Competitor Watch

---
# GENERATED from SKILL.md.tmpl — edit the .tmpl, then run scripts/build.sh.
name: competitor-watch
version: 0.1.0
publisher: localoy
capabilities: [files, web, browser]
description: >-
  A sourced comparison of the competitors the person names — offer, price,
  positioning and recent changes, each value read from a page and dated.
  Re-run it and it shows what changed since last time. (localstack)
author: localoy
license: MIT
platforms: [linux, macos, windows]
metadata:
  hermes:
    tags: [research, strategy, competitors, localstack]
    related_skills: [market-research, routine-setup]
allowed-tools:
  - Bash
  - Read
  - Write
  - WebSearch
  - WebFetch
  - AskUserQuestion
triggers:
  - compare our competitors
  - watch our competitors
  - what changed at our competitors
  - competitor analysis
  - how do we compare to
tags: [research, competitors, comparison]
---

## When to invoke this skill

Builds a side-by-side of named competitors — what they offer, what it costs,
how they position it, what changed recently — every cell read from a page and
dated. Run it again later and it says what moved. Use when asked to "compare
our competitors", "what changed at X", "how do we stack up". Umbra's skill;
for an open market question, use `/market-research`. To run it every week,
hand it to `/routine-setup`.

## The hard boundary

- **Named competitors only.** The person names them, or approves a list you
  propose from search (with the URL that surfaced each). Never pad the
  table with companies nobody asked about.
- **Every cell is an observation.** A value carries the URL it was read at
  and the date. Not shown publicly → `UNKNOWN — <where you looked>`. A
  price behind "contact sales" is `not public`, never an estimate.
- **Changes are diffs, not impressions.** "Changed" means the value read
  today differs from the value recorded last run. A change you cannot point
  to both values for is not a change.
- **No signing in, no trials, no fake sign-ups.** Public pages and public
  search results only. Never create an account or start a trial to see a
  price.

## What you need first

- **The competitors** — names or sites.
- **What we sell** — DESIGN.md or a `PLAN-*.md` may say; else one line from
  the person, so "positioning" has something to sit beside.

Ask for what is missing in a SINGLE message, then wait.

## What you read first

- `competitors-<topic>.md`, if it exists — last run's values and their dates
  are the baseline for "what changed". Say when it was last updated.
- DESIGN.md — our own positioning.

## Procedure

**1. Load** the inputs above. Slug: `<topic>` from the market
(`invoicing-tools`).

Scratch for this run lives in `.localstack/work/{date}-{slug}/` — hidden, one directory per run, so a new run never clobbers an earlier one and the folder's top level stays the standard files. Scratch is disposable; old run directories may be deleted freely.

**2. Read each competitor.** Fetch the homepage, pricing page, product or
features page, and the newest changelog, blog or news item you can find.
Record per competitor in `.localstack/work/{date}-<topic>/<competitor>.md`:
offer (what they sell, in one line, their words quoted), price (plans and
amounts as shown, currency, billing period), positioning (their headline,
quoted; who they say it is for), recent changes (dated items from their own
pages or news), each with URL.

**3. Compare against last run.** For every cell that has a previous value,
mark `same`, `changed (was <old> on <date>)`, or `could not re-check`. A page
that moved or vanished is itself a change — record it.

**4. Write** `competitors-<topic>.md` at the top of the working folder:

```
# Competitors — <topic>
Updated: YYYY-MM-DD · last run: <date or "first run">

## What changed since <last run date>
- <Competitor>: <field> was "<old>", now "<new>" — <URL>
(or "Nothing changed in the fields checked.")

## Side by side
| | Offer | Price | Positioning | Recent changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <Competitor> | … (URL) | … (URL) | "…" (URL) | YYYY-MM-DD … (URL) |

## Where we sit
<3–5 points: where our offer or price differs, from DESIGN.md vs the table —
each pointing at the cells it rests on>

## Could not check
- <Competitor — field — why>
```

The previous run's values survive in git and the CHANGELOG line; keep a copy
of this run's raw notes in the scratch directory so the next run can diff.

**Standard files.** This folder is kept in files any agent already reads. Update them in place; never scatter output into new folders.
- **AGENTS.md** — create it if missing. localstack owns only the block between `<!-- localstack:start -->` and `<!-- localstack:end -->`; rewrite that block, never anything outside it. The block says what this folder is for, the rules (drafts only; nothing is sent without the user's explicit yes, one message at a time; no invented facts), a map of the files below, and one line per topic (its PLAN, its lead count, the next unticked step) and per report (its file and date).
- **CHANGELOG.md** — create it if missing (`# Changelog`). Add one bullet for this run under today's `## YYYY-MM-DD` heading, newest date first: the skill, the topic, and the counts or outcome (e.g. `- lead-search austin-dentists: 18 found, 3 skipped as already contacted`).
- **TODOS.md** — create it if missing (`# TODOs`). Add each open next action as `- [ ] <action> (<topic>)`; tick items this run finished; never delete lines.
- **DESIGN.md** — decisions meant to last (positioning, tone, channels to use or avoid). Read it before writing anything a person will see; add to it only when the user states or approves a decision.

For this step: the CHANGELOG line gives competitors read, cells filled,
changes found (each named briefly). One TODO per change worth a decision
(`- [ ] decide how to respond: <competitor> <change> (competitor-watch
<topic>)`).

**5. Report.** Lead with what changed, then where we sit. Offer
`/routine-setup` to re-run it on a schedule.

**Completion status.** End the chat report with one of:
- **DONE** — completed, with the evidence named (files written, counts, URLs).
- **DONE_WITH_CONCERNS** — completed, and list each concern.
- **BLOCKED** — cannot proceed; say what blocked it and what was tried.
- **NEEDS_CONTEXT** — missing information; say exactly what is needed.

## Quality bar

- Every cell opens to a page that shows its value on the date given.
- "What changed" lists only differences with both values on record.
- A table with honest `UNKNOWN`s beats a full one filled from memory.