Update Pipeline (Master Orchestrator)

Take a URL of an existing article and produce an updated draft + a side-by-side diff. Chains every update skill in order, saving output at each stage.

Invocation

/update-pipeline <url> [--context "free-form direction"]

Examples:

• /update-pipeline https://mybrand.com/blog/keyword-research
• /update-pipeline https://mybrand.com/blog/link-building --context "Refresh stats only — don't restructure"
• /update-pipeline https://mybrand.com/blog/seo-basics --context "Add ProductB to the on-page section"

Process

1. Parse the input.
   • Extract the URL (everything before --context if present)
   • Extract the context string (everything after --context, if present)
2. Slugify the URL. Run python scripts/slugify.py "<url>" and capture the slug (uses last path segment).
3. Capture context. If context was provided, write it to content-pipeline/0-context/{slug}.md.
4. Check pipeline status. Run python scripts/pipeline_status.py {slug} --update. If any stages already exist:
   • Autonomous mode (BLOG_AGENT_AUTONOMOUS=1): skip stages whose output files exist (resume-from-failure). Only overwrite if --regenerate was passed. No prompt.
   • Interactive mode: ask the user whether to skip-or-regenerate.
5. Run the chain in order. Wait for each stage's output file before advancing:
   1. /extract-content <url> → expects content-pipeline/updates/1-extracted/{slug}.md
   2. /update-guidance {slug} → expects content-pipeline/updates/0-guidance/{slug}.md
   3. Read the guidance file to determine which audits to run. Skip any audit marked "skip".
   4. /update-claims {slug} (if not skipped) → expects content-pipeline/updates/2-update-claims/{slug}.md
   5. /update-product-mentions {slug} (if not skipped) → expects content-pipeline/updates/3-update-product-mentions/{slug}.md
   6. /update-topic-gaps {slug} (if not skipped) → expects content-pipeline/updates/4-update-topic-gaps/{slug}.md
   7. /update-draft {slug} → expects content-pipeline/updates/7-updated-draft/{slug}.md
   8. /update-preview {slug} → expects content-pipeline/updates/5-update-preview/{slug}.html
6. On any error, stop and report which stage failed.
7. On success, report the slug, stages run, audits skipped (and why), and paths to the diff HTML and updated draft.

Reporting format

✓ Update pipeline complete for "{url}" (slug: {slug})

Stages run:
  ✓ extract-content        → updates/1-extracted/{slug}.md
  ✓ update-guidance        → updates/0-guidance/{slug}.md
  ✓ update-claims          → updates/2-update-claims/{slug}.md
  - update-product-mentions → SKIPPED (no missing products per guidance)
  ✓ update-topic-gaps      → updates/4-update-topic-gaps/{slug}.md
  ✓ update-draft           → updates/7-updated-draft/{slug}.md
  ✓ update-preview         → updates/5-update-preview/{slug}.html

Next steps:
  1. Open updates/5-update-preview/{slug}.html in your browser to review changes
  2. Read updates/7-updated-draft/{slug}.md (specifically the "Editor's notes" section at the bottom)
  3. Apply final hand-edits, then run /format-for-publish to package as Strapi-ready markdown + JSON (and optionally direct-publish via Doppler)

Skipping audits per guidance

The update-guidance skill scores each audit high / medium / low / skip. Audits marked skip are omitted from the chain. The orchestrator tells the user which were skipped and why.

This avoids generating empty / noisy audit files when the article doesn't need that audit.

When the article doesn't need updating

If update-guidance scores all three audits skip:

• Autonomous mode: write a content-pipeline/updates/no-update-needed-{slug}.txt marker, log the slug as "still healthy", and exit cleanly. The auto-blog-loop reads the marker and moves to the next candidate without dispatching update-draft.
• Interactive mode: tell the user the article looks healthy; ask whether to proceed with update-draft anyway.

Auto-publish vs editor-diff modes

The pipeline's terminus depends on mode:

• Autonomous mode (BLOG_AGENT_AUTONOMOUS=1): after /update-preview, dispatch /format-for-publish {slug} --auto-publish --update. The --update flag tells format_for_strapi.py to PATCH the existing Strapi article by slug instead of POSTing a new one. The article goes live with the refreshed content. Then run python scripts/auto_publish_check.py {slug} to verify the public URL renders. On failure, quarantine to content-pipeline/9-needs-review/{slug}.md.
• Interactive mode: pipeline ends at the diff for editor review. The editor decides what to keep, edit, or reject. After their pass, run /format-for-publish {slug} to export the final version — but only after the human review step.