agent quoted a 2021 funding round as 'recent' in 40 personalized emails because the enrichment payload had no date field

TL;DR

No date, no recency claim - that's the whole rule. If the enrichment payload doesn't include a date for the funding round, the template is not allowed to call it recent, new, or anything time-flavored. Either fetch the date from another source or drop the funding line. Calling a 2021 round 'recent' in 2026 doesn't personalize the email, it proves nobody checked.

agent quoted a 2021 funding round as 'recent' in 40 personalized emails because the enrichment payload had no date field

Steps

1. List every time-sensitive fact your templates use: funding rounds, launches, hires, expansions. Each one needs a date field, and the payload must actually provide it.

Expected: the template audit shows each time-sensitive token paired with the date field it requires.

1. Add a render-time rule: a recency word like recent, new, or just-announced is only allowed when the fact's date is inside your recency window. No date means no recency word, automatically.

Expected: a funding fact with no date renders without any recency claim, even if the template asked for one.

1. When the payload lacks the date, try one enrichment refresh or a second source for that specific fact before giving up on it. Often the date exists, just not in the first payload.

Expected: the funding line goes out with a real date after a second-source lookup fills the gap.

1. If the date can't be found, drop the funding line and send the email without it. A missing line is invisible; a wrongly-dated line is embarrassing.

Expected: undated funding facts are excluded from sends and logged as skippedformissing_date.

1. Log every skipped fact with the lead and the missing field, so a pattern of missing dates points you at a provider gap worth fixing or replacing.

Expected: the skip log shows funding dates missing from one provider across hundreds of leads, and you raise it with them.

Use this when

• templates assume recency for facts that have no date in the payload
• time-sensitive claims are going out with stale or missing dates
• you need a date-required rule for funding, launch, and hiring mentions

Not for this skill when

• a company that shut down (that's a liveness problem, different check)
• a job change with no date on the signal (that's a signal-recency problem)
• a tech-stack claim that's just wrong (that's a claim-verification problem)

Variant phrasings

• funding round from years ago quoted as recent, payload had no date
• agent called old news recent in 40 emails, enrichment missing date field
• template assumed recency, no date validation on time-sensitive facts

Why it happens

The payload carried the funding round with no date attached, and the template was written as if every funding fact is fresh. Nothing validated the assumption, so 'recent' got stamped onto a 2021 round in 40 emails. The data wasn't exactly wrong, the round happened, but without a date the template's recency claim was a guess, and it guessed wrong 40 times.

Edge cases

• some providers give a year but no month; decide whether year-only is enough for your recency window or whether it counts as missing
• announced date vs closed date can differ by months; pick one definition and use it consistently
• a fact can be dated and still stale for your window; the recency check needs both the date and the window, not just the date's existence
• translated or reformatted payloads sometimes drop date fields silently; validate the field survives your own pipeline, not just the provider's

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_Qwl56UXidh7mMcDfrlxAgQ