Purpose

Run a complete SEO ranking diagnosis and optimization pipeline:

1. inspect live SERP competition,
2. compare competitor content structure with user content,
3. enrich with difficulty/backlink data when API access exists,
4. produce concrete rewrite guidance and an optimized Markdown draft.

This is an orchestration skill. It does not replace upstream tools.

Required Installed Skills

• brave-search (inspected latest: 1.0.1)
• summarize (inspected latest: 1.0.0)
• api-gateway (inspected latest: 1.0.29)
• markdown-converter (inspected latest: 1.0.0)

Install/update:

npx -y clawhub@latest install brave-search
npx -y clawhub@latest install summarize
npx -y clawhub@latest install api-gateway
npx -y clawhub@latest install markdown-converter
npx -y clawhub@latest update --all

Verify:

npx -y clawhub@latest list

Required Credentials

• BRAVE_API_KEY (for brave-search)
• MATON_API_KEY (for api-gateway)
• One summarize model key:
  • OPENAI_API_KEY, or
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, or
  • XAI_API_KEY, or
  • GEMINI_API_KEY

Optional:

• FIRECRAWL_API_KEY (for difficult page extraction via summarize)
• APIFY_API_TOKEN (for YouTube fallback in summarize)

Preflight:

echo "$BRAVE_API_KEY" | wc -c
echo "$MATON_API_KEY" | wc -c
echo "$OPENAI_API_KEY$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY$XAI_API_KEY$GEMINI_API_KEY" | wc -c

Mandatory behavior:

• Never fail silently on missing keys.
• Always return a MissingAPIKeys section with missing variables and blocked stages.
• Continue with non-blocked stages and clearly mark output as Partial when necessary.

Inputs the LM Must Collect First

• target_url
• target_keyword (example: AI tools)
• region_locale (country/language for SERP interpretation)
• content_source (URL fetch, pasted text, or file path)
• content_type (blog, category page, product page, landing page)
• business_goal (traffic, leads, sales)
• rewrite_scope (light, moderate, full)
• data_provider_preference (semrush, ahrefs, gsc-only, none)

Do not run rewrite before keyword intent and content goal are explicit.

Tool Responsibilities

brave-search

Use for live SERP reconnaissance:

• fetch top results for the target keyword,
• identify top competitors and search intent patterns,
• collect candidate URLs for deeper analysis.

Operational constraints from inspected skill:

• requires BRAVE_API_KEY
• supports content extraction with --content

summarize

Use for structured competitor content analysis:

• summarize each top URL,
• extract heading structure (H1-H4), topic coverage, entity frequency,
• estimate content depth and rhetorical style differences.

Operational constraints from inspected skill:

• requires one supported model API key
• can use --extract-only, --json, and length controls

api-gateway

Use for external SEO data APIs only when active connections exist:

• keyword difficulty,
• backlink domains,
• competitor link intersections,
• search performance enrichments.

Operational constraints from inspected skill:

• requires MATON_API_KEY
• also requires active OAuth/connection per app (ctrl.maton.ai connection lifecycle)
• API key alone does not grant third-party data access

Important capability note:

• In the inspected api-gateway service list, semrush and ahrefs are not listed as native app names.
• Use direct Semrush/Ahrefs integration only if user already has a working gateway connection path for those providers.
• Otherwise fall back to available SEO apps (for example google-search-console) and manual competitor-link extraction.

markdown-converter

Use to normalize the user's own content into editable Markdown:

• convert input documents/files to Markdown (uvx markitdown ...),
• preserve headings/lists/tables for deterministic rewriting.

Canonical Causal Signal Chain

1. Input Stage

• user provides URL + target keyword (+ content source if needed).

1. SERP Audit Stage (brave-search)

• pull live SERP and identify top 3 competitors.
• detect intent class (informational/commercial/transactional).

1. Competitor Content Stage (summarize)

• analyze top competitor URLs for:
  • heading hierarchy,
  • topical breadth and entities,
  • use of statistics/evidence,
  • sentence complexity and content length.

1. Data Gate Stage (api-gateway)

• check whether provider data can be retrieved.
• if keyword difficulty/backlink data is unavailable, ask user for credentials/connection and continue with fallback path.

Required user-facing gate message format:

• DataGateStatus: available / blocked
• Reason: missing key, missing connection, or provider unsupported
• Action: exact next step and link(s)

As of February 14, 2026:

• Semrush advertises mainly 7-day toolkit trials on official pages.
• Semrush 14-day trial language is mainly associated with some add-ons or partner offers.

When user requests a 14-day Semrush trial:

• Ask for their preferred affiliate/referral URL first.
• If none is provided, share official Semrush trial entry page: https://www.semrush.com/sem/.
• Optionally share Ahrefs free path for verified sites: https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools.

1. Optimization Stage (LLM rewrite)

• rewrite user content for intent-match and topical completeness,
• add natural related terms (LSI-style concept coverage),
• improve title tag and meta description,
• tighten heading structure and internal linking opportunities.

1. Output Stage

• deliver optimized Markdown,
• deliver prioritized action list,
• deliver at least 5 backlink source opportunities (with confidence labels).

Rewrite Policy

• Preserve factual integrity (do not invent statistics or case studies).
• Prefer semantic coverage over keyword stuffing.
• Keep keyword usage natural and intent-aligned.
• Add scannable structure (clear H2/H3, concise paragraphs, actionable bullets).

Output Contract

Always return:

• SERPFindings

  • top competitors
  • observed intent pattern
  • structural/content gaps versus user page

• DataGateStatus

  • provider requested
  • key/connection status
  • fallback mode selected

• OptimizedMarkdown

  • full rewritten document
  • revised title and meta description

• BacklinkOpportunities

  • 5 sources/domains used by competitors or high-fit alternatives
  • rationale per source
  • confidence (high|medium|low)

• NextActions

  • concrete implementation checklist (ordered)

Quality Gates

Before final output, validate:

• top competitor set is from live SERP, not memory
• rewrite aligns with detected intent
• no fabricated citations or fabricated backlink claims
• keyword placement is natural (no spam repetition)
• missing data dependencies are explicitly disclosed

If any gate fails, return Needs Revision with exact missing evidence.

Failure Handling

• Missing BRAVE_API_KEY: return MissingAPIKeys, skip SERP stage, and request user-provided competitor URLs.
• Missing summarize model key: return MissingAPIKeys, skip summarize stage, and provide structure-only audit from available snippets.
• Missing MATON_API_KEY: return MissingAPIKeys, skip API-gateway enrichment, continue with on-page-only optimization.
• Missing app connection in api-gateway (400): keep pipeline running in fallback mode and return exact connection setup steps.
• Unsupported provider path (for example no Semrush/Ahrefs app connection): disclose limitation and fall back to GSC/manual mode.

Guardrails

• Never claim guaranteed rankings.
• Never represent fallback estimates as provider-verified metrics.
• Never hide dependency failures.
• Keep recommendations specific, measurable, and tied to observed SERP gaps.