Identifying Competitors

---
name: identifying-competitors
description: Finds out who a brand competes with. Reads what the brand sells from its site, searches the web for the alternatives buyers compare it against, and proposes a shortlist with competitor names and websites. Use when the user asks who their competitors are, or to find or refresh their competitor list, or when another skill needs competitors named first.
license: Apache-2.0
metadata:
  version: "0.2.0"
  category: creative
  summary: "Finds who a brand competes with: searches the web for the alternatives buyers compare it against, proposes a shortlist with a source per name, and confirms the real ones for other skills to build on."
---

# Competitors

Find who a brand competes with, confirm the list, and hand it over. **Names and websites only.**

## Workflow

### Step 1: Check whether the competitors are already known

Read `competitors.md` in `./supercmo-company`, and `brand.md` for the brand's name, website and what it sells. Where `competitors.md` already holds this brand's competitors, hand them back and stop — re-searching bills again and tells the user nothing new. Carry on where it's missing, where it's a different brand, or where the user asked to refresh.

### Step 2: Settle the brand

You need **a brand name and a website**. Where you don't already have them, ask the user for whichever is missing. Do not proceed without the website.

### Step 3: Learn what the brand sells

Call `url_extraction` on the website to learn what the brand sells. Skip this where you already know.

### Step 4: Find the candidates

Search the web with queries like:

- `alternatives to <brand>` — how buyers who already know the brand shop around.
- `best <category> for <audience>` — how buyers who don't yet know the brand find the category.

The search comes back with an answer and the source it drew from. Take the competitor names and websites from there. Where a query returns nothing, vary the category words and search again.

**Every candidate needs a source** — the search result that named it. Don't add competitors from memory.

Where search runs thin — a niche category, a non-English market — `social_research` on `meta_ad_library` / `search_ads` with the category words shows who actually advertises in the space. **It spends credits: say so and wait for a yes.**

### Step 5: Confirm

Show 3–5 top competitor candidates in one message — name, website, and one line on why it competes. Ask which are real, which to drop, and who is missing.

**Where the brief says to skip confirmation**, save the shortlist without waiting.

### Step 6: Hand it over

Write the confirmed list to `competitors.md` in `./supercmo-company` — one line each, the name then
its website. Create the folder where it doesn't exist.

**Where `competitors.md` already exists**, merge into it: keep the competitors already listed unless
the user dropped them, and add the new ones.

Close by showing the list and giving the path.

## Edge cases

- **`error: "no_provider_configured"`** on any tool → relay the tool's `hint` (the user must set their key).
- **A candidate is a retailer, marketplace or comparison site** → not a competitor unless the user says so. Say why you dropped it.
- **The brand sells in several countries** → competitors differ by market. Ask which one this list is for rather than mixing them.
- **The user wants those competitors' ads researched** → that is `researching-competitor-ads`. Hand over and say which competitors you used.