Creating and Managing Datastreams
By constantly pulling, scoring, and filtering content from real sources, Datastreams inform your workflows with live context, verified quotations, and up-to-date insights from thousands of articles across the web.
Think of them as your brand-aligned research engine, automating the current-events curation your editors are doing manually. Except faster. Smarter. And always on.
This isn’t just AI. This is AI that reads the news, checks the sources, and gets your niche.
Step-by-Step: Creating a Datastream
1. Start From the Dashboard
Go to Datastreams in the main navigation and click + New Datastream.
2. Enter Your Datastream Info
Fill in the required fields:
- Name – Give your stream a clear, searchable name like "US Sports – No Betting" or "Finance – No Crypto".
- Description – Optionally describe what the Datastream is for (e.g., "Daily digest for clean sports content excluding fantasy and betting").
3. Choose Datastream Type
Select one of the following:
- Article – Scores and surfaces the strongest individual articles based on your filters. Great for Agents needing citations.
- Inspiration – Clusters and ranks groups of articles by trending topic, helping agents surface broader themes or brainstorms.
4. Configure Time Frame
- For Article type, choose Publication Time Frame (e.g., last 24 hours, 7 days).
- For Inspiration type, define both Publication Time Frame and Clustering Time Frame, which determines how trends are grouped.
5. Set Your Filters (Metadata) Use the following categories to precisely target content:
- Included Items – Articles must match one of these.
- Boosted Items – Rank items higher (0 to 1000).
- Penalized Items – Rank items lower (0 to –1000).
- Excluded Items – Fully block anything matching.
- Repeat the same for Sources.
6. Save & Preview
Click Create Datastream, then use the Preview Articles or Preview Inspirations button to evaluate results.
7. Assign to Agents
From any compatible Agent’s config screen, select this Datastream under "Source Input."
Understanding the Metadata Filters
Filter Type | Purpose |
---|---|
Included Items | Required match — must appear in metadata to qualify. |
Boosted Items | Prioritized in scoring. Use 600–1000 for strongest influence. |
Penalized Items | Lowered in scoring, but not blocked. Use –400 to –700 for soft blocks. |
Excluded Items | Fully blocked — removes the article or source from view. |
Included Sources | Allows only selected publishers or domains. |
Boosted Sources | Raises content from preferred sources. |
Penalized Sources | Downranks less-reliable or edge sources. |
Excluded Sources | Fully blocks sources by name, URL, or domain pattern. |
Trial, Error & Iteration
Datastreams require fine-tuning. Here’s how to make yours better over time:
- Always Preview Before Using – Click the Preview Articles or Preview Inspirations button to see real results.
- Spot Check Unwanted Topics – If you're seeing off-brand results, go back and exclude those terms or sources.
- Copy to Iterate – Use the Duplicate Datastream feature to test small variations without rebuilding from scratch.
- Use Descriptive Names – Add notes like "– No Politics" or "+ Niche Finance" to track their purpose.
- Refine Over Time – It’s common to adjust filters weekly as your content needs evolve.
Pro Tips
Keep Included Items minimal — just 2–4 high-value tags.
- Penalize instead of exclude to reduce noise without over-filtering.
- Pair Boosted Items with Excluded Items to guide tone and focus.
- Inspiration-type Datastreams work best for brainstorm or outline-style Agents.
- Article-type Datastreams are better for content that must cite sources.
Real-World Datastream Examples
Finance Trends Datastream
Field | Values |
Included Items | Investing, Stock market, Economic policy, Interest rates, Consumer spending |
Boosted Items | Inflation (700), Federal Reserve (800), S&P 500 (650), Monetary policy (600), Mortgage rates (500) |
Penalized Items | Cryptocurrency (–600), NFTs (–800), Meme stocks (–500), Forex trading (–400) |
Excluded Items | Wealth inequality, Get-rich-quick schemes, Sponsored content, Viral hacks |
Included Sources | Bloomberg, MarketWatch, CNBC, Yahoo Finance |
Boosted Sources | Reuters (800), Wall Street Journal (700), Financial Times (650) |
Penalized Sources | Reddit (–900), Seeking Alpha (–500), Medium (–400) |
Excluded Sources | CoinDesk, Daily Express, Business Insider |
Health & Wellbeing Datastream
Field | Values |
Included Items | Mental health, Nutrition, Preventive medicine, Sleep, Emotional exhaustion |
Boosted Items | Anxiety (650), Burnout (600), Rest (500), Vitamin D (450), Mindfulness (550) |
Penalized Items | Detox (–600), Diet fads (–700), Biohacking (–400), Fitness marketing (–500) |
Excluded Items | Sponsored content, Celebrity tips, Miracle cures, Clickbait titles |
Included Sources | Mayo Clinic, Psychology Today, WebMD, Johns Hopkins Medicine |
Boosted Sources | Cleveland Clinic (800), Healthline (700), Harvard Health (600) |
Penalized Sources | BuzzFeed (–700), Wellness blogs (–500), Medium (–400) |
Excluded Sources | Goop, Daily Mail, The Sun |
General U.S. News Datastream
Field | Values |
Included Items | National news, Labor market, Transportation, Public health, Education |
Boosted Items | Employment (650), Infrastructure (600), Public transit (500), Climate policy (550), Weather (500) |
Penalized Items | Political commentary (–700), Foreign affairs (–400), Editorial (–500) |
Excluded Items | Satire, Op-eds, Partisan coverage, Sensational headlines |
Included Sources | Associated Press, NPR, Reuters, USA Today, Axios |
Boosted Sources | Pew Research (800), Stateline (700), Government websites (600) |
Penalized Sources | Local blogs (–500), Patch (–600), Aggregators (–400) |
Excluded Sources | The Onion, Daily Mail, Breitbart, HuffPost |
Sports Highlights Datastream
Field | Values |
Included Items | Professional sports, Athlete performance, Championship games, Match recaps |
Boosted Items | NBA Finals (750), Olympic Games (700), Player statistics (650), Tournament coverage (600), Injury reports (500) |
Penalized Items | Fantasy football (–400), Esports (–800), Trade rumors (–500), Fan blogs (–600) |
Excluded Items | Sports betting, Tabloid drama, Off-field scandals, TikTok highlights |
Included Sources | ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Bleacher Report |
Boosted Sources | The Athletic (800), Sports Illustrated (750), Fox Sports (700) |
Penalized Sources | SB Nation (–500), Barstool Sports (–800), FanDuel Blog (–1000) |
Excluded Sources | TMZ Sports, Sportskeeda, TikTok |