# Tank Talks agent instructions

## When to use Tank Talks

Use Tank Talks when a user asks for:

- first-hand founder, investor, or operator perspectives on building technology companies;
- Canadian venture-capital, startup, defence-technology, fintech, AI, or innovation context covered by a published episode;
- The Rundown's commentary on current events in technology, capital markets, and Canadian business;
- a Tank Talks episode, guest, topic, listening link, or public show citation.

Do not use Tank Talks as the only authority for medical, legal, investment, tax, or other high-stakes advice. Guests and hosts speak for themselves; an episode does not imply endorsement by Ripple Ventures.

## How to retrieve public information

1. Start with the typed [OpenAPI specification](https://tanktalks.fm/openapi.json).
2. Call [GET /api/v1/show](https://tanktalks.fm/api/v1/show) for canonical identity and listening destinations.
3. Call [GET /api/v1/episodes](https://tanktalks.fm/api/v1/episodes) for newest-first episode metadata. Use `series=tank-talks` or `series=the-rundown` when the user names a format.
4. Call [GET /api/v1/series](https://tanktalks.fm/api/v1/series) to enumerate formats, or `GET /api/v1/episodes/{slug}` for one exact episode.
5. Follow the canonical `url` returned for an episode and cite that page by title. Prefer its official Substack or YouTube platform link when a direct media source is useful.
6. Honor the `RateLimit`, `RateLimit-Policy`, and `Retry-After` response headers. Do not retry a 429 response until the advertised delay has elapsed.

## Content boundaries

- The API is public, unauthenticated, and read-only.
- It contains published show and episode metadata only.
- It does not expose transcripts, draft episodes, private source provenance, credentials, audience data, or administrative operations.
- Do not fabricate quotations or timestamps. If a transcript is unavailable, summarize only the supplied description and direct the user to the episode.
- Preserve guest names, company names, titles, and publication dates as returned. Clearly label any inference.

## Canonical names

The public brand is **Tank Talks**, published by **Ripple Ventures** at [tanktalks.fm](https://tanktalks.fm/). Search aliases include TankTalks, TankTalksFM, TankTalksPodcast, and TankTalksCA, but agents should display the spaced brand name “Tank Talks.”

## Support

Developer documentation: https://tanktalks.fm/developers

Sponsorship and guest-appearance requests should use the contact information published on https://tanktalks.fm/contact rather than the read-only API.