Content Snapshot Skill

Produce a structured, verifiable content-snapshot of source material — articles, reports, PDFs, advisories, papers, transcripts. The output follows the Content Snapshot v0.2 template (see template.md in this directory) with verbatim quotes, structural transparency, and labeled editorial.

Why this exists: Narrated summaries of source material risk hallucinations and misrepresentation. Content-snapshots solve this by making every claim traceable to a verbatim quote with a page/section reference. The analyst's interpretation is always labeled and separated.

Known Limitation: The Verbatim Problem

Claude doesn't copy-paste. It reads text into context, then writes from context. Every "quote" is a reconstruction from the context window, not a mechanical transfer. This means subtle word substitutions, dropped articles, or reordering can occur even with good intent. A content-snapshot that silently mangles quotes is worse than a summary — it lies about its own fidelity.

Mitigation: This skill uses a Read-Write-Verify pipeline (Phases 3 and 5) designed to minimize reconstruction error. Phase 5 verification is MANDATORY, not optional.

What this can't guarantee:

• PDF text extraction isn't perfect — OCR artifacts, ligatures, encoding issues can cause mismatches even when the quote is faithfully reproduced
• Very long quotes (4+ sentences) have higher reconstruction error risk than short ones
• If the user needs guaranteed verbatim fidelity for legal/compliance use, they should verify against the original document

Phase 1: Detect Input & Ingest

Parse $ARGUMENTS to determine input type and ingest the source material.

Input Detection

Ingestion Rules

URLs:

• Use WebFetch to retrieve content
• If fetch fails (paywall, 403, redirect loop): report failure, ask user for a local copy or pasted content
• Store the fetched content for subsequent passes

PDFs:

• Read with pages parameter in 20-page batches: pages: "1-20", pages: "21-40", etc.
• Continue until all pages are read
• Note total page count for structure mapping

Local files:

• Read directly with Read tool
• For very large files (>2000 lines), read in segments

Output Setup

Create the output directory:

.claude/snapshots/{slugified-title}_{YYYY-MM-DD}/

Slugify the title: lowercase, replace spaces with hyphens, remove special characters, truncate to 50 chars.

Write a preliminary snapshot.md with a header:

# Content Snapshot: [Title]

**Source:** [URL or file path]
**Author:** [if known]
**Date:** [publication date if known]
**Snapshot Date:** [today's date]
**Template:** Content Snapshot v0.2

---

Phase 2: Structure Discovery (First Pass)

Read through the entire source to build a structural understanding. Do NOT extract quotes yet.

Identify:

• Title, author(s), publication date
• Total length (pages or word count estimate)
• Document structure: chapters, sections, headings
• Whether the source has its own summary/abstract/key findings
• The source's conclusion/recommendations section (for Section 5)

Write to snapshot.md:

Section 2 — Document Structure:

• Chapter/section outline with 1-2 sentence neutral descriptions
• Include page ranges (PDFs) or section identifiers (web content)

If the source has no discernible structure (e.g., a short blog post), note this and adapt: treat the entire piece as a single section.

Phase 3: Content Extraction (Section-at-a-Time)

This is the high-fidelity extraction pass. The key constraint: read one section, write its quotes, then move to the next. Do not accumulate multiple sections in context before writing.

For each section in the Document Structure:

1. Re-read just that section from the source (use page ranges for PDFs, section offsets for files)
2. Immediately extract 1-3 verbatim quotes — prefer shorter quotes (1-3 sentences) where accuracy is easier to maintain
3. Write the quotes to snapshot.md before reading the next section — this is critical for fidelity
4. Tag each quote with a relevance label (2-3 words)
5. Format each quote as:

#### [Section Title] — [pages/location]
**[Relevance Tag]**

> "[Verbatim quote from source]"
> <cite>[Page X / Section Y]</cite>

Section 1 — Key Findings (Author Summary):

• If the source has its own summary/abstract/executive summary: extract verbatim bullets with page references
• If not: write "No author summary present in source" and skip

Section 4 — Selected Content:

• Add a selection criteria note at the top explaining what was prioritized
• Process each section from the Document Structure in order

Section 5 — Why This Matters (Author Conclusions):

• Extract direct quotes from the source's conclusion/implications/recommendations
• No paraphrase — only verbatim quotes

Coverage Tracking:

As you process each section, track coverage for Section 3:

• Which sections received quotes (covered)
• Which sections were omitted and why

After all sections are processed, write Section 3 — Coverage Map as a table:

| Section | Covered? | Quotes | Notes |
|---------|----------|--------|-------|
| [name]  | Yes      | 2      |       |
| [name]  | No       | 0      | Background only, no novel findings |

Every section from the Document Structure must appear in this table.

Phase 4: Editorial & Self-Audit

Section 6 — Analyst Assessment:

Write a brief synthesis (max 250 words). Rules:

• Open with: "The following is editorial analysis, not source material."
• Distinguish inference from report content
• No new facts not grounded in the source
• Count your words — stay under 250

Section 7 — Representation Assessment:

Write 4-6 bullets evaluating:

• How representative this snapshot is of the full source
• What perspectives or topics are emphasized/underrepresented
• The source's own perspective, bias, or institutional position
• Any significant content that was omitted and why

Phase 5: Verify ALL Quotes & Deliver

This phase is MANDATORY. Do not skip it.

Quote Verification

For EVERY blockquote in snapshot.md:

1. Re-read the cited page/section from the source — use the page/section reference in the <cite> tag
2. Search for the quoted text in the re-read content using Grep if the source is a local file
3. Compare the quote against the source:
   • If found verbatim: mark as verified
   • If found with differences: note the specific differences, correct the quote in snapshot.md using Edit
   • If not found at all: flag as potential fabrication — remove the quote and attempt to re-extract from the source, or remove entirely with a note

Structural Checks

• Every blockquote has a <cite> with page/section reference
• Coverage Map accounts for every section in the Document Structure
• Analyst Assessment is under 250 words (count them)
• No text outside blockquotes presents itself as source material
• Sections appear in template order (1-7)

Verification Log

Append to the end of snapshot.md:

---

## Verification Log

- **Quotes verified:** [N]
- **Corrections made:** [M]
- **Quotes removed (unverifiable):** [K]
- **Coverage map complete:** Yes/No
- **Analyst Assessment word count:** [W]/250

Delivery

• Report the output path to the user: .claude/snapshots/{slug}_{date}/snapshot.md
• If any quote could not be verified and was not removed, do NOT deliver — ask user for guidance
• If all quotes verified (with or without corrections), deliver the snapshot

Enforcement Rules

These constraints make the skill reliable. They are non-negotiable:

1. Quotes are verbatim — never paraphrased. If uncertain about exact wording, re-read the source.
2. Every quote includes page/section reference in a <cite> tag.
3. No invented data. If a fact isn't in the source, it doesn't appear outside the Analyst Assessment.
4. Analyst Assessment clearly labeled as editorial — opens with italic disclaimer.
5. Remove UI artifacts — file paths, pagination chrome, dashboard headers, navigation elements.
6. If source lacks an author summary, note this explicitly. Do NOT fabricate one.
7. Coverage Map must account for every section in the Document Structure — nothing silently omitted.
8. Representation Assessment must note the perspective/bias of the source itself.
9. Phase 5 verification is mandatory — never skip it, never treat it as optional.
10. Read-then-write, not accumulate-then-write — extract quotes immediately after reading each section.

Edge Cases

Write Context Summary (MANDATORY — do this LAST)

Write a compact result summary so the parent session receives key findings:

cat > .claude/.skill-result.md << 'SKILLEOF'
## Content Snapshot Result: [Title]

**Source:** [URL or document path]
**Output:** [path to generated snapshot file]
**Quotes extracted:** [n]

### Key Takeaways
1. [Most important insight]
2. [Second key insight]
3. [Third key insight]

### Coverage
- [What was covered well]
- [Any gaps or sections skipped]
SKILLEOF

Keep under 2000 characters. This is consumed by a hook — the parent session will see it automatically.

After Completion

---
Content Snapshot complete.
- Source: [title or URL]
- Quotes: [N] verified, [M] corrected, [K] removed
- Output: .claude/snapshots/{slug}_{date}/snapshot.md

Want me to snapshot another source, or integrate this into a project?