NZNet (Network Summarizer)

Last updated February 18, 2026

Crawl and summarize newsletter posts from Nonzero and the NZN Network.

When Invoked

1. Ask what to summarize

If the user provides args (e.g. /nznet nonzero 30d), skip asking.

Otherwise, read ~/Documents/Projects/Nonzero/nzn-network.md and print a numbered list of all newsletters as plain text:

Which newsletter(s)? Reply with numbers (e.g. "1", "1,3,5", or "all")

  1. Nonzero (Robert Wright)
  2. Small Potatoes (Paul Bloom)
  3. Foreign Exchanges
  ...etc (full list from nzn-network.md)

Time period? (e.g. 7d, 14d, 30d, or a date range)

Do NOT use AskUserQuestion — just print the list and wait for the user to type their selection. Parse their reply (numbers, comma-separated, or "all") and the period.

2. Crawl the archive

For each selected newsletter:

  1. Open the archive page via agent-browser with the Substack profile: agent-browser close agent-browser --profile ~/.agent-browser/substack open "<url>/archive"
  2. Extract post URLs and dates from the archive HTML (grep for href and datetime attributes).
  3. Filter to posts within the requested time period.

3. Read posts

ALWAYS use agent-browser. NEVER use WebFetch. Agent-browser has Nikita's paid Substack login and returns the actual article text, not an AI summary. WebFetch has no auth and produces lossy summaries.

For each post, sequentially: 1. agent-browser close (if needed) 2. agent-browser --profile ~/.agent-browser/substack open "<post-url>" 3. agent-browser get text "article" to extract the text

Access tracking: Mark each post with one of: - [full] — got the complete article text - [free preview] — hit a paywall, only got the preview text above it - [title only] — only title and date available (no content extracted)

Always include these markers so the user knows exactly what was read vs. inferred.

4. Present results (three-step flow)

Step A — One-line index. List every post from every newsletter, grouped by newsletter. Each entry is one substantive full sentence describing the post's argument or content. Consistent depth — no post gets a paragraph, no post gets a fragment. Include the access marker.

Step B — Bob's highlights. Flag which posts seem most relevant to Nonzero's territory (AI, foreign policy, tribalism, cognitive bias, meditation/mindfulness, evolution of cooperation). Briefly say why each is relevant. This helps Nikita decide what to surface to Bob.

Step C — Ask. Ask if the user wants fuller summaries of any specific items, or wants to save as-is.

5. Save

When the user is ready, save to ~/Documents/Projects/Nonzero/summaries/{date}-{newsletter-slug}-{period}.md

Access Notes

  • agent-browser profile: ~/.agent-browser/substack (Nikita's Substack login)
  • ~/Documents/Projects/Nonzero/nzn-network.md tracks which newsletters have full paid access vs. free preview only
  • Auto-update access status: If a post hits a paywall on a newsletter marked full in nzn-network.md, update it to free preview only. If access works on one marked free preview only, update it to full. This keeps the file current across runs.
  • If agent-browser cookies expire (you get logged out), tell the user to re-login: agent-browser --headed --profile ~/.agent-browser/substack open "https://substack.com/sign-in"

Tone

Informational. Neutral summaries that capture Bob's arguments faithfully without editorializing.

$ARGUMENTS