Keyword Intelligence Stinger

Keyword Intelligence Stinger

Forge status: stages 1-6 complete (Topic, Research, Distillation, References, Guides, final Skill/Bee authorship). Stage 7 (Register: beekeeper-suit roster entry, deploy, cross-repo reference sync) has not run yet. Every factual claim below traces to references/research/raw/ via references/research/distilled-keyword-intelligence.md, or is flagged explicitly as a judgment call. See guides/03-tier-3-ai-inference.md in particular for a binding sequencing note (Tier 3 cannot read site-data/, which does not exist yet at this wave) that neither PRD states outright but follows directly from the two PRDs' own wave numbers.

You are equipping keyword-intelligence-worker-bee, part of the Website Auditor by Legion Code Inc. plugin. Full scope and acceptance criteria: prd-006-keyword-intelligence.

Purpose

Compiles 75-100 keywords and 25-50 customer questions under content-targets/, using a strict 4-tier source-priority chain, in order: (1) a connected Google Search Console MCP that returns query data for the domain, (2) a customer-supplied Google Trends export, (3) EXA/Firecrawl-style AI or statistical inference from the site's own content, (4) a paid keyword API as last resort. Every output entry is tagged with the tier that actually produced it, so the report can disclose data provenance, and the chain degrades gracefully through unavailable tiers with no user-visible error.

When to use

• Wave W3, sync, immediately after the ICP gate (icp-positioning-worker-bee) passes
• Any re-run where a Search Console MCP connection newly became available mid-project (re-run to upgrade previously Tier 3/4-sourced keywords to Tier 1 provenance where possible)
• Auditing which source tier actually produced a given keyword, for provenance disclosure in the customer-facing report

When not to use

• Not for deriving the site's niche, ICP, or buyer-readiness framing. That is icp-positioning-stinger, which this pair reads from (02-positioning/) and never re-derives.
• Not for crawling the site page-by-page. That is site-crawler-stinger, which this pair does NOT depend on (it runs one wave later, W4) and must not be treated as a Tier-3 data source; see guides/03-tier-3-ai-inference.md.
• Not for the actual SEO/AEO technical audit of how these keywords perform on-page. That is technical-seo-stinger and aeo-audit-stinger, which read content-targets/ as an input in a later wave.

Procedure

1. Read 02-positioning/ for ICP, niche, and buyer-readiness context. Do not re-derive it.
2. Check Tier 1 (Search Console MCP connected and has data). If satisfied, use it exclusively.
3. Else check Tier 2 (customer-supplied Trends export present). If satisfied, use it, and archive the raw file(s) unmodified under content-targets/trends-raw/ per PRD-006 AC-4.
4. Else fall through to Tier 3: independently fetch the site's own key pages and infer candidates. Never mark inferred candidates with a fabricated volume; use volume-unknown.
5. If the running count is below PRD-006's required minimum (75 keywords / 25 questions) and a paid-API budget is approved, escalate to Tier 4 to fill the gap only. If no budget is approved, stop and flag the gap rather than fabricate candidates.
6. Write content-targets/keywords.md (75-100 entries) and content-targets/questions.md (25-50 entries), each tagged with source tier, per references/templates/keywords-template.md and references/templates/questions-template.md.
7. Append the provenance summary block to both files, and record tier skips in the run ledger (never as a user-visible error).

Full decision logic: guides/05-fallback-chain-and-provenance.md. Deterministic implementation: references/scripts/fallback-chain-decision.py.

References map

• references/templates/keywords-template.md, load when writing or reviewing content-targets/keywords.md.
• references/templates/questions-template.md, load when writing or reviewing content-targets/questions.md.
• references/templates/trends-raw-readme-template.md, load whenever Tier 2 is used, to file the content-targets/trends-raw/README.md manifest.
• references/scripts/fallback-chain-decision.py, run before finalizing output, to get an auditable tier decision instead of reasoning it out fresh each time.
• references/research/distilled-keyword-intelligence.md, load when a tier-mechanics claim needs verification or a dispute needs settling.
• references/research/raw/, load when tracing a distilled claim back to its primary source.
• guides/01-tier-1-search-console.md through guides/05-fallback-chain-and-provenance.md, load per-tier as described in each guide's own heading.

Related bees and stingers

• icp-positioning-stinger - upstream dependency, writes 02-positioning/, this pair's binding ICP/niche input.
• stack-fingerprint-stinger - runs before this pair (W1a); not a direct read dependency, but relevant if platform context is needed for Tier 3 page selection.
• site-crawler-stinger - runs one wave AFTER this pair (W4), so this pair must NOT depend on site-data/. See guides/03-tier-3-ai-inference.md for the sequencing note this creates.
• technical-seo-stinger - downstream reader of content-targets/ in a later wave.
• aeo-audit-stinger - downstream reader of content-targets/ in a later wave.

Critical Directive

• You must read all files and context contained within your skill.
• In the event your core knowledge does not provide sufficient guidance you must make every attempt to search the internet, related knowledge base documentation files, and other available resources to supplement your knowledge prior to proceeding with your task.
• Additional related skills can be found here:
  • keyword-intelligence-worker-bee - this Stinger's paired Bee.
  • icp-positioning-stinger - upstream dependency, read first for ICP/niche context.

Ship Gate

Ship Gate not applicable to this Stinger's own runtime procedure. This Stinger's output (content-targets/) is written into the external customer's audit workspace (www.<domain>-audit/content-targets/), not into this plugin repository's own tracked source, so a keyword-intelligence run produces no committable code inside this repo for security-stinger, quality-stinger, or github-repo-health-stinger to gate. The Ship Gate does apply, unmodified, to any change made to this plugin repository's own files, including this SKILL.md, its guides, its references, and references/scripts/fallback-chain-decision.py, before that change is committed and pushed.