> AI agents: this is one page from PostHog's docs. Full index of Markdown docs for LLMs: https://posthog.com/llms.txt

# Scouts - Docs

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# Scouts - Docs

[Observations](/docs/replay-vision/observations.md) tell you what a scanner found, one session at a time. A **scout** reads them for you: it's a scheduled agent that looks at a scanner's new observations on a cadence you set, and writes up anything worth a look.

Scouts live on the scanner's **Scouts** tab. Each report a scout files lands in your [inbox](/docs/self-driving/inbox.md), and the latest one shows at the top of the scanner's **Overview** tab. Scouts are part of [self-driving](/docs/self-driving/scouts.md), so a scanner's scouts sit alongside the rest of your project's scouts and follow the same rules.

If you'd rather be notified the moment an observation matches a condition, or when a number crosses a threshold, use [alerts](/docs/replay-vision/alerts.md) instead.

## Creating a scout

The **Scouts** tab opens on four starting points. Pick one, review what it hands you, then save:

| Template | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Daily digest | A daily summary of what this scanner found, and the sessions worth watching. |
| Trend watch | Watches the scanner's own output for shifts against its baseline. What it tracks depends on the [scanner type](/docs/replay-vision/scanner-types.md): yes-rate for monitors, mean score for scorers, tag mix for classifiers, recurring themes for summarizers. |
| New issue watch | Reports problems this scanner has never seen before, dated to what changed. |
| Start from scratch | A working skeleton with the judgment calls left as placeholders for you to fill in. |

![The Scouts tab on a scanner, showing four scout templates above the scanner's own scouts](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/scouts_tab_bb3b722653.png)

Every template opens the same form, with three tabs.

### Instructions

What the scout looks for, and what counts as worth reporting. The templates come filled in, and you can edit the text before saving or any time afterwards. A scout reads the scanner's new observations on each run, so the instructions are about judgment, not about wiring up data access.

The **Start from scratch** template marks its open decisions in capitals. You have to replace or remove those before the scout can be saved.

![The new scout form on its Instructions tab, showing the daily digest template's instructions](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/scout_form_instructions_4fd3adf557.png)

### Schedule

Pick a frequency and a run time. The time is read in your project's timezone.

### Delivery

Optional, and set up alongside the rest of the scout rather than afterwards:

-   **Slack** – post each report to a channel in a connected Slack workspace.
-   **Webhook** – `POST` each report to an HTTPS URL of yours. Delivery runs through a destination in [Data Pipelines](/docs/cdp/destinations.md), where you can see each attempt.

![The scout form's Delivery tab, with Slack, a webhook URL field, and the scout report event](https://res.cloudinary.com/dmukukwp6/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/scout_form_delivery_e93b362681.png)

Reports reach your inbox whether or not you set up delivery, so a misconfigured channel never loses a finding.

### Webhooks

Set a webhook URL on the scout's **Delivery** tab and PostHog sends an HTTP `POST` with a JSON body each time the scout files a report. The URL must start with `https://` and must not embed credentials.

-   **Method:** `POST`
-   **Headers:**
    -   `Content-Type: application/json`
    -   `X-PostHog-Webhook-Version: 1` is the payload version. New fields may be added to the body without changing it, so ignore unknown fields rather than rejecting the payload. A breaking change would ship under a new version.

JSON

PostHog AI

```json
{
  "source": "replay_vision_scout",
  "scout": "signals-scout-daily-digest",
  "run_id": "0192f3a4-...",
  "filed_at": "2026-09-15T09:03:00+00:00",
  "digest": {
    "report_id": "0192f3a4-...",
    "title": "Daily digest: 2026-09-15",
    "summary": "Checkout friction held steady. Coupon box confusion dominated.",
    "priority": "P3",
    "url": "https://us.posthog.com/project/1/inbox/..."
  }
}
```

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| source | string | Always replay_vision_scout. Route on this. |
| scout | string | The scout's internal name, unique in the project. |
| run_id | string | ID of the run that filed the report. Use it to dedupe retries. |
| filed_at | string | ISO 8601 time the report was filed. |
| digest.report_id | string | ID of the report in your inbox. |
| digest.title | string | The report's title. |
| digest.summary | string | The report's summary, as Markdown. |
| digest.priority | string | The priority the scout assigned, P0 to P4. |
| digest.url | string | Link to the report in PostHog. |

Delivery runs through a destination in Data Pipelines named `Replay Vision · <scout name>`, where you can see every attempt and its result.

## Reports

Each run files at most one report: a Markdown write-up with a summary, sections ordered by what covers most of the window, and links that open a recording at the moment behind each claim.

A report lands in three places:

-   The scanner's **Overview** tab, which leads with the latest one.
-   Your [inbox](/docs/self-driving/inbox.md), alongside reports from your other scouts.
-   Any delivery destination you set up.

A scout reads back what its earlier runs recorded, so it doesn't restate an unchanged problem every day. A recurring one comes back when it worsens, clears, or gains new evidence.

## Running scouts

Each scout on the tab shows its cadence and its next run. Expand a row to see the reports it has filed, and open one to read it in place.

-   **Run now** triggers an off-schedule run, which is useful while you're tuning instructions. A run costs credits, so it's only offered when the scout hasn't filed anything yet.
-   The **gear** opens the same form you created the scout with. Changes take effect on the scout's next run.
-   The **toggle** pauses and resumes the scout.
-   **Delete** stops its scheduled runs permanently. Reports it already filed stay in your inbox.

A scout's name is its identity in the fleet, so it can't be renamed after it's created.

A scout is selective on purpose. Most runs end with nothing filed, and that's the scout working rather than a gap.

## Sending reports somewhere else

Every report a scout surfaces is also captured in your project as a `$scout_report_emitted` event, carrying its title, summary, priority, and a link back to it. You can build [insights](/docs/product-analytics/insights.md) on that event, or send it anywhere the Slack and webhook options don't cover with a [destination in data pipelines](/docs/cdp/destinations.md).

## Requirements and cost

-   Scouts run only on projects with [self-driving](/docs/self-driving/setup.md) enabled. The tab tells you when a project isn't set up yet, and any scout you save there waits rather than running.
-   Creating or editing a scout needs edit access to the scanner.
-   Scout runs are billed as part of [self-driving](/docs/self-driving/pricing.md), separately from the [credits](/docs/replay-vision/quota-and-limits.md) a scanner spends on observations.

## Further reading

-   [Scouts in self-driving](/docs/self-driving/scouts.md)
-   [What a report contains](/docs/self-driving/reports.md)
-   [Alerts](/docs/replay-vision/alerts.md)

### Still have questions?

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