scan
On-demand trend scan for a topic. Search HN and GitHub for what's happening now.
When & Why to Use This Skill
This Claude skill provides on-demand trend scanning across Hacker News and GitHub, enabling users to discover emerging technologies, community discussions, and trending repositories in real-time. By integrating Perplexity search for broader web coverage (including Reddit, Twitter, and arXiv), it transforms raw data into actionable insights and pattern recognition to help professionals stay ahead of the curve in any technical domain.
Use Cases
- Tech Trend Analysis: Stay updated on the latest developments in specific domains like WebAssembly or AI agents by scanning community signals and code repositories simultaneously.
- Market & Competitor Research: Identify emerging tools, libraries, and architectural patterns before they go mainstream by analyzing engagement levels and developer sentiment.
- Project Feasibility & Validation: Research existing implementations and community interest on GitHub and HN before starting a new project to ensure relevance and identify potential gaps.
- Content Strategy & Ideation: Discover high-engagement topics and trending discussions to inform technical writing, newsletters, or social media content with data-backed insights.
| name | scan |
|---|---|
| description | "On-demand trend scan for a topic. Search HN and GitHub for what's happening now." |
Trend Scanning
Scan current trends across Hacker News and GitHub for any topic.
When to Use
- "What's happening in [domain]?"
- Research before starting a new project
- Staying current with technology trends
- Finding emerging tools and patterns
Basic Scan
scan_trends(topic: "WebAssembly")
Returns:
- Signals from HN and GitHub
- Detected patterns across sources
- Relevance scoring based on your profile
- Actionable suggestions
Targeted Scans
HN only (community discussions):
scan_trends(topic: "AI agents", sources: ["hackernews"])
GitHub only (code and repos):
scan_trends(topic: "rust CLI tools", sources: ["github"])
Deep Dive
After finding interesting signals:
explore_pattern(topic: "specific-pattern")
Perplexity Integration
For aggregated web search across Reddit, Twitter, arXiv, and more:
perplexity_search("your topic in the context of your domains")
Pattern-radar generates ready-to-use Perplexity queries in scan results.
Understanding Results
Signals: Individual items (HN stories, GitHub repos)
- Score: Engagement level (HN points, GitHub stars)
- Source: Where it came from
Patterns: Clusters of related signals
- Relevance: How well it matches your domains
- Actions: Suggested next steps
Tips
- Scan broad topics first, then narrow down
- Use your profile domains for automatic relevance scoring
- Combine with perplexity_search for comprehensive coverage
- Save interesting patterns to shared-memory