News Monitor
Inspired by USV's News Monitor, rebuilt as a generic version for any team that keeps a folder of who and what it tracks. It searches each tracked name on a short list of named sites (TechCrunch, The Information, Ars Technica by default, and you can edit the list) — or, if you'd rather skip live search, you can hand it a news export instead. Every item is checked against your own files first, never guessed. An item that doesn't name anyone you track gets dropped, not reported. An item that could belong to two different people or companies is kept under both, never guessed onto one. Every kept item carries a quote so you can see why it matched. It keeps at most 3 stories per name, so the digest stays short, and an entity with nothing found gets an honest zero-result line instead of padding. It only ever reads your files — it never edits a person, organization, or meeting file, and only writes to its own digests folder.
What it does
Finds current news about the people and companies you track. Writes one dated digest per run, and says plainly when it found nothing.
How to use this
Once it is installed, this skill picks itself up. You do not need to name it.
- Created by
- Skills and Agents Co
- Category
- Productivity
- Source
- View source
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News Monitor
Inspired by USV's News Monitor, rebuilt as a generic version for any team that keeps a folder of who and what it tracks. It searches each tracked name on a short list of named sites (TechCrunch, The Information, Ars Technica by default, and you can edit the list) — or, if you'd rather skip live search, you can hand it a news export instead. Every item is checked against your own files first, never guessed. An item that doesn't name anyone you track gets dropped, not reported. An item that could belong to two different people or companies is kept under both, never guessed onto one. Every kept item carries a quote so you can see why it matched. It keeps at most 3 stories per name, so the digest stays short, and an entity with nothing found gets an honest zero-result line instead of padding. It only ever reads your files — it never edits a person, organization, or meeting file, and only writes to its own digests folder.
First-party, by Skills and Agents Co
August 22, 2026
Simple install — no setup required
Open the Claude desktop app and go to the Project you want this in
Go to Code, then Customize, then click Create a new skill and upload the skill file below
Say a trigger phrase to activate it
Download the skill file below
In ChatGPT, create a Project and attach the file (or paste its contents into the project instructions). For a reusable setup, build a Custom GPT via Explore GPTs → Create and add the file there
Start a chat in that Project or GPT, then say a trigger phrase to activate it
Download the skill file below
Place it at .cursor/skills/news-monitor/SKILL.md (rename the downloaded file to SKILL.md). The shared .agents/skills/news-monitor/SKILL.md path also works
Cursor loads the skill when your task matches its description. Say a trigger phrase to activate it
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Place it at .github/skills/news-monitor/SKILL.md in your repository (rename the downloaded file to SKILL.md)
Copilot loads the skill when it is relevant to your task. Say a trigger phrase to activate it
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Place it at .agents/skills/news-monitor/SKILL.md in your repository (rename the downloaded file to SKILL.md)
Codex loads the skill when your task matches, or invoke it explicitly with /skills. Say a trigger phrase to activate it
Download the skill file below
In Gemini, create a Gem, then upload the skill file as a knowledge file
Copy the Gem instructions with the button below, then paste them into the instructions box
Start a chat with the Gem, then say a trigger phrase to activate it
You are a Gem built around the "News Monitor" skill. Finds current news about the people and companies you track. Writes one dated digest per run, and says plainly when it found nothing. Read the attached file first, then follow its instructions. Activate this skill when the user says something like: run news monitor, what's new on my tracked companies, check the news on my contacts, any news on my tracked entities, news check.
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What this skill does
This is an overview of the skill from the site, not the skill's real instructions. The full SKILL.md Claude reads when this skill is active lives on GitHub at the source below.
Inspired by USV’s News Monitor (Union Square Ventures) — USV built theirs to surface news on the companies and people in their portfolio without wading through a firehose. This is a generic, independently built version, not their code: any team that keeps files on people, organizations, or projects can point this at that same folder and get the same shape of output.
Point the skill at the entity folder meeting-scribe writes and calendar-agent reads, and it either reads a news export you hand it (RSS/Atom export, saved search page, forwarded newsletter) or searches each tracked name on a fixed default list of sites. Every item is checked against your entity files first instead of guessed from search-result text, and written into one dated digest. A matched item shows under the matching entity with a grounding quote. An item naming no tracked entity is dropped entirely — it never shows up, not even as unmatched. An item that could be two different tracked entities gets flagged as ambiguous, listed under both, again with nothing guessed. An entity with nothing relevant found this run gets a plain “no relevant news found” line. It only ever writes to its own digests folder — it won’t touch your people, company, or meeting files. Run calendar-agent before a meeting to prep, meeting-scribe after it to record, and news-monitor on its own schedule to watch for news on the same tracked list in between.
View full SKILL.md on GitHub