auto-filter keywords (for-kids, cruise, etc.)
• Saved stories for entry composition
• Personal context (partner name, location)

Phase 2: Scrape, Dedupe, and Persist (Automatic)

Execute the scrape workflow directly - no questions asked.

YOU MUST:

1. Run the scraper to get listings from both sites
2. BEFORE creating any issues, fetch ALL existing issues (open AND closed, limit 500)
3. For each scraped competition:
   • Search all issue bodies for the scraped URL (full text search, not field match)
   • If URL found → SKIP (already tracked)
   • If URL not found, check title similarity against all existing titles
   • If title >80% similar → add comment to existing issue with alternate URL, don't create new
   • If URL not found AND title <80% similar → this is NEW
4. Fetch details for NEW competitions only
5. Create issues for NEW competitions (no asking)
6. Apply auto-filter rules (create + close filtered issues)

Key point: Most scraped competitions will already be tracked. Only create issues for truly new ones.

Output: List of new issue numbers created (usually 0-3 per day)

Phase 3: Analyze Each New Issue (Automatic)

For each new, non-filtered issue: analyze strategy immediately.

YOU MUST:

1. Read the issue details
2. Determine sponsor category and brand voice
3. Generate 5 angle ideas using default tone mapping
4. ADD STRATEGY COMMENT IMMEDIATELY (no asking)

DO NOT ask "Would you like me to analyze?" - JUST DO IT.

Phase 4: Compose Entries for Each New Issue (Automatic)

For each new, non-filtered issue: compose entries immediately.

YOU MUST:

1. Read the issue + strategy comment
2. Load saved stories from target repo CLAUDE.md
3. Match story keywords to competition (or use generic)
4. Generate 3-5 entry variations with ratings
5. ADD ENTRIES COMMENT IMMEDIATELY (no asking)
6. ADD entry-drafted LABEL (no asking)

DO NOT ask "Would you like me to compose entries?" - JUST DO IT.

Phase 5: Check Closing Soon

Query for competitions closing within 3 days:

gh issue list -R "$TARGET_REPO" \
  --label "competition" \
  --state open \
  --json number,title,body,labels

Parse closing dates and flag urgent items.

Phase 6: Invoke comp-scout-notify

Delegate to the notify skill for email digest.

Invoke: comp-scout-notify send
Output: Email sent to configured recipients

Phase 7: Output Summary Report

## Daily Competition Scout Report - 2025-12-09

### Summary
- **New competitions:** 5
- **Auto-filtered:** 2 (1 for-kids, 1 cruise)
- **Analyzed and drafted:** 3
- **Duplicates added:** 1

### New Competitions (Ready for Entry)

| Issue | Competition | Closes | Story Used | Recommended |
|-------|-------------|--------|------------|-------------|
| #15 | Win $500 Coles Gift Card | Dec 31 | Generic | Option 2 |
| #16 | Win a Spa Day | Jan 5 | Margot Deserves Pampering | Option 1 |
| #17 | Win Kitchen Appliance | Dec 20 | Generic | Option 3 |

### Auto-Filtered (Created + Closed)

| Issue | Competition | Reason |
|-------|-------------|--------|
| #18 | Win Lego Set | for-kids (keyword: Lego) |
| #19 | Win P&O Cruise | cruise (keyword: P&O) |

### Closing Soon - Action Needed

| Issue | Competition | Days Left | Status |
|-------|-------------|-----------|--------|
| #12 | Woolworths Gift Cards | 1 | entry-drafted |
| #14 | TVSN Prize Pack | 2 | entry-drafted |

### Recommendations

1. **Priority:** #12 closes tomorrow - entry drafted, recommend Option 2
2. **High value:** #16 Spa Day ($500) - entry uses saved story, strong fit
3. **Review:** #17 Kitchen Appliance - closes in 11 days, time to refine

Unattended Operation

The skill makes NO interactive prompts during execution:

All choices are logged in the report for user review.

Error Handling

Errors are included in the final report.

Configuration

Environment Variables

TARGET_REPO=discreteds/​competition-scout-25WOL

Data Repo CLAUDE.md

Must contain:

• User Preferences: Auto-filter rules with keywords
• Saved Stories: Personal stories for automatic matching (optional)
• Personal Context: Partner name, location, interests

Skill Invocation Pattern

This skill orchestrates - it does not duplicate logic:

Individual skills remain available for interactive use when you want manual control.

Example Cron Log Output

$ claude -p "Perform daily competition scout"

Starting daily competition scout...

Phase 1: Loading configuration
  Target repo: discreteds/​competition-scout-25WOL
  Filter rules: for-kids (9 keywords), cruise (6 keywords)
  Saved stories: 2 available

Phase 2: Invoking comp-scout-scrape
  competitions.com.au: 8 competitions
  netrewards.com.au: 5 competitions
  New issues created: #43, #44, #45
  Filtered issues (closed): #46, #47
  Duplicate comments: #38

Phase 3: Invoking comp-scout-analyze (--unattended)
  #43: Strategy added (Food/​beverage → Relatable, sensory)
  #44: Strategy added (Travel → Discovery, bucket-list)
  #45: Strategy added (Tech → Knowledgeable, self-aware humor)

Phase 4: Invoking comp-scout-compose (--unattended)
  #43: 3 entries drafted (using saved story: Sunday BBQ)
  #44: 4 entries drafted (generic approach)
  #45: 3 entries drafted (generic approach)

Phase 5: Checking closing soon
  3 competitions closing within 3 days

Phase 6: Invoking comp-scout-notify
  Email sent to 2 recipients

## Daily Competition Scout Report - 2025-12-09
[Full report as shown above]

Key Design Principle

DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself): This skill invokes other skills rather than reimplementing their logic. This means:

1. Bug fixes in individual skills automatically apply to daily workflow
2. Interactive and unattended modes share the same core logic
3. Each skill has a single source of truth for its behavior
4. Testing individual skills also tests the daily workflow

If you need to change how analysis works, change comp-scout-analyze - the daily workflow will automatically use the updated logic.