Competitor Feedback

Competitor feedback watch

Pulls real user feedback from SoloMD's competitors and turns it into a product signal: what their users want that we could win on, and what they ship that we lack.

Channels (which tools actually work)

The global AGENTS.md mentions an unzoo browser. The mcp__unzoo__* MCP tools are not installed — but unzoo IS available as a local REST API at http://127.0.0.1:9399 (a real headless Chromium: JS rendering, anti-bot, cookies). Use it via the bundled unzoo.sh wrapper, not MCP calls.

• GitHub (primary, structured): the gh CLI, driven by scan.sh — gives reaction-sorted issue lists (best unmet-demand signal). This is the main channel.
• Closed-source competitors (Typora, Obsidian, Bear, iA Writer, Tolaria…): no public issue API → use unzoo.sh to read their forums/Reddit: unzoo.sh fetch-web <forum-url> and unzoo.sh search-web "<name> bug …". unzoo.sh discover-rss <site> can find a feed to poll. WebSearch/WebFetch are fine fallbacks.
• GitHub fallback: if gh/the GitHub API is rate-limited or EOFs (CN network), unzoo.sh search-github "<query>" / unzoo.sh fetch-github <owner> <repo> reach GitHub through the browser backend and often succeed when gh doesn't.
• Check it's up first: unzoo.sh health → {"status":"ok"}. Endpoints accept url / query / owner+repo; responses are {success, data} JSON.

Steps

1. Pick mode.

   • Full scan (default): bash .Codex/skills/competitor-feedback/scan.sh
   • Subscribe / incremental (only issues opened since last run): bash .Codex/skills/competitor-feedback/scan.sh new
   • Restrict to some competitors: scan.sh full Logseq SiYuan
   • Tune volume with LIMIT=12 scan.sh.

   The competitor registry is competitors.json (edit to add/remove). GitHub-hosted ones are fetched directly; the script prints the GitHub digest and then lists the closed-source competitors for you to handle in step 2. It also writes .last-scan so the next new run is truly incremental — that's the "subscribe" behaviour.

2. Web channel for closed-source competitors (via unzoo — the real browser). unzoo.sh health first. Then for each closed-source competitor scan.sh listed: unzoo.sh fetch-web <forum/reddit url from competitors.json> and unzoo.sh search-web "<name> bug OR missing feature OR complaint <year>". (WebSearch/WebFetch are fallbacks if unzoo is down.) Extract recurring themes — don't dump raw posts.

3. Synthesize — this is the point, not the raw list. Group everything into recurring themes (e.g. "sync conflicts", "mobile parity", "large-vault perf", "plugin breakage"). For each theme note which competitors it hits and rough volume (top-voted issue = strong signal).

4. Cross-reference against SoloMD. Read docs/roadmap.md and recent SoloMD issues (gh issue list --repo zhitongblog/solomd --state open). Then output two ranked lists:

   • Win-on: pains competitors' users repeatedly hit that SoloMD already does better or could cheaply own (these are positioning/marketing + wedge opportunities).
   • Gaps: things competitors ship that SoloMD lacks and users clearly value (candidate roadmap items). Be honest about effort.
   • Flag any theme that overlaps SoloMD's own recent complaints (shared weak spot).

5. Write the report to docs/competitor-feedback/YYYY-MM-DD.md (create the dir). Structure: TL;DR (3-5 bullets) → themes table → Win-on → Gaps → raw per-competitor appendix (the scan.sh output + web findings, for traceability). Keep the synthesis tight and opinionated; the founder reads the TL;DR first.

Notes

• CN network flakes on the GitHub API — scan.sh already retries; if a competitor shows "(fetch failed)", just re-run it for that one (scan.sh full <name>).
• This is a read-only research skill. It never posts to competitors' trackers.
• Cadence suggestion: run scan.sh new weekly; it stays incremental via .last-scan.