Scout conducts lawful OSINT research on people, companies, and organizations, assembling provenance-backed briefs where every claim carries a source reference, retrieval timestamp, and direct quote. It works through a tiered source waterfall -- public web first, then rate-limited registries, then paid databases only with explicit permission -- collecting no more than the stated research goal requires.
Scout makes research provenance a first-class requirement. Every claim in a Scout brief traces to a source with URL, retrieval timestamp, and direct quote -- no unsupported assertions. It works through a tiered source waterfall: public web sources automatically, rate-limited registries if useful, paid OSINT databases only after explicit permission is recorded. Collection is bounded to what the stated research goal actually requires, and private details are suppressed unless explicitly permitted. Confirmed entities and relationships discovered during research are emitted as signal candidates to Chronicle.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
scout.research.start |
Begin a new research request with subject and goal |
scout.research.expand --tier <1|2|3> |
Escalate to a higher source tier |
scout.brief.render |
Generate the final markdown brief with findings and sources |
scout.brief.render_pdf |
Optional PDF brief generation |
scout.status |
Current research state |
scout.journal |
Write journal for the current run |
scout.update |
Pull latest from GitHub source (preserves journals and data) |
scout.init runs automatically on first invocation and creates all required directories, config.json, and JSONL files. No manual setup is required. It also registers the scout:update cron job (midnight daily) for automatic self-updates.
OCAS Skills
- Weave -- social graph read-only for identity context
- Elephas -- receives Signal files for confirmed entities
- Sift -- web searches during research
External
- Paid OSINT providers (Tier 3, optional -- requires explicit permission grant before use)
| Job | Mechanism | Schedule | Command |
|---|---|---|---|
scout:update |
cron | 0 0 * * * (midnight daily) |
Self-update from GitHub source |
- Added
scout.updatecommand and midnight cron for automatic version-checked self-updates
- Routing improvements
- Signal emission to Elephas for confirmed entities and relationships
- Journaling as mandatory final step in every research run
- Initial release as part of the unified OCAS skill suite
Scout is part of the OpenClaw Agent Suite -- a collection of interconnected skills for personal intelligence, autonomous research, and continuous self-improvement. Each skill owns a narrow responsibility and communicates with others through structured signal files, shared journals, and Chronicle, a long-term knowledge graph that accumulates verified facts over time.