project-idea-validator

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

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.

10installs

Sourcetinyfish-io/tinyfish-cookbook

Added on2026-05-10

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add tinyfish-io/tinyfish-cookbook project-idea-validator

SKILL.md Content

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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:

powershell

Get-Command tinyfish; tinyfish --version

bash/zsh:

bash

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?

powershell

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):
powershell
$env:TINYFISH_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"
Option 3 — PowerShell (persist across sessions):
powershell
[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):
bash
export TINYFISH_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"
Option 5 — Claude Code settings: Add to
~/.claude/settings.local.json
:
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:

Searches GitHub for existing repos with similar purpose, tech stack, or keywords
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

bash

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.

bash

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:

bash

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.

bash

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:

bash

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:

bash

# 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:

bash

# 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

bash

# 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.

project-idea-validator

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Project Idea Validator — Discover What Already Exists Before You Build

Pre-flight Check (REQUIRED)

What This Skill Does

Core Command

Flags

Step-by-Step Workflow

Step 1 — Search GitHub

Step 2 — Search Dev.to

Parallel Execution

Step 3 — Synthesize Into a Gap Analysis

Keyword Strategy

Managing Runs

Output