Signals
Typed things to hunt — the scout's marching orders.
A signal is a typed thing a scout knows how to hunt. Signals are a property of an interest — they're not a surface you browse. You don't see a "signals page"; the Wire shows you what the signals produce.
Signals are how the engine stays specific. "Anything interesting about robotics" is a search query; "funding rounds forming in robotics" + "founder & team moves in robotics" + "traction inflections in robotics" is a hunt plan.
Anatomy of a signal
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Type | What kind of thing — funding round, founder move, story lead, etc. |
| Source strategy | Where to look — primary sites, social, filings, multi-source. |
| Trigger criteria | What makes a candidate worth surfacing (thresholds, must-haves). |
| Action context | What the user is going to do with this — frames synthesis. |
| Source priors | Domains to favor, domains to exclude. |
Signal types we ship
The catalogue grows; today the engine has battle-tested signals for:
- Funding rounds & term sheets — rounds forming, SEC Form D, "in talks to raise", lead investor names.
- Founder & team moves — leaders going independent, key hires, departures.
- Traction & momentum — adoption metrics, customer wins, hiring surges.
- Story leads — primary-source developments worth a news desk's attention.
- Regulatory / filings — court records, agency releases, public filings.
A VC vertical interest typically carries 3-4 signals (funding + founder moves + traction). A news vertical interest carries story-lead + regulatory.
Why typing matters
Untyped search ("find me robotics things") drowns in noise. Typed signals let the engine pick the right source for each thing — Form D for funding, LinkedIn for founder moves, the company's own site for product launches — and verify each finding against the right primary source.
You don't typically configure signals by hand. The scout templates that build your interests carry tuned signals appropriate to the vertical. Power users can override per-interest.