pipeline: several reviews per run (judgment call), pick decision every run, auto-deploy note

.claude/skills/daily-pipeline/SKILL.md

@@ -36,22 +36,30 @@ Stage: the new find folders, `daily-finds.log.md`, `candidate-sources.md`, and `
 
 ### 3. Reviews — run `build-review` in auto mode
 
-- Take the capture run's **review candidates** (the top of the shortlist, marked in the log). Graduate **1–2 per run** — quality over cadence; zero is fine on a thin day. Prefer candidates with strong media and a real story; the fact-check step is mandatory.
+- Take the capture run's **review candidates** (the top of the shortlist, marked in the log). Graduate **several per run — how many is your judgment call** (typically 2–4). Quality over cadence still rules: every graduation must clear the bar on its own, and zero is fine on a thin day. Prefer candidates with strong media and a real story; the fact-check step is mandatory.
 - If today's capture was thin but a prior day's log lists ungraduated review candidates, those are fair game.
 
 **Commit per review or combined**: `site: review — <Name> (graduates from find)` / `site: reviews — <A>, <B> (graduate from finds)`.
 
 ### 4. Pick of the day
 
-- If reviews were published this run, set the strongest one as the homepage hero: write `src/data/pick.json` → `{"hero": "<review-slug>"}`. "Strongest" = best hero visual + broadest audience appeal; when torn, the one whose virtue is most immediately legible from the tile.
+Make an explicit pick decision **every run** — the pick is a daily editorial call, not a side effect of publishing reviews:
-- If no review was published, leave the pick as-is (a stale-but-good hero beats churn for its own sake).
 
-**Commit**: `site: pick of the day — <Name>`.
+- Candidates: reviews graduated this run plus the existing review pool.
+- "Strongest" = best hero visual + broadest audience appeal; when torn, the one whose virtue is most immediately legible from the tile.
+- New reviews usually win (freshness matters on a daily site), but a weak new review must not displace a strong current hero.
+- If the current hero has held for several days, lean toward rotating to another strong review even when nothing graduated — the homepage shouldn't look frozen.
+- Keeping the current pick is a valid outcome, but it's a decision: say why in the digest.
+
+Write `src/data/pick.json` → `{"hero": "<review-slug>"}`.
+
+**Commit** (only when the pick changed): `site: pick of the day — <Name>`.
 
 ### 5. Verify + push
 
 - `npm run build` must pass (it will also have been run by the sub-skills; this is the final gate). If it fails, fix what the pipeline broke; never push a red build.
 - `git push origin main`. If the push fails (auth, network), leave the commits local and flag it in the digest.
+- Deployment is automatic downstream: in scheduled runs, a lab CI job (`publish-unique-daily`) redeploys unique.rzen.dev from `main` after this pipeline succeeds — nothing to do here, but it means whatever is on `origin/main` goes live.
 
 ### 6. Digest
 
@@ -63,7 +71,7 @@ Daily pipeline — YYYY-MM-DD
 Captured:   <N> finds (<M> productive sources), shortlisted <K>
 Bundle:     "<title>" (<n> items) [+ week's catch / cluster run if run]
 Reviews:    <Name> (<slug>), <Name> (<slug>) — or none
-Pick:       <Name> — or unchanged (<current>)
+Pick:       <Name> — or held: <current> (<one-line why>)
 Amazon:     <n> links added
 Sources:    <n> maintenance changes; <n> new nominees awaiting vetting
 Attention:  <anything needing the user: rejected graduations, blocked sources,

CLAUDE.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ A daily product-discovery site (Astro, static). The editorial pipeline is skill-
 
 ## Pipeline
 
-- `/daily-pipeline` — the whole daily chain: capture → bundle → reviews → pick of the day → build → commit → push → digest. This is the entrypoint for scheduled/headless runs.
+- `/daily-pipeline` — the whole daily chain: capture → bundle → reviews (several per run, judgment call) → pick of the day (explicit decision every run) → build → commit → push → digest. This is the entrypoint for scheduled/headless runs; scheduled runs auto-deploy afterwards via the lab CI `publish-unique-daily` job.
 - `/daily-finds` — capture-only sweep of `sources.json`; writes `src/content/find/<yyyy>/<mm>/<slug>/`, marks the day's shortlist (`shortlist: true`, up to 12), adds `amazonLink` for confidently-matched physical products, and applies mechanical source maintenance.
 - `/build-bundle [auto|weekly|<theme>|<slugs>]` — one themed roundup referencing find slugs. `weekly` = date-based catch of unbundled shortlist finds.
 - `/cluster-bundles [auto]` — batch-cluster the backlog into 4–7 bundles.