/research-competitors

name: research-competitors
description: >-
  Competitor research: what every main rival is running, launching, charging and saying now, what
  works for them, and what that means for you. Use when the marketer asks for competitor research or a
  teardown, "what ads are my competitors running", "how do they price", "find gaps and angles", "what
  changed this week" (a weekly watch), or "X just launched / shut down / cut prices" (react now).
  Delivers a readable report saved to the brand, so the next run reports what changed. Never copies
  their words or disparages them. Not for what people say about you or your market — use
  research-market; not for who your buyers are — use research-audience.
version: 0.4.1

research-competitors

Competitor research tells the marketer what to do next; it is not a list of ads. Craft: `references/research-spec.md`; worker briefs: its step skills (`research-competitors-<step>`); the report: `references/report-format.md` — next to this file.

**The rule that matters most: free pass first, ask nothing, report once** (`../marketing-guide/research-pattern.md` (in the `marketing-guide` skill) — read it before the first search). Research every dimension for every main rival, browser-only sources included, before the first message; never ask permission for free work or offer to pay for what a free read could get. An ask that names an area ("what ads are they running?") gets that area covered completely, news and launches first.

Before you start

1. **Setup first:** do the `marketing-guide` skill (`../marketing-guide/SKILL.md`) §1–2 (connect, brand, brain read) before anything else; the job line is "I research your competitors and save what I find through it." Here: a named brand not in the account → create it from its website (`gooseworks:brand_setup`) without asking and wait for its research (`gooseworks:job_get`); don't show a menu unrelated to research. Fallback brand read: `gooseworks:brand_read` (`summary`, `kit`, `products`, `competitors`, `organic`, `learnings`). Either path: `gooseworks:competitor_read` (+ `suggestions`), `gooseworks:automation_list`; workspace: `research/competitors/` (last report, rival records), `research/market/` (the newest market report and its "which market" decision), `research/audience/` (`buyer-groups.md` and the latest audience report), `plans/`, `reports/performance/`. Brand facts: brain first, website second. Claims: only the read step of the `claims-gate` skill (`../claims-gate/SKILL.md`) now. 2. **Run memory:** job `competitor research` or `competitor watch`; what this job hands the atom is in `references/run-memory.md`. Its "since last time" opens the chat and the report's story. 3. Never change the host's settings or permissions, and never seed a search or a worker with names or claims from memory — only what a source gave you.

Steps

1. **Find the field yourself, before any worker starts.** About 6–10 searches by the main run: news for our brand and the category (last 90 days), then "best <category>", "<brand> alternatives", "<the strongest saved rival> alternatives", "<category> tools", and one AI answer. The saved roster is a starting list, never the answer. State the **frame of reference** in one line — the category we compete in (research-market's decision when it exists) and the other frames we could claim (e.g. "AI ad-creative tool" vs "AI agents for go-to-market teams"), because the frame decides which rivals matter. Then choose 3–6 main rivals — the ones buyers compare us with now, each with its reason — and 2–4 adjacent options (doing it yourself, an agency, the platforms' own tools). **If the frame or the main rivals differ from the last run's, say so in one line with the reason** ("Last run compared us with Jasper and Copy.ai; this run with Creatify, because…") — the frame never swings silently. A name you'd only watch goes in the brief competition line, not as a main rival. Anything from the last 30 days is a candidate **timely opening**.

2. **Brief the workers — lean.** Exactly one subagent per main rival with the `research-competitors-rival-pass` skill (`../research-competitors-rival-pass/SKILL.md`) (**a new entrant you'd call closest to our buyer, or hitting us harder than a main rival, counts as a main rival** — it gets its own worker, never just a name), one with the `research-competitors-category-pass` skill (`../research-competitors-category-pass/SKILL.md`), one with rival-pass on our own brand — no more, no workflow on top. Paste the short brief's full text with `brand_id`, our product summary, approved claims, the frame, a typical-buyer scenario for pricing ("a 10-person team making 40 ads a month"), the off-limits list and today's date; workers don't load skills or start their own subagents. Standard depth is the brief's cap (about 12 searches and 12 fetches each); a deep teardown — quarterly, or when the marketer asks — doubles it. A cheaper model is fine. Workers use web search, page fetch and the free server reads, and return everything, including the pages that need the browser. Edge cases — no browser, a stalled or stopped worker, facts from earlier research, a bad rival on the list, a report already saved today, a late read — follow the `research-competitors-edge-cases` skill (`../research-competitors-edge-cases/SKILL.md`).

3. **Open the browser-only sources yourself, before the report.** Workers often can't. For every main rival and for us: the Meta, LinkedIn, Google and TikTok ad libraries, searched by the advertiser's page or name (not the domain), plus the pages workers listed (X and LinkedIn posts, script-only pricing pages, review pages that block fetch). Tell the marketer once, in one line, first.

4. **Go deep on what moved.** For the 1–2 biggest launches, watch the demo and the 3 best third-party posts (`references/rival-craft.md` §5) and break each into hook, setup, reveal, proof, CTA; write a **format brief** per demo. Counter-position only if the **leverage te