sales-skills/sales-syften

Syften Platform Help

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. What do you need help with?

   • A) Setting up keyword monitoring (filters, sources, exclusions)
   • B) Reducing noise / tuning AI filtering
   • C) Configuring alerts (Slack, email, RSS, webhooks)
   • D) Using the API to pull mentions programmatically
   • E) Tag routing (different matches to different destinations)
   • F) Understanding pricing / plan limits
   • G) Something else — describe it

2. Which plan are you on?

   • A) Entry ($19.95/mo — 3 filters, 100/day, 7-day archive)
   • B) Standard ($39.95/mo — 20 filters, 200/day, API, Slack, AI filtering, 1-month archive)
   • C) PRO ($99.95/mo — 100 filters, 500/day, webhooks, MCP server, unlimited archive)
   • D) Tailor Made / not sure

3. What platforms are you monitoring?

   • A) Reddit primarily
   • B) Multiple platforms (Reddit + HN + X + others)
   • C) Developer communities (GitHub, Stack Exchange, Dev.to)
   • D) All available sources

If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to Step 2.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

• Social listening strategy or tool comparison → /sales-social-listening [question]
• Influencer discovery → /sales-influencer-marketing
• SEO keyword research → /sales-semrush
• Intent signals from social → /sales-intent

Otherwise, answer directly from the platform reference below.

Step 3 — Syften platform reference

Read references/platform-guide.md for the full platform reference — capabilities, pricing, data model, integration recipes, code examples.

Answer the user's question using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference.

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

You no longer need the platform guide — focus on the user's specific situation.

• Noise reduction: Start narrow (3-5 keywords), add NOT exclusions for recurring false positives, use AI filtering (Standard+), use tags to separate signal streams
• Speed optimization: Reddit is sub-minute; X is ~15 minutes. If speed matters, prioritize Reddit-heavy monitoring
• Integration: API on Standard+ (POST https://syften.com/api/0.0/items/get), webhooks + MCP server on PRO only. For Standard users needing push delivery, poll items/get on a schedule or wire Zapier via the token under Setup → API and Zapier
• Scaling: If hitting daily result limits, split broad keywords into focused filters with exclusions rather than upgrading

If you discover a gotcha or tip not covered in references/learnings.md, append it there.

Gotchas

Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and integration gotchas that may be outdated.

• No LinkedIn monitoring. Syften does not monitor LinkedIn. If LinkedIn is critical, supplement with another tool.
• X/Twitter and YouTube are paid add-ons. They are NOT in the base plan — they're paid add-ons available on Standard and PRO. Exact add-on prices aren't published (listed only as "Paid addon").
• API requires Standard plan ($19.95/$39.95/$99.95 USD). Entry plan has no API access. API base URL is https://syften.com/api/0.0 and every endpoint is POST (/items/get, /filters/get, /filters/set, /settings/get, /info/get). Webhooks and the MCP server (https://syften.com/mcp) require PRO ($99.95/mo).
• Webhook payload is a JSON ARRAY of item objects — not a single wrapped event. Return any 2xx to ack. Failed deliveries retry for up to 48h (5-min min backoff, up to 12h between attempts); invalid URLs are skipped, not retried. No documented HMAC signature.
• AI verdict is item.analysis.accept (bool). There is no ai_verdict/ai_confidence; the source is item.backend, the link is item.item_url.
• filters/set replaces ALL filters. There's no per-filter CRUD endpoint — filters/get, edit the array, filters/set the whole list.
• Daily result limits are hard caps. Entry: 100/day, Standard: 200/day, PRO: 500/day. Exceeding means missed mentions until the next day.
• Filter limits constrain monitoring breadth. Entry: 3 filters, Standard: 20, PRO: 100. Each keyword variation or platform combo uses a filter slot.
• Archive retention is plan-gated. Entry: 7 days, Standard: 1 month, PRO: unlimited.
• No scheduling for daily email digests. You cannot choose what time daily emails arrive.
• Thread aggregation is basic. High-volume keywords may surface duplicate threads from the same conversation.

Related skills

• /sales-social-listening — Social listening strategy — tool comparison, monitoring setup, Boolean queries, sentiment, competitive intel, crisis detection
• /sales-octolens — Octolens — developer-first social listening (Reddit, GitHub, HN, X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Stack Overflow, DEV.to), MCP server, REST API
• /sales-keymentions — KeyMentions — Reddit keyword monitoring with AI comment generation and auto-publish
• /sales-threadlytics — Threadlytics — Reddit-specific monitoring with 500M+ indexed conversations, opportunity scoring
• /sales-brand24 — Brand24 — AI social listening, brand monitoring, sentiment analysis, Storm Alerts, MCP server
• /sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do

Examples

Example 1: Set up monitoring for a SaaS product

User says: "I just launched a dev tool and want to know when people mention it on Reddit and Hacker News" Skill does:

1. Recommends creating filters for product name + common misspellings
2. Configures Reddit + HN sources
3. Sets up Slack delivery for real-time awareness
4. Suggests adding competitor names and problem keywords as separate tagged filters Result: Monitoring live within 5 minutes, organized by tag

Example 2: Pull mentions into a custom dashboard via API

User says: "How do I use the Syften API to feed mentions into my internal tool?" Skill does:

1. Confirms Standard plan or above (API required)
2. Provides API authentication setup
3. Shows how to poll for new mentions with the REST endpoint
4. Suggests webhook approach if on PRO for push-based delivery Result: Working integration pulling mentions into user's pipeline

Example 3: Reduce noise from broad keywords

User says: "I'm monitoring 'automation' but getting tons of irrelevant results about home automation and industrial automation" Skill does:

1. Reviews current filter setup
2. Adds NOT exclusions: "home automation", "industrial", "factory", "IoT"
3. Enables AI filtering (Standard+) to suppress spam and weak matches
4. Suggests narrowing with site-specific filters or combining with product context keywords Result: Relevant mentions only, noise eliminated

Troubleshooting

Alerts have too much noise

Symptom: Daily digest or Slack is full of irrelevant mentions Cause: Keywords too broad, missing NOT exclusions, AI filtering not enabled (Entry plan) Solution: Add NOT exclusions for recurring false positive patterns. Use exact phrases in quotes. Enable AI filtering (requires Standard plan). Use $tag: operators to separate high-signal from exploratory filters. Review first 20 results and add exclusions for every irrelevant pattern.

Mentions arriving late or missing

Symptom: You find mentions manually that Syften didn't alert on, or alerts come hours later Cause: Platform-specific latency varies; some sources have longer crawl cycles Solution: Reddit targets <1 minute, X ~15 minutes, other sources may be slower. Check if the mention's platform is in Syften's supported list. Use Archive Search to verify the mention was captured (it may have been filtered by AI). If a source is consistently slow, contact support.

Daily result limit hit before end of day

Symptom: Stop receiving alerts partway through the day Cause: High-volume keywords exhausting daily quota (Entry: 100, Standard: 200, PRO: 500) Solution: Split broad filters into focused ones with tighter exclusions. Prioritize high-value sources only. Consider upgrading if legitimate mention volume exceeds quota. Use tags to identify which filters consume the most quota and optimize those first.