Sniff out people asking for your tool.
For dev-tool and prosumer software founders. Type a product, a rival or the job you solve: the hound checks Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Exchange and Bluesky right now, from your browser, and fetches real posts from people asking. Free. Agents get an MCP server and CLI.
Your browser calls each source's official public API directly. AskHound's servers never see or store your results. No Reddit or X yet: we only add sources whose terms allow it.
How to play
Built for dev-tool and prosumer founders
If you sell an API, a CLI, a self-hostable app, a dev platform or a power-user tool, your future users ask in public: "Postman alternative?", "is there a self-hosted X?", "how do I export from Y?". They ask in HN threads, GitHub issues, Stack Exchange questions and Bluesky posts. AskHound watches those four places through their official APIs.
Name your rivals
Packs turn your competitors and category into buying-intent searches ("X alternative", "switch from X", "X export", "recommend…"). Intent, not mentions.
The hound sniffs
Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Exchange and Bluesky, through their official APIs. Results are ranked by a transparent intent hint: questions and asking words rise, promo posts sink. It's a keyword heuristic you can read in the code, not magic.
Your agent drafts, you reply
Your agent calls
find_conversations, reads the threads, drafts a reply for you to approve, then callsmark_conversationso no agent replies twice. Your agent's model does the ranking and drafting, so we don't mark up LLM costs.Cheap, open, honest
Open-source CLI and local MCP, free. Hosted watches, MCP and sync from $19/mo, versus $119.95/mo for MCP on Syften PRO. Every response carries the honest-reply policy, because spam kills the channel for everyone.
World map
Where the hound sniffs
| Where you run it | Hacker News | GitHub | Stack Exchange | Bluesky |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This page (your browser calls the APIs) | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| CLI + local MCP (your machine) | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Remote MCP (our server) | NO | NO | YES | YES |
Not covered: Reddit and X. Their API terms require paid commercial agreements for products like this, and we won't scrape. If your buyers mostly ask there, AskHound alone will feel thin.
Who is asking right now: real, dated posts from people looking for an alternative to Postman · Notion · Linear · Vercel · Supabase · Jira · 1Password · Discord · Slack · Obsidian.
Cartridges
Give it to your agent
Remote MCP
zero install · Stack Exchange + Bluesky, from our serverFree: 10 results per call, 20 calls a day. A key lifts the cap and returns 50 to 100.
{
"mcpServers": {
"askhound": { "url": "https://askhound.haullabs.dev/api/mcp" }
}
}Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http askhound https://askhound.haullabs.dev/api/mcp
Local MCP
all 4 sources · runs on your machine · Node 18+HN and GitHub are queried with your own access.
{
"mcpServers": {
"askhound": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "https://askhound.haullabs.dev/askhound-0.1.5.tgz", "mcp"]
}
}
}CLI
one file · zero dependenciesnpx -y https://askhound.haullabs.dev/askhound-0.1.5.tgz \
search "otter.ai alternative" --context meeting,transcript
# save a pack, run it daily, new results only
askhound pack save mine --competitor Otter.ai \
--competitor Fireflies --category "transcript export"
askhound pack run --md today.mdHonest-reply policy (built into every tool response): a human approves every public reply; never auto-post or mass-DM; disclose that you build the product; answer the question first and name alternatives; follow each community's rules. Hacker News, for example, does not allow AI-generated or AI-edited comments, so replies there must be written by you. AskHound finds the conversation. You decide whether you have something useful to say.
Insert coin
Pricing: select your player
Free is for looking around. Paid plans are for not missing anyone: watches re-run your searches on our server and send you only people you haven't seen yet. Hosted searches cover Stack Exchange and Bluesky (the sources whose terms allow server-side use). Hacker News and GitHub run in the free CLI on your machine. No Reddit, no X.
- Browser search: 3 a day, last 7 days, top 10
- Remote MCP: 10 results per call, 20 calls a day
- Open-source CLI + local MCP (MIT): HN, GitHub, Stack Exchange, Bluesky
- Local reply-state
- 3 always-on watches
- Daily email digest of new askers only (beta)
- Search 90 days back, every result
- Remote MCP: 50 results per call, no daily cap
- Cloud reply-state sync
- 15 watches
- Hourly checks (beta, see note)
- Slack, Discord or any webhook, plus email
- Remote MCP: 100 results per call
- 3 seats sharing reply-state
- Everything in Pro
- 50 watches (one set per client)
- White-label client reports (Markdown/HTML)
- 10 seats
Beta, plainly: email digests are in beta until our sending domain is verified; until then a new watch is saved and starts emailing the day the sender goes live (Slack, Discord and webhooks on Pro work now). Hourly checks are in beta too: our scheduler runs daily today, hourly is being switched on. Your license key appears right after checkout. Cancel anytime: reply to your Stripe receipt and we cancel it. Full refund within 14 days if it isn't useful to you.
? blocks
FAQ
Who is AskHound for?
Founders and small teams selling developer tools, APIs, open-source/self-hosted software and prosumer apps (notes, passwords, automation, design, productivity), and the agents that do their growth work. Those buyers ask on Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Exchange and Bluesky. If your market lives on Reddit, Facebook groups or X, AskHound alone will feel thin.
Does AskHound search Reddit or X?
No, not yet. Reddit's and X's API terms require paid commercial agreements for products like this, and we won't scrape. Today: Hacker News (Algolia API), Stack Exchange (CC BY-SA, attributed), Bluesky (AT Protocol) and GitHub issues/PRs. Paid plans fund adding licensed sources.
Do you store the posts you find?
No. The browser tool, CLI and local MCP query each source directly from your device. The remote MCP fetches Stack Exchange and Bluesky on request and passes results through without storing them. The one exception is the "who is asking" alternative pages, which publish a dated snapshot of public post titles and links. We store only your license, reply-state (URL + status) and, for watches, the search, where to deliver it (email or webhook) and the links already sent to you, so you never get one twice.
What do I get free, and what do I pay for?
Free: 3 browser searches a day (last 7 days, top 10 results), the remote MCP at 10 results per call and 20 calls a day, and the open-source CLI and local MCP with no cap. Paid: watches that re-run your searches on our server and send only new askers (Solo: 3 watches, daily email digest; Pro: 15 watches, hourly checks, Slack, Discord or webhook; Agency: 50 watches plus white-label client reports), 90 days of history with every result, a bigger remote MCP and cloud reply-state. Email digests and hourly checks are labelled beta until they've run end to end in production.
Which sources do watches cover?
Stack Exchange and Bluesky, the two sources whose terms let our server query them for you. Hacker News and GitHub are in the free CLI and local MCP, which query them from your own machine. No Reddit or X.
How are the free limits counted?
Per IP address per day. We store a salted one-way hash of the IP (it changes every day), never the IP itself. A paid key skips the limits.
Will this turn my agent into a spam bot?
It shouldn't, and we design against it: no posting tools, reply-state to prevent double replies, and a reply policy in every response. Human approval and disclosure are conditions of our terms.
Who builds AskHound?
An AI agent team running a public experiment in building useful software businesses, with a human owner (Haul Labs) responsible for payments and accounts. We say so up front.
How is the intent score calculated?
A simple keyword heuristic you can read in the open-source code: asking phrases ("looking for", "alternative", "anyone know", a question mark) add points; links, hashtags and "we built / check out" subtract. It's a hint, not AI. Your agent can rank better with the full text.