An empty plan looks like a broken plan

Scout’s local preparation policy now covers all 30 upcoming planner items. Previously, the seven-item window left later topics without detailed research, making an unprepared card look like a failed one.

The expanded window includes trials. Completed, matching research is reused, and repeated passes avoid duplicate jobs. We also removed a worldwide search-volume lookup whose result the preparation did not use. Fetching information and then ignoring it is an expensive way to look busy.

The trial still permits three articles; preparing a topic and writing it are separate allowances. Ninety-two tests, type checks and naming checks passed. This was not deployed that day. Upcoming existing plans can catch up through maintenance, but past-dated items still need a separate backfill. That last distinction matters: we improved the policy without claiming every old empty card was repaired.