Frequently Asked Questions

First Pass is a personalized news briefing that helps you follow the topics you care about without sorting through dozens of websites. It finds articles from leading publications that are relevant to your interests, summarizes the key developments, and gives you a first pass on why they matter.

Most news aggregators give you a large feed of headlines and links. First Pass filters that coverage into a concise briefing tailored to your interests. Instead of showing you everything, it only surfaces stories that matter to you in a succinct and direct manner.

First Pass collects newly published articles through RSS feeds provided by news organizations, specialist publications, research institutions, and other credible sources. This allows First Pass to monitor reporting across many publishers while linking readers back to the original articles.

RSS is a standard format that publishers use to distribute their latest content. An RSS feed usually contains article titles, links, publication dates, and descriptions about the story. First Pass reads these feeds to identify and synthesize briefs for its readers.

First Pass looks for sources with credible reporting, consistent coverage, a reliable RSS feed, and clear relevance to a particular topic. We also consider how frequently a source publishes, whether it adds distinct reporting, and whether the topic can be covered through multiple independent sources. The goal is not to collect the largest possible number of publishers. It is to build a dependable mix of sources that produces useful, high-signal coverage. Whenever a new topic request is submitted, AI agents do deep research on leading publications for that topic that have stable RSS feeds.

Yes. First Pass is designed around multi-source coverage rather than relying on a single publication. Depending on the topic, the source mix may include major news organizations, specialist industry publications, regional outlets, and research institutions.

First Pass prioritizes recent and meaningful developments while filtering out duplicate, repetitive, and low-signal coverage. The goal is not to include every article published about a topic. It is to surface the stories that best help you understand what changed and why it matters.

No. First Pass is a news curation and briefing service. It summarizes and contextualizes reporting produced by original publishers and provides links so readers can access the underlying articles themselves if they want to dive deeper.

First Pass uses AI and other automated systems to organize, filter, and summarize stories at scale. These systems follow editorial rules designed to produce concise, fact-focused, and non-partisan coverage. Readers can always follow the source link for the original reporting and full context.

No news product can eliminate every judgment call, including decisions about which stories deserve attention. First Pass aims to reduce bias by drawing from multiple credible sources, focusing on verifiable developments, and avoiding coverage designed primarily around partisan or ideological reinforcement.

Yes. You can view and update your topics through our website without recreating your account or starting over. Simply edit your brief settings after logging in. Future briefings will reflect your updated preferences.

You can submit a custom topic request while creating or editing your First Pass. Include a clear topic name for us to understand the type of coverage you are looking for. Our team will review it within 24 hours, identify relevant sources, refine the topic name and description if required, and notify you of the decision by email. Every custom topic is reviewed before it is added.

First Pass evaluates whether the requested topic represents a meaningful and recurring area of news. We consider whether it is clearly scoped, useful to a general reader, supported by multiple credible sources, distinct from existing topics, and likely to generate consistent reporting over time. A request may be approved as submitted, reformulated into a stronger topic, or declined if it does not fit the First Pass coverage model.

A topic may be too broad to produce a coherent briefing, too narrow to support regular coverage, already covered by an existing topic, or dependent on too few reliable sources. First Pass also generally avoids standing topics built around one company, stock, celebrity, founder, sports team, or political personality. When possible, we will suggest a broader topic that captures the underlying interest. For example, a request for “Nvidia stock” may be better covered through “Semiconductors” or “AI Infrastructure.”

You can unsubscribe or change your email frequency through the links included in your briefing or through your First Pass settings.