🚀 prelaunch-mcp

Smarter pre-build reality check for AI agents.

Stop building what already exists. prelaunch-mcp scans 6 sources with LLM-powered intent parsing to tell you if your idea has competition, if there's real demand, and where the gaps are.

✨ What Makes This Different

| Feature | Other validation tools | prelaunch-mcp | | ------------------------ | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | Intent understanding | Dictionary keyword stripping | 🧠 LLM-powered intent parsing | | Search queries | Generic keyword variants | Targeted competitor-finding queries | | Sources | 3-5 dev-only sources | 6 (GitHub, HN, npm, PyPI, Google/DDG, Reddit) | | Scoring | Simple bucket math | Relevance-weighted with intelligent caps | | Demand signals | ❌ None | ✅ Reddit pain signal detection | | Insights | Static templates | Context-aware dynamic insights | | Output | Single score | competition_score + demand_score + gap analysis |

📦 Installation

For Claude Code / Cursor / Windsurf

# Add to your MCP config
claude mcp add prelaunch -- uvx prelaunch-mcp

For other MCP clients

Add to your MCP config (e.g., .claude.json, mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "prelaunch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["prelaunch-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "your-key-here",
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Run directly

uvx prelaunch-mcp

🔑 Environment Variables

All API keys are user-provided. We never store or transmit your keys.

| Variable | Required | Purpose | | ------------------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------- | | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | Recommended | LLM intent parsing (Claude Haiku — ~$0.001/check) | | OPENAI_API_KEY | Alternative | LLM parsing via OpenAI or compatible API | | OPENAI_BASE_URL | Optional | Custom endpoint (Ollama, LM Studio, etc.) | | GITHUB_TOKEN | Optional | Higher GitHub API rate limits | | GOOGLE_CSE_KEY | Optional | Google Custom Search (falls back to DuckDuckGo) | | GOOGLE_CSE_ID | Optional | Google Custom Search Engine ID |

Without any API keys, the tool still works using fallback keyword extraction and all free sources (GitHub, HN, PyPI, npm, DuckDuckGo, Reddit).

🎯 Usage

Once installed, your AI agent can call it naturally:

"Check if anyone has built an AI agent security scanner"
"Is there competition for a Kubernetes cost optimization dashboard?"
"Run a pre-launch check on: open-source compliance tool for Indian banks"

Depth Modes

| Mode | Speed | Sources | LLM | | ---------- | ----------- | --------------------- | ---------------------- | | quick | ⚡ Fast | GitHub + HN | No | | standard | 🔄 Balanced | All 6 sources | Yes (if key available) | | deep | 🔍 Thorough | All 6 + extra queries | Yes (if key available) |

📊 Example Output

{
  "competition_score": 42,
  "demand_score": 60,
  "competition_level": "high",
  "intent": {
    "category": "security",
    "product_type": "CLI tool",
    "target_audience": "AI engineers",
    "target_technology": "LangChain, CrewAI",
    "analogy": "npm audit but for AI agents",
    "core_problem": "No automated security scanning for AI agent deployments"
  },
  "top_similars": [...],
  "pain_signals": [
    {
      "title": "Anyone built security tooling for LangChain agents?",
      "url": "https://reddit.com/...",
      "subreddit": "LangChain",
      "score": 47
    }
  ],
  "insights": [
    "🟡 Moderate competition — the space exists but isn't saturated.",
    "🔥 Strong demand signal: 3 Reddit posts expressing unmet need.",
    "✅ Promising: competition validates market AND demand signals confirm unmet needs.",
    "🧭 Analogy: \"npm audit but for AI agents\" — validate dynamics apply to security."
  ]
}

🔧 Development

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/Heman10x-NGU/prelaunch-mcp.git
cd prelaunch-mcp

# Install deps
uv sync --dev

# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Run server locally
uv run prelaunch-mcp

Architecture

Input: "AI agent security scanner like npm audit for CrewAI"
    │
    ├── Stage 1: LLM Intent Parse (or fallback keywords)
    │   → category: "security" | type: "CLI tool" | queries: [...]
    │
    ├── Stage 2: Multi-Source Scan (parallel)
    │   → GitHub, HN, PyPI, npm, Google/DDG, Reddit
    │
    └── Stage 3: Scoring & Analysis
        → competition_score + demand_score + gap insights

License

MIT

prelaunch-mcp