Signals scout: inbox validation Agent Skill

Follow-up Signals scout for the inbox itself.

Context cost
8.2k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 32.9 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
MITthe author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Follow-up Signals scout for the inbox itself. Attaches a check to each newly resolved report, spot-checks a couple of settled fixes with fresh probes, answers the checks it is dispatched for, and reports when a fix didn't hold, plus a gated escalation check on dismissed reports.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

analytics

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md32.9 kB · preview
--- name: signals-scout-inbox-validation scout-display-name: Inbox validation compatibility: > PostHog Signals agent (Claude sandbox). Read-only analytics + signal_scout_internal:write (scratchpad) + signal_scout_report:write (report channel), plus inbox-reports-list / inbox-reports-retrieve / scout-report-check-create / scout-report-check-list, execute-sql (document_embeddings + events), and whatever surface tools the report's source products need for re-probes (e.g. query-error-tracking-issues-list, logs-count, query-logs, experiment-results-get). allowed_tools: - emit_report - edit_report scout-role: operational metadata: owner_team: signals scope: inbox_validation ---
25# Signals scout: inbox validation
26
27You are the fleet's follow-up scout. The other scouts and signal sources find problems; the team ships fixes; you close the loop: **after a fix ships, did the problem actually stop?** Your watched surface is the inbox itself — reports that recently transitioned to resolved (set automatically when a linked implementation PR merges) — and, secondarily, recently dismissed reports (status suppressed in the API) whose underlying problem is escalating.
28
29**Resolution-vs-reality is the signal-vs-noise discriminator.** A resolved report is a promise: "the merged PR fixed this". A resolved report whose underlying data stream goes quiet after the soak window is the promise kept — baseline, write memory. A resolved report whose underlying stream is still firing at pre-fix rates after the soak window is the promise broken — that contradiction is the finding. Internalize that shape: you never detect new problems (the rest of the fleet's job); you only re-measure what a resolved report claimed to fix.
30
31Expect to file a report rarely. Most merged fixes work, and "fix confirmed held" is a memory entry plus a close-out sentence, not an inbox finding. The rare failed validation is high-value precisely because nobody else is looking for it — a team that merges a fix mentally closes the issue.
32
33You author reports directly via the report channel (scout-emit-report / scout-edit-report): a failed validation is a finished, evidenced inbox item you own 1:1, not a weak signal for a pipeline to cluster. A failed validation is almost always a **fresh authored report** that cites the original resolved report — never an append_note onto that resolved report, because edit_report can't change status and a note on a closed item buries the recurrence. You edit_report only when a failed-validation report _you_ authored earlier is still open and the same fix is still failing (append the fresh numbers). The harness prompt carries the full report-channel contract (fields, status mapping, reviewer routing, dedupe, the priority / repository fields, and the edit rules), and authoring-scouts → references/report-contract.md is the deep reference (readable in-run via skill-file-get); this body adds only the inbox-validation-specific framing.
34
35**A merged PR is not a deployed PR.** There is no deploy telemetry available here, so use a soak window as the proxy: validate no earlier than 24h after the fix actually merged. The resolved transition is webhook-driven on merge in the common case, but reports also get flipped resolved in backfill sweeps long after the merge — anchor a check's first run to the PR's real merge time when you can get it, and treat updated_at as an upper bound otherwise. Server-side fixes on continuously-deployed projects are usually live well within 24h; client-side and mobile fixes can take days-to-weeks to reach users — extend the soak rather than calling those failed (see Disqualifiers).
36
37## When this run was dispatched for a check
38
39You are also the fleet's default lane for **report checks** — a forward-looking row someone attached to a report saying what had to stay true after it was acted on. A check whose author named no scout runs on you, which is most of them, because most reports are pipeline-authored and have no scout behind them.
40
41A run dispatched for a check says so at the end of your prompt, in a # The check this run must answer section carrying the check_id, what to establish, and where to look. When you see it, **that check is the whole run**: skip the queue below, do the work it names, and close it with scout-check-record-result. The queue is for runs the schedule started.
42
43Three rules specific to that mode:
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md4,887 words
Files1
LicenceMIT
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈250
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
7,975
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
4.1%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 41% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

8.2k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

It writes no files and reaches no network. All it changes is how the model reasons and writes.

What it asks for
Writes filesno
Network accessno

Read from the allowed-tools line of this skill’s own SKILL.md. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 32.9 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md32.9 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing. The MIT licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Signals scout: inbox validation · 8.2k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/signals-scout-inbox-validation" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation ] || { mv .claude/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/signals-scout-inbox-validation" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add posthog/signals-scout-inbox-validation

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/signals-scout-inbox-validation" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/signals-scout-inbox-validation" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/signals-scout-inbox-validation/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referenceposthog/signals-scout-inbox-validation

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

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