scf-submission-radar

name	scf-submission-radar
description	Position a Stellar Community Fund (SCF) idea against prior submissions before applying, using LumenLoop's SCF data. Use when the user is preparing an SCF application, wants to find similar past proposals, check what's been funded in an area, or sharpen their SCF positioning.
user-invocable	true

SCF Submission Radar

Position a Stellar Community Fund (SCF) idea against the public record of prior submissions, so you can sharpen the pitch, find the right category, and avoid re-proposing something already funded. This is research and positioning only — it does not submit anything to SCF. It runs entirely on LumenLoop's free, read-only Stellar ecosystem MCP (https://mcp.lumenloop.com), which mirrors the public SCF submissions index alongside the project directory and editorial content.

When to use this skill

• The user is drafting an SCF application and wants to know what's been proposed or funded in their space already.
• They ask "has anyone built / pitched X to SCF?" or "what's the competition for my idea?"
• They want to pick the right SCF category and award track for a proposal.
• They have a one-liner for a product and want a positioning brief before they write the long application.
• They found one prior submission and want to see its neighbors / the team's full SCF history.

Related skills

• LumenLoop MCP setup and tool overview → ../lumenloop-mcp-connect/SKILL.md
• Deep due-diligence on a single team behind a submission → ../stellar-project-dossier/SKILL.md
• Map the wider sector your idea sits in → ../stellar-ecosystem-scout/SKILL.md
• Once positioning is clear, plan the build → ask for the stellar-builder-quickstart skill, and for Soroban / dapp / asset / data references see the Stellar docs at https://developers.stellar.org.

---

The tools you use

Step	Tool	Why
Find prior art by idea	find_similar_scf_submissions (with query)	Embedding search over past submissions
Find neighbors of one submission	find_similar_scf_submissions (with slug)	"More like this" for a known submission
A team's full SCF history	get_scf_submissions	All submissions linked to a project
Profile the team	get_project (compact: true)	Title / category / tags / links
Confirm category vocabulary	get_categories	The 5 live category buckets
Reality-check who already ships	search_directory + find_similar_projects_semantic	Live projects in the space

find_similar_scf_submissions takes query XOR slug — pass one, not both. Use query for a natural-language idea; use slug (a submission id like recsAQHCghw9HIUvF) to find neighbors of a specific submission.

---

Recipe

1. Find the closest prior submissions to the idea

Lead with the idea as a natural-language query. Optionally narrow by category (one of the 5 live values) or round, and set limit (8–12 is a good sweep).

find_similar_scf_submissions(
  query: "non-custodial payroll streaming on Stellar for remote teams",
  limit: 10
)

Returns one row per submission:

field	use
title	the pitch headline
description	what they proposed
category	which of the 5 buckets it landed in
round	which SCF round
award_type	the funding outcome / track (your "did it get funded?" signal)
linked_project_slug	the directory project to drill into

Scan award_type and description to separate funded prior art (strong signal a problem is validated — and a crowded lane) from proposed-but-not-awarded (an opening, or a warning that reviewers passed). Note every linked_project_slug you'll want to profile.

2. Profile the teams behind the closest matches

For each interesting linked_project_slug, get a slim profile and the team's full SCF history.

get_project(slug: "decaf", compact: true)
get_scf_submissions(slug: "decaf")

get_project with compact: true returns ~500 chars: slug, title, short description, category, tags, twitter_handles, website, other_names — enough to judge maturity and focus without the full row. get_scf_submissions returns every submission linked to that project, so you can see whether they're a one-shot applicant or a repeat grantee, and across which rounds. (You can also pass name: to get_scf_submissions for a fuzzy lookup when you don't have a slug.)

3. Expand from a specific submission

When one prior submission is dead-on, pivot to its neighbors by slug to widen the comparison set without re-guessing keywords.

find_similar_scf_submissions(slug: "recsAQHCghw9HIUvF", limit: 8)

This surfaces submissions embedding-close to that one — often adjacent problem framings the keyword query missed.

4. Reality-check the live ecosystem

A funded submission is past tense; you also want who is shipping now. Run a couple of SHORT search_directory queries on the core capability, then grow the cluster semantically from a good hit.

search_directory(query: "payroll", limit: 10)
search_directory(query: "payments", limit: 10)
find_similar_projects_semantic(slug: "decaf", limit: 8)

Keep search_directory terms short — it is keyword/ILIKE over title/description/other_names, so a long phrase like "automated payroll for distributed teams" returns 0. Use one or two words; reach for find_similar_projects_semantic to expand from a seed. This catches live competitors who never went through SCF and tells you whether your lane is empty, crowded, or integrable.

5. Confirm the category fit

Categories are a controlled vocabulary — propose into one of the live values, not an invented one. Pull them to be sure:

get_categories()

Live values: Applications, Developer Tooling, Education & Community, Financial Protocols, Infrastructure & Services. Match your idea to the same bucket the closest funded prior art used — divergence from peers is a flag to re-read your framing.

---

Worked example: "on-chain invoice financing for SMEs"

1. find_similar_scf_submissions(query: "on-chain invoice financing and factoring for small businesses on Stellar", limit: 10) → returns prior submissions. Read each award_type: say two are funded under Financial Protocols (RWA / credit angle) and one community proposal in the same lane was not awarded.
2. For the two funded rows, take their linked_project_slug → get_project(slug, compact: true) + get_scf_submissions(slug). You learn one team has applied across two rounds (momentum + a moat), the other was a single award.
3. The closest funded submission is dead-on, so find_similar_scf_submissions(slug: "rec…") surfaces adjacent framings — supply-chain finance, trade receivables — showing where the cluster is dense vs thin.
4. Reality check: search_directory(query: "invoice") and search_directory(query: "RWA") (short!) plus find_similar_projects_semantic from a seed show which issuers are live today.
5. get_categories() confirms Financial Protocols is the right bucket.

You now know: the problem is validated (funded prior art exists), the lane has an incumbent (differentiate hard), the open adjacency is trade-receivables, and the category is Financial Protocols.

---

Output: a positioning brief

Synthesize into a short brief. Use the bundled template: reference/positioning-brief-template.md. It covers:

• Closest prior submissions — title, round, award_type (funded?), linked_project_slug, one-line takeaway.
• What's differentiated — what your idea does that the closest funded prior art does not.
• Category fit — which of the 5 live categories, matched to peer submissions.
• Suggested framing — the headline and award track to pitch into.
• Overlap / crowding risk — funded incumbents and live (non-SCF) competitors, and whether to differentiate vs integrate.
• Open adjacencies — neighboring problem framings that look under-served.

Always attribute outcomes to the public SCF record (round + award_type), and distinguish "funded" from "merely proposed". This skill positions an idea against that record — it does not apply to SCF on the user's behalf.

Pointers

• Stellar Community Fund program details: https://communityfund.stellar.org
• Build guidance for whatever you pitch: https://developers.stellar.org