Opportunities
Guardrails and flagged topics
The four thresholds a topic must clear to reach the queue, what happens when it does not, and how to put a flagged topic through anyway.
Scout never throws a topic away because a number was too low. A topic that fails a guardrail is flagged: kept, attributed to the rule it broke, and one click from the queue if you disagree. This page explains the rules, where flagged topics live, and how an override works.
The four guardrails
Each guardrail is a named threshold, evaluated on its own. A topic that fails one is flagged with that rule named, so you always know which line it crossed.
| Guardrail | What it checks |
|---|---|
| Minimum search volume | Monthly searches below which a topic is not worth an article. |
| Maximum keyword difficulty | Difficulty above which your domain is unlikely to rank today. |
| Minimum opportunity score | The composite score below which a topic is not shortlisted. |
| Minimum fit with the business | How well the topic fits what you sell, as Scout judged it against your company profile. Without this, a topic with no connection to your business could reach the queue on search demand alone. |
Two things follow from how they are applied.
A guardrail only judges a measurement that exists. A topic with unknown search volume does not fail the volume guardrail; treating missing data as a failure would say something about your data, not about the topic.
A guardrail flags and never drops. Every flagged topic is still on the Flagged filter with its score, its reasons and the exact numbers it was measured against.
Where flagged topics live
On the Opportunities screen, the Flagged chip carries a count. Rows there show the failed guardrail inline: "Fit with what you sell scored 28 out of 100, below the 40 this workspace treats as the minimum. Search demand alone carried this one." When every topic Scout found is flagged, the default view says so and offers Review the flagged topics.
On the topic's own page, a panel headed This is below your guardrails lists each failed rule with the observed value beside the threshold, and the sentence explaining it. The panel reads: "Scout kept it out of the shortlist rather than throwing it away. If the threshold is wrong for this topic, put it in the queue anyway."
Do it anyway
The override lives in that panel and on the row: Do it anyway. There is an optional field, "Why is this one worth doing anyway?", and your reason is kept with the topic.
Once overridden, the topic moves to the queue as an open topic and the page records who overrode it and when: "Overridden by Dana on 14 September." An override is a decision, and Scout treats it as one: a later rebuild records what the topic still fails but never sends it back to the flagged pile.
Editors, admins and owners can override. Viewers see the panel without the button.
Flagged topics can clear on their own
Scores refresh daily as new search data arrives. A topic flagged for low search volume can read above the minimum next month; a topic flagged on fit can clear after you edit your company profile and Scout re-judges it. When a flagged topic clears every guardrail, it returns to the queue by itself. When an open topic stops clearing one, it is flagged again. Only topics nobody has decided on move this way. Shortlisted, approved and rejected topics stay where a person put them.
When the fit guardrail flags everything
If the Flagged filter is full and the queue is empty, the most common cause is the company profile, not the topics. Read the fit reasons on a few rows: if they say the searcher is a consumer or the topic shares only a word with your category, and that reading is right, the topics were never worth writing. If the reading is wrong, fix what Scout believes about you under Your company profile or set a direction, and Scout will re-judge every open topic.