Front Page Topic Scout: Paste-Ready Topic Rows

How it works

Front Page Topic Scout takes your interest domains plus a list you paste from a public Hacker News-style front page (title, link, score, comments, age) and turns the strongest signals into paste-ready topic rows for Notion or a spreadsheet. Every number is copied from your data and stamped with when it was checked; nothing is estimated.

Phase 1 — Collect inputs. Domains, how many topics per domain, the pasted items, the snapshot time. No data and no web access means it asks instead of guessing.

Phase 2 — Classify items. Each item goes to your domains by title; items that fit none are listed as unassigned. Interest is read with item age in view.

Phase 3 — Build topic rows. Per domain: topic, type, a one-sentence dilemma as the angle, evidence of interest (score, comments, age, checked-at timestamp), source candidate and priority. Angles are your take on a question, not a rewrite of the source article.

Phase 4 — Priority. A, B or C from data strength and fit with your audience, with a short reason. Editorial judgment only, never a traffic forecast. Respects site terms: only a public front page, one page, no bulk collection.

Sample output

Real, unedited output from running this Skill on a sample problem:

> **Editorial research aid, not a forecast.** Scores and comment counts are a snapshot that
> changes by the minute. High attention on a source item does not guarantee that your piece will
> get traffic, sales or approval, and no figure here predicts results. Check each source's terms
> before reusing anything beyond the facts of what was linked.

Data: pasted by user, snapshot time stated by user as 2026-10-18 09:40 KST.

## Snapshot note
Source: a Hacker News-style front page, hand-copied by the user, snapshot 2026-10-18 09:40 KST. 9 items read: 8 assigned to your domains, 1 unassigned; 7 rows below (the staging-flags item fit "dev" but ranked below the top 2 there, so it has no row). Scores are time-dependent and item ages range from 1 hour to 1 day, so read each row's numbers together with its age. "leadership" has 1 row, not 2: only one item fits it that is not stronger in another domain, and I did not pad.

## startups
| topic | type | angle | evidence of interest | source candidate | priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Four-day week at 8 people: who it really helps | opinion | Does a 4-day week sharpen a tiny startup's focus, or does it just hide that the team is under-resourced? | Ask: 4-day week at an 8-person startup: score 268, comments 341, age 5 hours ago; checked 2026-10-18 09:40 KST | n/a, do not cite (title-only, unread) | A: heavy debate, recent, fits founders |
| What a solo founder should track before churn shows | how-to | Should a one-person company build a churn dashboard early, or is that measurement theater before there are enough customers? | Show: solo-founder churn dashboard: score 88, comments n/a, age 1 hour ago; checked 2026-10-18 09:40 KST | example.com/churn-dash, do not cite (title-only, unread) | C: low score, comments missing |

## careers
| topic | type | angle | evidence of interest | source candidate | priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staying hands-on versus taking the senior title | personal story | Is turning down a promotion protecting your craft, or quietly capping your pay and your say? | Turned down staff promotion: score 530, comments 96, age 11 hours ago; checked 2026-10-18 09:40 KST | example.com/stay-hands-on, do not cite (title-only, unread) | A: high score, fits managers weighing the move |
| Building a layoff cushion without a panic budget | checklist | How much cash buffer is enough for a tech job, and when does saving more cost you risks worth taking? | Layoffs savings post: score 301, comments 129, age 1 day ago; checked 2026-10-18 09:40 KST | example.com/layoff-cash, do not cite (title-only, unread) | B: older item, money advice needs outside research |

## dev
| topic | type | angle | evidence of interest | source candidate | priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| When a small database is the right default for founders | opinion | Should a solo founder pick the simplest database and migrate later, or pay now for scale that may never come? | SQLite is enough: score 677, comments 310, age 20 hours ago; checked 2026-10-18 09:40 KST | example.com/sqlite-enough, do not cite (title-only, unread) | A: top score, strong comments, durable interest |
| Skipping review on small changes: trust or risk? | contrarian take | Does dropping review for small PRs speed a team up, or just move the bugs into production? | Stopped code review for small PRs: score 355, comments 402, age 8 hours ago; checked 2026-10-18 09:40 KST | example.com/no-review, do not cite (title-only, unread) | A: comments exceed score, live debate, manager decision |

## leadership
| topic | type | angle | evidence of interest | source candidate | priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The first 1:1 for a new manager: template or open conversation? | explainer | Should a first-time manager bring a fixed 1:1 template, or keep the first meeting unstructured to learn what the person needs? | Your first 1:1 template: score 190, comments 44, age 2 hours ago; checked 2026-10-18 09:40 KST | example.com/first-1on1, do not cite (title-only, unread) | B: moderate numbers, very fresh, fits your readers |

## Unassigned items
- "Telescope mirror grinding for beginners" (score 240, comments 52, age 6 hours ago; checked 2026-10-18 09:40 KST): fits none of startups, careers, dev or leadership; no row created.

## Questions to resolve missing data
1. Optional: the comment count for the churn-dashboard item was not shown; can you re-check it?

## Sources and terms
Data was pasted by you (hand-copied, snapshot 2026-10-18 09:40 KST). No pages were fetched and no robots.txt or terms were consulted. All angles are based on titles only (inferred from title); none of the linked articles were read. Numbers are copied from the supplied data; none were estimated.

These topics are editorial suggestions, not a traffic prediction. Re-run with a fresh snapshot before you commit to a schedule.

Use cases

• Finding newsletter topics from this week's Hacker News front page
• Turning a list of trending posts into a content calendar for a blog or channel
• Looking for original angles on what developers and founders are debating right now
• Building a Notion topic database with score, comment count and a checked-at date on every row

FAQ

Does it invent scores or trend data? No. Every number comes from the list you paste or a page it fetched, and each carries a checked-at timestamp. Missing values show as n/a.

Will these topics get traffic? It cannot say. Priority is an editorial judgment about data strength and fit, not a prediction.

Does it rewrite the source articles? No. Each angle is a dilemma you can answer from your own experience, and sources are marked as cite or context only.

Does it scrape sites? No bulk scraping. It works from your paste, or reads one public front page if you ask and the site allows it; otherwise it asks you to paste.