Scout Track

Manages the job application pipeline — status updates, follow-up reminders, contacts, and search statistics. This is the sole owner of pipeline transitions beyond materials-ready.

Pipeline State

There is no tracker file. Pipeline state is derived at query time by scanning YAML frontmatter across all ~/.scout/jobs/*.md files. Each job file is the single source of truth for its own status.

To get pipeline state: read all files in ~/.scout/jobs/, extract the status field from each file's YAML frontmatter.

Pipeline Stages

discovered → vetted → materials-ready → applied → interviewing → offer → accepted/rejected
                                                                      ↘ withdrawn
                                    (any stage) → archived

Status Ownership

Only scout-track can set these statuses:

applied — user confirms they submitted the application
interviewing — user has an interview scheduled or completed
offer — user received an offer
accepted — user accepted an offer
rejected — user was rejected (at any stage)
withdrawn — user withdrew their application
archived — user wants to remove from active pipeline

Other skills set: discovered (scout-find), vetted (scout-vet), materials-ready (scout-apply).

Mode: Dashboard (default)

When invoked with no arguments or /scout-track, show the dashboard:

Scan all ~/.scout/jobs/*.md files.

Group by status and present counts:

Pipeline Summary:
- Discovered: 5
- Vetted: 3
- Materials Ready: 2
- Applied: 4
- Interviewing: 1
- Offers: 0
- Archived: 8

Action items:
- Jobs needing follow-up (see Follow-up Cadence below)
- Stale listings: discovered or vetted jobs where date_posted is 30+ days ago
- Approaching deadlines: jobs with a deadline within 5 days
Recent activity: Last 10 entries from ~/.scout/history.md
Quick stats: Response rate (applied → interviewing), average time in each stage

Mode: Update (`/scout-track update`)

If user specifies a job ID, use it. Otherwise, present jobs grouped by stage for selection.
Show current status and ask for the new status.
Based on the new status, prompt for additional information:

New Status	Prompt For
`applied`	Application method used, date submitted, any notes
`interviewing`	Interview date, interviewer name/title, interview type (phone/video/onsite), follow-up date
`offer`	Offer details (salary, equity, benefits, deadline to respond)
`accepted`	Start date, final package details
`rejected`	Rejection stage (screening/phone/onsite/final), reason if given
`withdrawn`	Reason for withdrawing
`archived`	Reason for archiving

Update the job file's frontmatter with new status and any additional fields.
Append to ~/.scout/history.md.

Mode: Contacts (`/scout-track contacts`)

If user specifies a job ID, show/edit contacts for that job. Otherwise, ask which job.
Add or update contacts in the job file's contacts frontmatter array:

contacts:
  - name: "Jane Smith"
    role: "Engineering Manager"
    linkedin: "linkedin.com/in/janesmith"
    relationship: "referral"
    last_interaction: "2026-03-15"
    notes: "Met at conference, offered to refer"

Track who referred you for thank-you follow-ups.

Mode: Follow-ups (`/scout-track followups`)

Scan all active jobs and apply stage-aware follow-up cadence:

Stage	Follow-up Rule
`applied`	Follow up after 7-10 business days if no response
`interviewing`	Send thank-you within 24 hours. Follow up after 5 business days if no response.
`offer`	Respond within stated deadline (default 3-5 business days)
`materials-ready`	Remind to submit after 3 days

For each job, check:

Does it have a follow_up_date in the past? → due for follow-up
Does the stage imply a follow-up based on the rules above? → calculate from date_applied, interview dates, etc.

Present as a list:

Follow-ups Due:
- [Job Title] at [Company] (applied 2026-03-08) — follow up on application (10 days)
- [Job Title] at [Company] (interviewed 2026-03-15) — send thank-you note (overdue!)

Mode: History (`/scout-track history`)

Display the contents of ~/.scout/history.md. If the user asks for a specific job's history, filter entries by job ID.

History Rotation

Before appending to history.md, check its line count. If it exceeds 500 lines:

Move all entries except the most recent 200 to ~/.scout/history-archive-YYYY.md (using the current year).
If the archive file exists, append to it.

Mode: Stats (`/scout-track stats`)

Scan all job files and compute:

Total by status: count per stage
Response rate: % of applied jobs that reached interviewing or later
Average time per stage: mean days spent in each status
Rejection analysis: count by rejection_stage (screening/phone/onsite/final)
Application method effectiveness: response rate broken down by application_method
Score correlation: average vet score for jobs that progressed vs. jobs that didn't
Weekly/monthly activity: applications submitted per week/month

Present as a formatted report.

Append to History

All status updates append to ~/.scout/history.md:

- YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM | scout-track | <new-status> | <job-id> | "<notes>"

scout-track