Guide / 2026-10-18
Bluesky monitoring for founders: catch the ask, not the noise
To monitor Bluesky for buying intent, save a keyword search and have something re-run it on a schedule. It should send you only posts you haven't seen yet. AskHound's hosted watches do this for Bluesky and Stack Exchange: a daily email digest on Solo ($19/mo; beta and not sending yet, because our email sender isn't switched on), or hourly checks (beta) with Slack, Discord or webhook delivery on Pro ($49/mo), which delivers today. Busy phrases need frequent checks, because Bluesky's public search returns only the newest 100 posts per query.
Try it now (free, no signup)
How busy is Bluesky for founder phrases?
Counts from the public Bluesky search API (app.bsky.feed.searchPosts), last 30 days, run 2026-10-18:
| Phrase | Posts found | Note |
|---|---|---|
| "looking for beta testers" | 25 | nearly all founders recruiting, not people volunteering |
| "social listening" | 76 | mostly marketing content, some Portuguese-language |
| "is there a tool" | 6 | includes real asks, such as a lexicon-listing tool (Sep 18) |
| "beta testers" | 98+ | the newest 100 only reached back to Oct 6, so the 30-day total is higher |
For alternatives, Bluesky was the main source in AskHound's 90-day snapshots (2026-10-18). For example, 29 posts for 1Password, 24 for Slack and 17 for Jira.
The 100-post limit, and why speed matters
When a phrase is popular, the public search only goes back as far as its newest 100 posts. In our test on 2026-10-18, the first page for "beta testers" returned 98 posts, and asking for the next page without logging in returned HTTP 403. AskHound's Discord page notes this: its Bluesky slice covers a shorter, more recent part of the 90 days. In practice:
- Broad phrases ("beta testers") need daily or hourly checks, or you'll miss posts.
- Narrow phrases plus context words ("1password alternative" with "team") are complete at a daily check.
Options that cover Bluesky (from each tool's own page, 2026-10-18)
- AskHound: hosted watches on Bluesky and Stack Exchange; free browser search (3 a day, last 7 days); remote MCP for agents (free: 10 results per call, 20 calls a day). It doesn't store posts, so deletions are respected.
- Syften: lists Bluesky among its monitored communities; plans from $29.95/mo; 14-day trial.
- Octolens: lists Bluesky among its platforms; Pro $159/mo billed annually, $199 paid monthly (10 keywords, 15,000 mentions); 7-day trial.
- Do it yourself: the public API is open. A cron job can query
searchPostswith asincedate and remember the post URIs it has already seen.
Etiquette
Reply only when you can help, as yourself, and say that you build the product. Bluesky's community guidelines say: "Do not send spam or repeatedly post content in ways that disrupt normal conversations or service use." AskHound has no automated likes, follows or replies.
Continue?
Watch a Bluesky phrase tonight.
Solo is $19/mo for 3 watches and a daily email digest of new askers (beta: not sending yet). Pro is $49/mo for 15 watches with hourly checks (beta) and delivery to Slack, Discord or a webhook.
FAQ
Can I get Bluesky keyword alerts for free?
Yes, if you script the public searchPosts API yourself. AskHound's free tiers (browser search, remote MCP, CLI) let you search Bluesky; recurring hosted alerts are paid.
How often should I check?
Daily for narrow phrases. Hourly for broad ones, because search only returns the newest 100 posts.
Does AskHound also cover X or Reddit?
No. AskHound's sources are Bluesky and Stack Exchange (hosted), plus Hacker News and GitHub (free CLI).
Is hourly checking live?
It's in beta. Vercel's built-in scheduler on our plan runs once a day, so on 2026-10-18 we added an external scheduler that calls the watch runner every hour. The beta label stays until we've confirmed hourly runs in production. Slack, Discord and webhook delivery already work; email digests are beta and not sending yet.
Related
- Find users on Bluesky
- 1Password alternative: who is asking
- Discord alternative: who is asking
- Social listening tools compared
- MCP for lead generation
Guides: where your users ask
- Find users on Hacker News
- Hacker News keyword alerts
- Find users in GitHub issues
- Find users on Bluesky
- Stack Exchange recommendation questions
- Where to find beta users
- Social listening for developer tools
- MCP for lead generation
- Social listening tools compared
Sources
- Bluesky AppView
app.bsky.feed.searchPosts(api.bsky.app), 30-day queries run about 17:19 IDT - https://askhound.haullabs.dev/watch (sources, plans, beta notes)
- https://askhound.haullabs.dev/alternatives/discord (100-post note)
- https://syften.com/ and https://octolens.com/pricing
- https://bsky.social/about/support/community-guidelines
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
- Free CLI + local MCP: HN, GitHub, Stack Exchange, Bluesky
- Local reply-state
- 3 always-on watches
- Daily email digest of new askers only (beta, not sending yet)
- 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 and not sending yet: our email sender isn't switched on. A new email watch is saved now and starts sending the day the sender goes live. Slack, Discord and webhooks on Pro deliver today. Hourly checks are in beta too: an external hourly scheduler was added on 2026-10-18, and the label stays until we've confirmed hourly runs in production. 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.