Guide / 2026-10-18
How to find people asking for your tool on Bluesky
Find recent Bluesky posts where developers and power users ask for alternatives or tool recommendations. Free search via the official AT Protocol AppView API, plus an MCP for your agent.
Try it now (free, no signup)
Many developers and indie hackers moved to Bluesky, and they ask openly: "looking for an alternative to X", "what are you using instead of Y?".
In our own check on 2026-10-18, Bluesky had the most matches for several prosumer and dev-tool phrases over 30 days (e.g. 7 of 11 for obsidian alternative, 7 of 12 for postman alternative), including real askers such as "I'm looking for an alternative" (1Password). Bluesky search is loose, so add context words to filter noise.
How AskHound searches Bluesky
Queries go to the public AppView search endpoint (app.bsky.feed.searchPosts). We don't store posts, so deletions are respected. We have no automated likes, follows or replies.
Etiquette
Reply only where you help, as yourself, with a disclosure. Bluesky's community guidelines and developer guidelines forbid spam and automated interactions.
npx -y https://askhound.haullabs.dev/askhound-0.1.5.tgz search "obsidian alternative" --sources bsky --days 14Cartridges
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.