tech-search

tech-search

Search for opinions and discussions from high-signal tech sources about a given topic.

Usage

/tech-search <topic>

Default workflow

Start with broad discovery, then deepen only where the source-specific signal matters. Do not build or invoke a repo-owned search engine for this skill.

1. Run WebSearch for the topic, biased toward primary sources, recent discussion, and source-specific pages.
2. Classify the topic and pick targeted follow-ups:
   • Named feature/tool/project: primary docs/repo first, then HN/Reddit/X reaction.
   • Security/reliability topic: official guidance, OWASP/CVE/vendor research, then practitioner discussion.
   • Comparison: search the full comparison and each side separately. Add disambiguating context (Python package manager, macOS window manager, etc.).
   • Workflow/how-to: strip literal phrases like "use cases", "workflow", "how to" from search strings; keep the intent in synthesis.
   • Ambiguous term: add domain keywords before searching. Example: uv poetry Python packaging, not uv vs poetry.
3. Use targeted tools/commands to verify source-specific evidence.
4. Synthesize only after deduping amplification and separating primary facts from community reaction.

The guiding rule: broad web finds the map; source-specific searches verify the terrain.

Sources

Search sources in parallel when practical, but do not force every source. Skipped sources are fine when they are irrelevant, unauthenticated, or low-signal.

Reference: references/reddit-discord-cli-eval.md records the repo evaluation behind the rdt-cli and discord-cli recommendations.

1. Web and primary sources

Use WebSearch first for:

• official docs and announcements
• vendor/security research
• release notes
• high-signal blog posts
• source-specific discovery (site:news.ycombinator.com, site:reddit.com, site:github.com)

Good query patterns:

<topic> official docs
<topic> GitHub
<topic> site:news.ycombinator.com
<topic> site:reddit.com/r/<subreddit>
<topic> security best practices OWASP CVE
<topic A> vs <topic B> Python packaging

For authoritative context: site:simonwillison.net, site:jvns.ca, site:danluu.com, vendor docs, release notes, and primary announcement posts.

2. GitHub

GitHub is first-class for developer tools, libraries, agent frameworks, MCP servers, and open source projects. Prefer exact repo/user lookups over keyword search when known.

gh repo view <owner>/<repo> --json nameWithOwner,description,stargazerCount,forkCount,updatedAt,latestRelease,url
gh issue list -R <owner>/<repo> --search "<topic>" --state all --limit 20 --json title,url,state,comments,updatedAt
gh pr list -R <owner>/<repo> --search "<topic>" --state all --limit 20 --json title,url,state,comments,updatedAt

Use GitHub to answer:

• what is the canonical repo?
• is the project active?
• what is shipping or breaking?
• what issues/PRs show real user pain?

3. Hacker News

Use Algolia search endpoint with a date filter when recency matters. Do NOT use search_by_date as the primary path - it returns fresh zero-comment noise.

https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=<topic>&tags=story&hitsPerPage=10&numericFilters=created_at_i>TIMESTAMP

Also use WebSearch for older high-signal HN threads when the topic is slow-moving. A one-year-old 500-comment HN discussion can matter more than a 2-point fresh repost.

Read threads at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=<objectID> and cite the HN thread when discussing comments or points. If the submitted URL matters, include it separately.

4. Reddit

Preferred path when installed:

rdt search "<topic>" -s relevance -t month -n 10 --compact --json
rdt search "<topic>" -r <subreddit> -s top -t year -n 10 --compact --json
rdt read <post_id> -n 20 --json

Target subreddits: r/ExperiencedDevs, r/ClaudeAI, r/ClaudeCode, r/LocalLLaMA, r/MachineLearning, r/devops, r/commandline, r/neovim, r/Python, r/mcp, r/cybersecurity

Pick 2-3 relevant subreddits. Avoid broad Reddit for ambiguous terms; it will chase engagement from irrelevant communities. Add context keywords, e.g. uv poetry Python packaging, not poetry.

Raw Reddit .json endpoints often 403 and should be treated as a fallback only. On VPS/headless hosts, rdt search may return Reddit forbidden without browser cookies; do not copy cookie secrets into chat. For historical posts or VPS fallback, use Pullpush API (https://api.pullpush.io/reddit/search/submission/?q=<topic>&size=5&sort=desc&sort_type=score).

5. X.com

Use x-cli for X.com searches. Check auth with x-cli auth status.

Power users: @karpathy, @fchollet, @hardmaru, @thorstenball, @thdxr, @steipete, @banteg

x-cli search "(from:karpathy OR from:fchollet) <topic>" --type latest --count 10 --json
x-cli search "<topic> (recommended OR \"game changer\")" --type top --count 10 --json

Fallback: site:x.com <topic> via WebSearch if x-cli auth is broken. Treat X as commentary unless the author is primary to the topic.

6. Discord

Discord remains opt-in because it uses user-token auth and may carry account-risk. Search Discord only when the topic is relevant to known communities (ML, LLMs, Claude, agents, evals, fine-tuning, etc). Skip for generic/unrelated topics.

Preferred CLI for repeated/community monitoring: discord-cli (uv tool install kabi-discord-cli) can sync accessible Discord channels into local SQLite, then search/export them with structured YAML/JSON. Use it only for accounts the user controls. Do not ask the user to paste raw Discord tokens into chat logs.

discord status --yaml
discord dc guilds --yaml
discord dc channels <guild_id> --yaml
discord dc search <guild_id> "<topic>" -n 10 --json
discord search "<topic>" -n 20 --json

Known servers:

Name	Guild ID
NousResearch	1053877538025386074
Anthropic/Claude	1456350064065904867

For one-off raw API search, use rtk proxy curl to bypass token filtering, URL-encode the query string, and extract only messages[][] entries where "hit": true.

Search, dedupe, and ranking rules

• Preserve enough raw evidence in notes or a report path for non-trivial outputs.
• Prefer primary sources before social reaction.
• Deduplicate by canonical URL first; strip utm_*, ref, source, fragments, and Reddit comment slugs.
• Deduplicate cross-platform amplification: one announcement reposted on HN, Reddit, and X is one story with multiple reactions.
• Cap any single author/domain/community from dominating unless the topic is about that author/domain/community.
• Prefer recent results for pulse questions; use older high-signal results for slow-moving tools or foundational comparisons.
• Prefer topic relevance before engagement. A high-upvote irrelevant Reddit thread is noise.
• Keep source-specific failures visible. Explicitly state when X, Discord, GitHub auth, or Reddit cookies were unavailable.
• Never fabricate quotes, counts, or links.

Output format

## <Topic> - Tech Pulse

### Source status
- Web/primary: searched
- GitHub: searched / skipped because ...
- X.com: searched / skipped because ...
- Hacker News: searched / skipped because ...
- Reddit: searched / skipped because ...
- Discord: skipped unless relevant/authenticated

### Key findings
- **Finding** - evidence and direct links.

### Source notes
- **Primary sources**: docs, repos, release notes, vendor/security research.
- **GitHub**: repo/issues/PR signal.
- **X.com**: notable expert posts or lack of signal.
- **Hacker News**: high-signal threads.
- **Reddit**: subreddit/user pain or adoption signal.
- **Discord**: only when searched.

### Summary
2-3 sentence synthesis. Key recommendations if any.

### Confidence
[High/Medium/Low] based on source coverage, volume, recency, and agreement.

If combined with /repo-eval or if the user requests a .md report, produce a Markdown report under ~/Workspace/reports/ and verify it exists before finalizing. Preserve source-specific sections, include direct thread/post links, distinguish amplification from substantive critique, and explicitly state when a source was skipped because credentials such as DISCORD_TOKEN were unavailable.