Dispatches
The unit of value. One significant thing the scouts filed.
A dispatch is the atomic unit of ScoutFox. One dispatch = one significant thing the scouts filed: a funding round forming, a story lead nobody else has, a regulatory filing that moves a thesis, a system note that a scout retired.
Every dispatch lands on the Wire.
Dispatch types
There are four types, distinguished by a pill on the card.
| Type | What it is |
|---|---|
| event | Something happened in the world — a deal, a filing, a hire, a launch. Time-stamped to the source. |
| finding | A scout-synthesised observation across multiple sources. Most VC and news dispatches are findings. |
| system | A note from the engine itself — "scout for ‘OpenAI restructuring' archived: story cooled". |
| assistant | A reply from a scout in a Notebook conversation that warranted a Wire-level surface. |
Card anatomy
Top to bottom:
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Kicker | The interest (and any tags it carries) the dispatch came from. |
| Type pill | event / finding / system / assistant. |
| Domain tag | Topical tag — defense, climate, markets, etc. |
| Time-sensitive flag | Lights up when the window to act is closing. |
| Headline | One line. Load-bearing terms are highlighted inline in orange. |
| Why this matters | Italic-serif pull-quote — the editorial line in the voice of your brief. |
| Sources | One row per source: favicon · domain · tier pill (PRIMARY / SECONDARY / AGGREGATOR) · relative time · external link. |
| Confidence bar | Visual 0–100 of how corroborated the dispatch is. |
| Novelty + class-pattern | new-arc / continuation, paired with the engine's pattern label (e.g. hiring-shift, traction-inflection). |
| Actions | Brief me · PDF, Ask scout, Copy link, more / less like this. |
The actions, in detail
- Brief me · PDF — renders the full brief for this dispatch and opens it in a new tab. Shareable with partners / editors.
- Ask scout — opens a Notebook anchored to this dispatch, with the scout primed to answer follow-ups about it.
- Copy link — copies
/dashboard?d=<id>to the clipboard. Recipient lands on the Wire with the dispatch expanded. - more / less like this — taste feedback. Feeds the per-user LinUCB scoring loop; the next run weighs accordingly.
Where dispatches come from
Each dispatch is the output of a Run on an Interest. Internally:
- Vertical = general →
IntelligenceReport.findings→ dispatch. - Vertical = vc →
Run.deal_cards→ dispatch (deal-shaped). - Vertical = news →
Run.scoop_cards→ dispatch (scoop-shaped).
The Wire renders all three uniformly. The vertical only shapes what the scout looks for and what shape the underlying card takes; it does not change the surface you use.
Vertical-shaped dispatches
When your brief is set to a vertical, dispatches take a vertical-specific shape. Same Wire, same card chrome — just extra fields tuned to how that audience reads.
Deal-shaped dispatches
The shape a dispatch takes when your brief's vertical is vc. Each one is a
single early-stage company, surfaced because it fits your thesis and is still
actionable.
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Hook | One line — the lead, and why it's investable now. |
| Company | Name, website, stage (pre-seed → growth). |
| Founders | Each founder, with public pedigree — where they came from, what they built. |
| Round | Amount, lead investor, date — or no round yet, which is often the point. |
| Why this matters | The stakes and the window — why this is the moment to move. |
| Thesis match | A 0–100 score and a plain-language rationale, scored against your thesis. See Thesis match. |
| Portfolio overlap | Flags a company you already hold, when that data is on your brief. |
| Circling | Which of the competitor funds you track are publicly linked to the deal. |
| Sources | Every claim cited; primary sources favored. |
| Confidence bar | How corroborated the signal is. |
A deal-shaped dispatch is a lead, not a funding announcement: pre-round or round-open, with a concrete why-now. If a round is closed with a lead locked, that's news — deprioritized or dropped. The schema is strict: no AI-synthesized "investment recommendation," and funding figures must trace to a real source.
Scoop-shaped dispatches
The shape a dispatch takes when your brief's vertical is news. Each one is
one development on a beat you cover, with the primary source, the editorial
angle, and the state of competitor coverage.
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Hook | One line — the story, in editorial voice. |
| What happened | The development, traced to a primary source. |
| Why this matters (for your desk) | The angle, scored against your brief. |
| Primary source | The filing, the post, the press release — not an aggregator. |
| Competitor coverage | Which tracked outlets have covered it; which haven't. |
| Confidence bar | How corroborated. |
| Suggested angle | An editorial framing tuned to your brief (optional). |
When the scoop-gated instant push is active, it fires only when all of these hold: confidence tier high, primary source verified, at least two tracked rival outlets do not have the story, and no fetch failures (a fetch flake never counts as "uncovered"). Everything else lands on the Wire or in the digest.
What never makes it to a dispatch
- Unsourced claims — every line cites.
- Aggregator-only stories with no traceable primary.
- Speculative figures that fail verification.
- Anything below the per-interest rubric bar.