# Entry Gate > Pre-investment screening gate for a name that is not yet researched or held. Use before spending a deep-research run or opening new exposure, to answer only "is this understandable and researchable enough to proceed?". Grades information richness separately from investment quality, applies deterministic hard vetoes from config/entry-gate-vetoes.json, and returns pass_to_deep_research / reject / gray_needs_evidence via the packaged clawock entry-gate command. Recommends research; never sizes or places a trade. - Skill: `kcnyu/entry-gate` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add kcnyu/entry-gate` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/kcnyu/entry-gate/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Research & Search - Author: KCNyu (https://skillmd.com/u/kcnyu) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/kcnyu/entry-gate --- # Entry Gate Manual, run once per candidate name. It is cheap on purpose: it decides whether the expensive work is worth doing, and its output routes straight into the full-report mode of the market's analysis skill. Write `memory/entry-gates/-.json` and let the script decide. You supply findings and evidence; the verdict is computed. ## What the script computes, and will overrule you on - `information.grade` (A/B/C) from the evidence source classes you cite; - `quote_freshness` from `quote.as_of` against `assessed_at`; - `verdict` and `routing` — a stated verdict that disagrees with the computed one is a validation error, not a note; - whether a hard veto's industry exception is actually encoded for this sector. Vetoes are resolved **before** any check is counted, so `checks_passed` can never rescue a vetoed name. ## Step 1 — quote and instrument kind Use the workspace pipelines, never a web price: ```bash clawock analyze-us {TICKER} # US clawock analyze-hk {TICKER} # HK ``` `quote.source_class` must be one of the pipeline names, or validation fails outright. A quote older than 24h makes the verdict gray rather than pass. Set `instrument_kind`. A leveraged ETF has **no** company fundamentals to grade: it takes the `underlying_exposure` / `decay_and_regime` / `sizing_limit` / `liquidity` checks and routes to `leverage_look_through`. When the ticker is in `config/instruments.json`, the registry's `leverage_multiple` overrules your declaration. ## Step 2 — mechanism and key variables `mechanism` is one sentence: **who pays, why, and what makes it repeat.** If you cannot write it from primary sources, that is the `unintelligible_revenue_mechanism` veto, not a writing problem. Then 3–7 `key_variables`, each with why it decides the outcome — not a metric dump. ## Step 3 — checks, each carrying evidence Company: `business_quality`, `moat`, `management_governance`, `valuation`, `dilution`, `downside`. Every `pass`/`fail` needs at least one `evidence_ids` entry; `unknown` is the honest answer when you have not verified it, and it makes the verdict gray. A failed `business_quality`, `management_governance` or `downside` (or, for a leveraged ETF, `underlying_exposure` or `sizing_limit`) is a reject. A failed `moat`, `valuation`, `dilution`, `decay_and_regime` or `liquidity` is not: an expensive or shallow-moat name is still worth understanding, and sizing stays with the existing risk and decision contracts. ## Step 4 — the four hard vetoes State a status for every veto in `config/entry-gate-vetoes.json`: integrity/governance, unintelligible revenue mechanism, persistent negative cash generation, destructive dilution. `triggered` requires evidence. Two of them encode industry exceptions (clinical-stage biotech, pre-revenue infrastructure). An exception applies only when the artifact's `sector` matches the encoded one and the exception cites its own evidence row. Integrity and unintelligible-mechanism encode none — there is no sector where they are acceptable. ## Step 5 — mirror test and verdict Exactly five distinct sentences: what it does, why it earns, what must stay true, what would break it, and what you would do then. ```bash clawock entry-gate validate memory/entry-gates/-.json clawock entry-gate assess memory/entry-gates/-.json ``` - `pass_to_deep_research` → go run `us-stock-analysis` / `hk-stock-analysis` **Mode 4 (Full Report)**, or the leverage look-through path for a leveraged ETF. Carry `key_variables` in as the questions the report must answer. - `gray_needs_evidence` → `next_evidence` must name the question and where to look. Nothing else happens until that evidence exists. - `reject` → record it and stop. Thin sourcing alone never lands here; a `C` grade is gray, because information richness is not investment quality. ## Hard limits - A `C` information grade describes the sources, never the company. - No aggregate score, no persona voting, no "average" that can dilute a veto. - This gate opens no position and changes no thesis. A qualified name goes to full research; exposure still goes through the decision, risk, and settlement chain.