follow-builders

follow-builders is a skill for Claude Code from zrtch/awesome-skills. It costs 45 tokens per session (3,792 once invoked), scanned C, original, MIT.

A content-curation workflow that follows people who build AI products, companies, and research, then summarizes their posts and podcast discussions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to create on-demand or scheduled AI-builder digests from X and YouTube podcasts, with delivery options depending on the platform.
Why use it?
It helps separate original builder updates from repeated commentary and makes the information easier to review.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} variable. Also seen: mentions Claude Code; built for openclaw.

Good fit Use it to create on-demand or scheduled AI-builder digests from X and YouTube podcasts, with delivery options depending on the platform.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/zrtch/awesome-skills/follow-builders
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add zrtch/awesome-skills --skill follow-builders
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zrtch/awesome-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for follow-builders

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/zrtch/awesome-skills/follow-builders/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/zrtch/awesome-skills/follow-builders)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/zrtch/awesome-skills/follow-builders"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/zrtch/awesome-skills/follow-builders/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for follow-builders

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/zrtch/awesome-skills/follow-builders"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/zrtch/awesome-skills/follow-builders.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 45 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,792 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan C 2 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00045 $0.03792
Opus 5 $0.00023 $0.01896
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00758
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00379

Measured 12d ago against content hash 71466d8814ef, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

follow-builders scanned grade C with 2 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 12d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Downloads and executes remote codehighSupply chain

curl | sh runs whatever the server returns today, which is not necessarily what it returned when this was reviewed.

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates" | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(d['result'][0]['message']['chat']['id'])" 2>/dev/null || echo "No messages found — make sure you sent

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates" | python3 -c "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(d['result'][0]['message']['chat']['id'])" 2>/dev/null || echo "No messages found — make sure you sent
skills/follow-builders/SKILL.md · 412 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 412 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Follow Builders, Not Influencers

You are an AI-powered content curator that tracks the top builders in AI — the people actually building products, running companies, and doing research — and delivers digestible summaries of what they're saying.

Philosophy: follow builders with original opinions, not influencers who regurgitate.

Detecting Platform

Before doing anything, detect which platform you're running on by running:

which openclaw 2>/dev/null && echo "PLATFORM=openclaw" || echo "PLATFORM=other"
  • OpenClaw (PLATFORM=openclaw): Persistent agent with built-in messaging channels. Delivery is automatic via OpenClaw's channel system. No need to ask about delivery method. Cron uses openclaw cron add.

  • Other (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.): Non-persistent agent. Terminal closes = agent stops. For automatic delivery, users MUST set up Telegram or Email. Without it, digests are on-demand only (user types /ai to get one). Cron uses system crontab for Telegram/Email delivery, or is skipped for on-demand mode.

Save the detected platform in config.json as "platform": "openclaw" or "platform": "other".

First Run — Onboarding

Check if ~/.follow-builders/config.json exists and has onboardingComplete: true. If NOT, run the onboarding flow:

Step 1: Introduction

Tell the user:

"I'm your AI Builders Digest. I track the top builders in AI — researchers, founders, PMs, and engineers who are actually building things — across X/Twitter and YouTube podcasts. Every day (or week), I'll deliver you a curated summary of what they're saying, thinking, and building.

I currently track [N] builders on X and [M] podcasts. The list is curated and updated centrally — you'll always get the latest sources automatically."

(Replace [N] and [M] with actual counts from default-sources.json)

Step 2: Delivery Preferences

Ask: "How often would you like your digest?"

  • Daily (recommended)
  • Weekly

Then ask: "What time works best? And what timezone are you in?" (Example: "8am, Pacific Time" → deliveryTime: "08:00", timezone: "America/Los_Angeles")

Read the full file on GitHub · 412 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 12d ago First seen · 412 lines · 45 tokens per session scan C 71466d8814ef

Subscribe to this mod's changes

follow-builders is a skill published in the GitHub repository zrtch/awesome-skills (2 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 45 tokens to every session and 3,792 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it C with 2 findings (downloads and executes remote code, makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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