Programmatic Batch

/programmatic-batch — Matrix-driven service page generator

Programmatic SEO done right: generate N pages from a structured variable matrix while enforcing the anti-doorway-page rules that distinguish legitimate scaled content from spam. The skill REFUSES to ship any cell that can't be filled with genuine local data — that refusal is the feature, not the bug. Programmatic SEO without this guardrail is the fastest way to trigger a Google manual action.

This skill is the natural pair to /cluster (informational scale, low risk) — /programmatic-batch is commercial scale, high risk if mishandled.

Inputs

Required (asked at start if not given):

• Site — must match a folder under sites/[name]/ with service-business: true. Skill refuses on non-commercial sites.
• Matrix file — path to a CSV in the site folder (default: sites/[site]/matrix.csv). Schema documented below.

Optional (per-run overrides):

• --max-batch=N — caps how many cells to ship in this run. Default: derived from footprint per SEO_GUIDE.md Section 4.2 (service-area: 5/week max; multi-location: 5/week max; single-location/national-online: full matrix). The skill enforces pacing — exceeding the cap requires explicit --override-pacing flag.
• --cell-filter — comma-separated cell IDs to ship (e.g., tapas-houston,tapas-katy). Useful for re-running specific cells after fixing local-data gaps.
• --dry-run — output the matrix expansion + uniqueness audit only; don't generate full drafts. Use for matrix validation before committing to a full batch.
• Keyword tool — overrides the site's default. Used for SERP analysis per cell.

The matrix CSV schema

The matrix CSV is the source-of-truth for what pages get generated. Required columns:

cell_id,axis_1_value,axis_2_value,primary_keyword,local_data_file,status
tapas-houston,Tapas Catering,Houston,tapas catering houston,_local-data/tapas-houston.md,ready
tapas-katy,Tapas Catering,Katy,tapas catering katy,_local-data/tapas-katy.md,draft
paella-houston,Paella Catering,Houston,paella catering houston,_local-data/paella-houston.md,ready
...

• cell_id — unique identifier (kebab-case). Used as slug source.
• axis_1_value / axis_2_value — the two dimensions. For most matrices, axis 1 = service, axis 2 = city. The skill is agnostic to dimension semantics but reads from site-info.md → "Matrix axes" for naming.
• primary_keyword — the target keyword for this cell. Must be unique across the matrix (no two cells targeting the same keyword).
• local_data_file — path (relative to the site folder) to the unique local-data file for this cell. REQUIRED. The skill refuses any cell with this field empty.
• status — ready (skill will process) | draft (still gathering local data — skill skips with a flag) | published (skill skips silently) | skipped (manually excluded with reason in notes.md).

Optional columns:

• hero_image — path to a unique hero image for this cell.
• volume — keyword volume from research (used for prioritization).
• peak_months — seasonality marker.

The local-data file schema

Each cell has its own _local-data/{cell_id}.md file. This is the file that makes the cell pass anti-doorway rules. Required fields:

---
cell_id: tapas-houston
unique_opening_words: 247  # MUST be ≥ 200 per anti-doorway rule 1
landmarks:
  - "Discovery Green"
  - "Memorial Park"
  - "the Heights neighborhood"
local_faqs:
  - q: "Do you cater tapas events in [specific Houston suburb]?"
    a: "[answer]"
  - q: "What's the typical guest count for a [Houston-context] tapas event?"
    a: "[answer]"
nap:
  phone: "555-555-0100"
  area_code_matches_city: true
  address: "[real address]"
testimonials:
  - name: "Maria L."
    neighborhood: "Montrose"
    quote: "[verbatim, dated, consented]"
    consent_date: "2025-11-12"
hero_image: "/images/tapas-houston-hero.jpg"
hero_image_unique: true  # MUST be true — not shared with another cell
intervention_hours: 12   # how many hours of real local-data gathering went into this cell
---

# Unique opening (≥ 200 words)

[Case study OR neighborhood reference OR real customer quote OR local stat — must be city-specific, not boilerplate-with-city-name-swap]

# City-specific details

[Anything else uniquely local — Houston-specific dietary preferences, common Houston event venues, regional pricing context]

If ANY of these required fields is missing or boilerplate (the skill detects boilerplate via 90%+ similarity check across cells in axis_2), the cell is rejected.

Workflow

Step 0 — Cron-mode detection (if invoked with --cron)

Cron mode is supported but discouraged for this skill — programmatic batches benefit from human approval per-batch. If invoked with --cron, the skill defaults to --dry-run mode and writes the dry-run output to _inbox/programmatic-dry-run-{date}.md for human review. Idempotency key: (site, matrix-name, date). Audit log per scripts/lib/audit-log.mjs conventions.

Step 1 — Read context (Rule 1)

Load in order:

1. CLAUDE.md (toolkit root)
2. SEO_GUIDE.md — Section 4.1 (anti-doorway rules), Section 4.2 (volume + pacing), Section 4.3 (NAP by footprint)
3. on-page-seo.md (every cell satisfies Tier 1)
4. sites/[site]/site-info.md — Footprint, NAP, Architecture pointer, Matrix axes
5. sites/[site]/architecture.md (REQUIRED for service-business sites with > 3 keywords per CLAUDE.md)
6. Resolved references/ (root + per-site overrides)
7. The matrix CSV
8. sites/[site]/used-keywords.md
9. sites/[site]/notes.md

If any required file is missing → refuse and report which.

Step 2 — Footprint guard

Refuse if site-info.md declares any of:

• footprint: national-online AND matrix has city axis (no localization needed; programmatic is wasted effort)
• footprint: single-location AND matrix has > 1 location row (use /service per service instead)
• service-business: false (programmatic on non-commercial sites = doorway pages)

Step 3 — Matrix audit (pre-flight)

For every row with status: ready:

1. Local-data file exists? If no → flag, skip cell, write to _inbox/programmatic-missing-localdata-{cell_id}.md.
2. All 6 anti-doorway requirements satisfied? Walk the local-data file:
   • Unique opening ≥ 200 words? (parse word count)
   • Landmarks list ≥ 3 entries? (parse YAML)
   • Local FAQs ≥ 2 entries with city-specific phrasing? (parse YAML + regex check for cell axis value)
   • NAP phone matches city area code? (parse + cross-check against axis_2 region map in site-info.md)
   • Testimonials ≥ 1 with neighborhood + consent date? (parse YAML)
   • Hero image marked hero_image_unique: true? (parse YAML)
3. Boilerplate detection. Compute pairwise Jaccard similarity of the "Unique opening" section across all ready cells. Any pair > 0.7 similarity → flag both, refuse to ship until rewritten.
4. Keyword cannibalization check. Cross-reference every primary_keyword against used-keywords.md. Already-published keywords → flag, refuse.
5. Architecture consistency. Every cell's URL must fit the site's architecture.md URL pattern (catalog: /[category]/[subcategory]/[leaf]/; non-catalog: per architecture.md decision).

Step 4 — Volume cap + pacing

Apply SEO_GUIDE.md Section 4.2 hard rules:

• Service-area: max 30 cells initial total, max 5 new per week
• Multi-location: max 50 cells total, max 5 new per week
• Single-location/national-online: not applicable to programmatic (refused at Step 2)

If batch size exceeds weekly cap → split into multiple weekly waves. Report:

Matrix: tapas × Houston-suburbs (11 cells ready, 9 pass uniqueness)
Footprint: service-area → 5/week max
This batch ships: 5 cells. Remaining 4 cells queued for next week's run.

--override-pacing flag bypasses the cap. Skill warns explicitly: "Override pacing flag set. Shipping N cells in one batch. Recommended ramp is 5/week — exceeding this raises algorithmic risk per Section 4.2."

Step 5 — Per-cell SERP analysis (only for cells that passed Step 3)

For each ready cell, in parallel where possible (skill batches into groups of 5 SERP queries):

1. Search Google (incognito, target region from site-info.md) for primary_keyword.
2. Identify top 3 organic results. Skip Reddit, Quora, forums, Wikipedia, brand directories.
3. Extract: median word count, H2 outline, FAQ count, image count.
4. Note one differentiation opportunity per cell (a section the top 3 omit but the local-data file supports).

Step 6 — Wireframe per cell (delegated to /wireframe per cell)

Each cell gets its own wireframe per CLAUDE.md Rule "wireframe before content." The skill batch-invokes /wireframe with the cell's parameters. Wireframes share a SKELETON template (consistent zone structure across cells) but each gets unique CONTENT slots filled from the local-data file.

Step 7 — Per-cell content generation

For each cell, the skill follows the same Step 7+ flow as /service, with these batch-specific differences:

• Voice resolution is shared across the batch (one resolution pass), but cells in multilingual sites generate per-language fan-out per cell.
• Internal linking — each cell links to:
  • The parent service page (from architecture.md)
  • 2–3 sibling cells (lateral links — pillar pattern at the cell level)
  • 1–2 informational blog posts that match the cell's intent
• Schema — each cell's LocalBusiness schema uses the cell's NAP from local-data file; areaServed lists the specific city.
• Unique content enforcement — after generating each cell's body, the skill RE-RUNS the boilerplate check (Step 3 item 3) on the GENERATED CONTENT, not just the local-data file. Any cell with > 0.6 Jaccard similarity to a sibling cell's body → rejected, regenerated with explicit "increase city-specific content density" instruction.

Step 8 — Pre-ship batch audit

Before any cell ships, validate batch-wide:

• Every cell passes Tier 1 (16 items each).
• Schema validates on every cell (Google Rich Results + Schema.org Validator).
• Voice anti-AI check passes on every cell (universal rules from references/voice.md).
• No keyword cannibalization within the batch (every cell's primary keyword is distinct AND distinct from used-keywords.md).
• Cadence check: this batch + previous 7-day publish count ≤ footprint's weekly cap.

If ANY batch-level check fails, the skill refuses to ship ANY cell. Single-cell failure flags that cell but other cells can still ship.

Step 9 — Output

Drafts land in: sites/[site]/_drafts/programmatic-{matrix-name}/{cell_id}/ per cell, with:

• meta.json — slug, primary keyword, axis values, local-data source pointer
• wireframe.md
• content.md (markdown body) or prompt.md (Lovable-format) depending on publishing method
• schema.jsonld
• Plus per-language subfolders if multilingual

Top-level batch summary at sites/[site]/_drafts/programmatic-{matrix-name}/BATCH-SUMMARY.md:

• Cells shipped this batch (count + IDs)
• Cells flagged + reason per cell
• Pacing report (this batch / weekly cap / cumulative this month)
• Next-batch recommendation

Step 10 — Update trackers

• Append every shipped cell's primary keyword to used-keywords.md with status draft-staged.
• Append batch summary to notes.md under "Programmatic batches" heading.
• Do NOT mark cells as status: published in the CSV — that happens after human approval + publish. The skill marks them staged.

Step 11 — Report

✅ Programmatic batch complete: {matrix-name}
   Site:        {site}
   Cells ready: N
   Cells passed uniqueness: M
   Cells shipped this batch: K (pacing cap applied)
   Cells flagged: P (reasons in BATCH-SUMMARY.md)
   Pacing this week: K/{cap}
   Next batch eligible: {date}
   Output: sites/{site}/_drafts/programmatic-{matrix-name}/

Refusal conditions

This skill refuses to ship if:

• Site is not service-business: true.
• Site is national-online and matrix has city axis.
• Site is single-location and matrix has > 1 location.
• architecture.md missing on a service-business site with > 3 service-keywords.
• Any cell's local-data file missing any required field.
• Boilerplate similarity > 0.7 between any pair of cells.
• Keyword cannibalization detected (any matrix keyword already in used-keywords.md).
• Batch size exceeds weekly cap AND --override-pacing not set.

Routine versioning + idempotency contract

Idempotency key per cell: (site, cell_id, language). Skip cells where _drafts/programmatic-{matrix-name}/{cell_id}/meta.json exists with status: staged or status: published AND today's date.

The matrix CSV itself is the routine's state: a cell flips from ready → staged → published over its lifecycle. The skill never edits cells with status: published (those are live; use /refresh instead).

Templates

Scaffold templates live at templates/programmatic/:

• matrix.csv — schema-correct example matrix (10 rows, partly populated)
• _local-data/example-cell.md — schema-correct example local-data file
• README.md — user-facing setup instructions for adopting programmatic batch on a new site

Run cp -r templates/programmatic/ sites/[site]/programmatic/ to scaffold.