project-idea-validator

name

project-idea-validator

description

Researches any project idea against live data from GitHub and Dev.to to surface what already exists, how mature the space is, and where the real opportunity lives. Use when a developer describes something they want to build and wants to know if it's been done before. Triggers on phrases like "validate my idea", "has this been built", "is this already a thing", "what exists for X", "should I build this", "is this idea original", "check if my project exists", "what are the alternatives to what I want to build", "is the market saturated for X", or any request to research the competitive landscape before starting a project.

Project Idea Validator — Discover What Already Exists Before You Build

You have access to the TinyFish CLI (tinyfish), a tool that runs browser automations from the terminal using natural language goals. This skill uses it to search GitHub and Dev.to in parallel, then synthesizes results into a gap analysis report.

Pre-flight Check (REQUIRED)

Before making any TinyFish call, always run BOTH checks:

1. CLI installed?

PowerShell:

Get-Command tinyfish; tinyfish --version

bash/zsh:

which tinyfish && tinyfish --version || echo "TINYFISH_CLI_NOT_INSTALLED"

If not installed, stop and tell the user:

Install the TinyFish CLI: npm install -g @tiny-fish/cli

2. Authenticated?

tinyfish auth status

If not authenticated, stop and tell the user:

You need a TinyFish API key. Get one at: https://agent.tinyfish.ai/api-keys

Then authenticate:

Option 1 — CLI login (interactive):

tinyfish auth login

Option 2 — PowerShell (current session only):

$env:TINYFISH_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Option 3 — PowerShell (persist across sessions):

[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("TINYFISH_API_KEY", "your_api_key_here", "User")

Then close and reopen PowerShell for it to take effect.

Option 4 — bash/zsh (Mac/Linux):

export TINYFISH_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Option 5 — Claude Code settings: Add to ~/.claude/settings.local.json:

{
  "env": {
    "TINYFISH_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
  }
}

Do NOT proceed until both checks pass.

---

What This Skill Does

Given a project idea (e.g. "a CLI tool that converts Figma designs to Tailwind components"), this skill:

1. Searches GitHub for existing repos with similar purpose, tech stack, or keywords
2. Searches Dev.to for articles, tutorials, or project showcases covering the same problem

It then synthesizes findings into a structured gap analysis: what exists, how mature it is, and where the opportunity still lives.

---

Core Command

tinyfish agent run --url <url> "<goal>"

Flags

Flag	Purpose
--url <url>	Target website URL
--sync	Wait for full result (no streaming)
--async	Submit and return immediately
--pretty	Human-readable formatted output

---

Step-by-Step Workflow

Step 1 — Search GitHub

Search for existing repositories matching the idea. Run with --sync since you need the full list before synthesizing.

tinyfish agent run --sync --url "https://github.com/search?q=<keywords>&type=repositories&s=stars&o=desc" \
  "Extract the top 10 search results as JSON: [{\"name\": str, \"owner\": str, \"description\": str, \"stars\": str, \"url\": str, \"last_updated\": str}]"

Example for a Figma-to-Tailwind CLI idea:

tinyfish agent run --sync \
  --url "https://github.com/search?q=figma+tailwind+cli&type=repositories&s=stars&o=desc" \
  "Extract the top 10 repositories as JSON: [{\"name\": str, \"owner\": str, \"description\": str, \"stars\": str, \"url\": str, \"last_updated\": str}]"

---

Step 2 — Search Dev.to

Search for articles and project posts covering the same problem space. Run in parallel with Step 1 results processing.

tinyfish agent run --sync --url "https://dev.to/search?q=<keywords>" \
  "Extract the top 10 articles as JSON: [{\"title\": str, \"author\": str, \"tags\": [str], \"published_at\": str, \"url\": str, \"reactions\": str}]"

Example:

tinyfish agent run --sync \
  --url "https://dev.to/search?q=figma+tailwind+component+generator" \
  "Extract the top 10 articles as JSON: [{\"title\": str, \"author\": str, \"tags\": [str], \"published_at\": str, \"url\": str, \"reactions\": str}]"

---

Parallel Execution

Steps 1 and 2 are independent — run them at the same time. Do NOT wait for GitHub before starting Dev.to.

Good — Parallel calls:

# Fire both simultaneously
tinyfish agent run --sync --url "https://github.com/search?q=<keywords>&type=repositories&s=stars&o=desc" \
  "Extract top 10 repositories as JSON: [{\"name\": str, \"owner\": str, \"description\": str, \"stars\": str, \"url\": str, \"last_updated\": str}]" &

tinyfish agent run --sync --url "https://dev.to/search?q=<keywords>" \
  "Extract top 10 articles as JSON: [{\"title\": str, \"author\": str, \"url\": str, \"reactions\": str}]" &

wait

Bad — Sequential calls:

# Don't do this — wastes time and gives the same results
tinyfish agent run --url "https://github.com/..." "...also search Dev.to..."

Each source is its own call. Always.

---

Step 3 — Synthesize Into a Gap Analysis

Once both sources return results, synthesize findings into this structure:

## Project Idea Validation: <idea title>

### What Already Exists
- <project/article> — <what it does, stars/reactions, last active>
- ...

### Maturity Assessment
- GitHub: <active / abandoned / fragmented>
- Dev.to coverage: <heavy / moderate / sparse>

### Gaps & Opportunities
- <specific gap #1>
- <specific gap #2>
- ...

### Verdict
<1–2 sentences: is the space crowded, open, or ripe for a better take?>

Use the raw JSON from both sources as input. Do not hallucinate repo names, star counts, or article titles — only use what TinyFish returned.

---

Keyword Strategy

The quality of results depends heavily on your search terms. Before running, derive 2–3 keyword variants from the idea:

Idea	Primary keywords	Variant keywords
Figma-to-Tailwind CLI	figma tailwind cli	figma css export, design token tailwind
AI code review bot	ai code review github	llm pull request, automated code feedback
Markdown-to-Notion sync	markdown notion sync	notion import cli, notion api markdown

Run separate parallel calls for each variant if the first pass returns sparse results.

---

Managing Runs

# List recent runs
tinyfish agent run list

# Get a specific run by ID
tinyfish agent run get <run_id>

# Cancel a running automation
tinyfish agent run cancel <run_id>

---

Output

The CLI streams data: {...} SSE lines by default. The final result is the event where type == "COMPLETE" and status == "COMPLETED" — the extracted data is in the resultJson field. Read the raw output directly; no script-side parsing is needed.