Competitor scan

Competitor Radar Setup

Turns "I want to track my competitors" into a live, self-refreshing, branded dashboard in one guided session. This skill sets up the machine; the competitor-radar skill is the machine.

Step 1: Discovery Q&A (interactive)

Ask, one topic at a time, adapting to answers:

1. Niche / what they do (so competitor discovery and framing are accurate).
2. Competitors, three modes:
   • They name them, or
   • They ask you to find and recommend competitors: search YouTube, the web, and their niche communities, propose 5-8 with a one-line why each, and let them confirm/trim, or
   • A mix (they name a few, you fill the rest).
3. Platforms to track: which of YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, community (Skool/Circle), SEO. Only track what matters to their niche (a local business cares about Google reviews + local SEO; a creator cares about YouTube + shorts platforms).
4. Brand: colors, fonts, logo. If they have a design system or a site, extract from it; else use sensible defaults and confirm.
5. Cadence: weekly (default, Monday) or monthly (1st). And where to post it (Slack channel, email).

Write their answers into a config.json shaped like the competitor-radar skill's config (roster + platforms + apify_actors + brand + slack_channel + live_url + deploy_repo).

Step 2: Connect the data sources

Get the scrapers connected before building. See references/data-sources.md for the platform-to-actor mapping, Firecrawl and YouTube setup, and the avatar-inlining rule.

Step 3: Build the branded dashboard

Reuse the competitor-radar skill's assets/template.html + scripts/build_dashboard.py, restyled to their brand (swap the CSS color/font tokens, keep the structure: Demo/Actual tabs, per-platform columns, expand cards, focus/blur toggle, week-over-week deltas). Gather the first week of real data via the connectors, write radar_data.js, run the build, and open it for their approval before deploying. Inline avatars per the rule in references/data-sources.md.

Step 4: Deploy to a stable URL

Deploy so the URL never changes across refreshes. See references/deploy-and-routine.md.

Step 5: Schedule the refresh routine

Create a cloud routine on the chosen cadence that refreshes the data, deploys, and Slacks the link. See references/deploy-and-routine.md for cron values and the connector vs. embedded-API decision that makes the routine work.

Step 6: Hand off

Give them: the live URL, the repo, the routine id and its next run time, and a one-paragraph "how to add/remove a competitor" note (edit config.json roster, the next run picks it up). Confirm the first refresh by triggering one manual run and checking the Slack post lands.

Reference implementation

The competitor-radar skill is the working, deployed example, refreshed by a weekly routine. Clone its skill/ folder as the starting point rather than rebuilding from scratch.

Self-improvement

This skill is never finished. Improve it as you use it.

• When the user corrects how a step was done, update the relevant reference file (references/data-sources.md, references/deploy-and-routine.md) or this SKILL.md so the correction sticks. Do not just fix it for this run.
• When a correction is a hard rule ("always X", "never Y"), add it as a permanent rule here.
• When the user says an output was genuinely good, save it to references/examples/ so it becomes a model for future runs.
• Keep the skill small: when you add something, run the deletion test and cut anything that no longer changes behavior.