market-finder
Market Finder
Market intelligence powered by Nimble Web Search Agents.
User request: $ARGUMENTS
Before running any commands, read references/nimble-playbook.md for Claude Code
constraints (no shell state, no &/wait, sub-agent permissions, communication style).
Instructions
Step 0: Preflight
Run the preflight pattern from references/nimble-playbook.md (5 simultaneous Bash
calls: date calc, today, CLI check, profile load, index.md load).
Also simultaneously:
mkdir -p ~/.nimble/memory/{reports,market-finder/checkpoints}- Check for existing checkpoints:
ls ~/.nimble/memory/market-finder/checkpoints/ 2>/dev/null
From the results:
- CLI missing or API key unset ->
references/profile-and-onboarding.md, stop - Profile exists -> note industry keywords if any. Apply smart date windowing from
references/nimble-playbook.md. Market-finder tweak: in quick refresh mode, skip enrichment and only discover new metros. - No profile -> fine. Market-finder doesn't require onboarding. Proceed to Step 1.
Step 1: Parse Request & Detect Mode
Parse $ARGUMENTS for business type, geography, qualifiers, and mode detection.
Mode detection
Check $ARGUMENTS for a reference list. Read references/audit-mode.md for the
full detection signals and parsing rules.
| Signal | Mode |
|---|---|
| Google Sheet URL, CSV path, or inline list of 3+ businesses | Audit |
| Explicit audit language ("audit my list", "compare against", "gap analysis") | Audit |
| No reference list provided | Discovery (default) |
If a reference list is present but intent is ambiguous, ask: "Want me to audit your list against fresh discovery, or use it as a starting point?"
If audit language is detected but no reference list is provided, ask: "You mentioned auditing — please provide your list (Google Sheet URL, CSV file path, or paste inline)." Do not proceed with Audit mode until a reference list is received.
Extract fields
| Field | Required | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Business type / vertical | Yes | User input ("dentists", "SaaS CRM tools") |
| Geography | Yes (except SaaS) | User input ("Florida", "Austin TX", "nationwide") |
| Reference list | Audit mode only | Google Sheet URL, CSV path, or inline |
| Qualification criteria | Optional | User input ("must have website", "10+ reviews") |
| Output preference | Optional | User input ("quick summary", "full dataset") |
If both type and geography are clear from $ARGUMENTS, confirm briefly and
proceed: "Finding dentists in Florida..." (or "Auditing your list against
dentists in Florida..." in Audit mode)
If partial or ambiguous, ask one combined question (counts as 1 of max 2 AskUserQuestion prompts):
Use AskUserQuestion with up to 3 questions:
- Vertical -- "What type of business?" with options: Healthcare, SaaS/Software, Restaurants/Food, Legal/Financial, Auto/Home Services, Other
- Geography -- "What geography?" (free text or: City, State, Region, Nationwide)
- Depth -- "Quick scan or comprehensive discovery?"
Skip questions already answered by $ARGUMENTS.
Depth modes (determines how much work each step does):
| Depth | Discovery | Enrichment | Verification | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quick scan | All sources, 1 pass | Skip (or top 5 only) | Top 5 entities | Offer |
| Comprehensive | All sources + fallback retries | Full | All entities | Offer |
Step 2: Vertical Detection & Preset Loading
Read references/vertical-presets.md and match the user's business type against
preset trigger keywords.
| Match | Action |
|---|---|
| Clear match | Load that preset's WSA routing and query pattern |
| Partial match | Confirm: "This looks like Healthcare. Use healthcare presets?" |
| No match | Use Custom preset with user's keywords |
| SaaS match | Switch to non-geographic pipeline (no geo-tiling) |
Note which discovery WSAs and enrichment WSAs the preset specifies.
Step 3: Geographic Scoping
Skip this step for SaaS vertical (no geography needed).
| Geography level | Tiling strategy |
|---|---|
| City | Single query, no tiling |
| Metro area | Single query per WSA |
| State | Tile by top 5-10 metros in the state |
| Region | Tile by states, then top metros per state |
| Nationwide | Tile by all states, then top metros per state |
Estimate API calls: metros * discovery_wsas * (1 + enrichment_ratio) where
enrichment_ratio is ~0.3. Follow the Scaled Execution pattern from
references/nimble-playbook.md to choose execution tier (individual / batch /
multi-batch / confirmation gate):
Estimated API calls: ~1,560 (50 states x 8 metros x 3 WSAs + enrichment)
This is a nationwide search. Proceed? [Y/n]
Derive a slug for checkpointing: lowercase, hyphenated, includes vertical + geo
(e.g., dentists-florida, saas-crm-tools, hvac-nationwide).
Step 4: Check for Existing Checkpoint
Follow the Checkpointing & Resume pattern from references/memory-and-distribution.md.
Check: cat ~/.nimble/memory/market-finder/checkpoints/{slug}/discovery.json 2>/dev/null
- Checkpoint found -> offer: "Found previous run ({N} entities from {date}). Resume and fill gaps, or start fresh?"
- No checkpoint -> proceed to Step 5
Step 5: WSA Discovery & Execution
5a: Discover available WSAs
For each target domain in the selected vertical preset, discover current WSAs:
nimble agent list --search "{domain}" --limit 20
Run these searches simultaneously (one per target domain). From the results:
- Filter by entity_type (SERP for discovery, PDP/Profile for enrichment)
- Prefer
managed_by: "nimble"overmanaged_by: "community" - If no WSA found for a domain, mark it for
nimble searchfallback - If no WSAs found for ANY domain, fall back entirely to
nimble searchfor all metros
Then validate each discovered WSA's input params:
nimble agent get --template-name {discovered_name}
Cache the discovered WSA names + params for the rest of the run.
5b: Geographic discovery (all except SaaS)
For each metro in the tiling plan, run the discovered WSAs simultaneously:
nimble agent run --agent {maps_wsa} --params '{...validated params...}'
nimble agent run --agent {yelp_wsa} --params '{...validated params...}'
Run tertiary domain WSAs only if the preset includes them AND primary + secondary return < 10 combined unique results for that metro.
Choose execution tier per the Scaled Execution pattern in
references/nimble-playbook.md (based on total estimated calls from Step 3).
5c: SaaS discovery (non-geographic)
SaaS skips WSA discovery. Run the two-pass search queries defined in the SaaS
preset from references/vertical-presets.md:
- Pass 1 -- Product discovery: G2, Capterra, general, ProductHunt, GitHub
- Pass 2 -- Financial discovery: Crunchbase, funding news, market landscape
Both passes run simultaneously. Pass 2 is critical -- without it, funding and traction data will be missing or wrong.
5d: Fallback
If no WSA was found for a target domain, or if a WSA fails for any metro:
nimble search --query "[type] in [metro]" --max-results 20 --search-depth lite
After discovery:
- Parse all results into a unified entity list
- Deduplicate following the Entity Deduplication pattern from
references/nimble-playbook.md: place_id -> domain -> fuzzy name + city - Track
source_countper entity (how many WSAs/sources found it) - Save checkpoint:
~/.nimble/memory/market-finder/checkpoints/{slug}/discovery.json
Step 6: Enrichment
Run enrichment using the WSAs discovered in Step 5a for the preset's enrichment
target domains. Prioritize entities with the highest source count first. Choose
execution tier per Scaled Execution in references/nimble-playbook.md.
nimble agent run --agent {enrichment_wsa} --params '{...validated params...}'
Only run enrichment WSAs that apply to the current vertical's enrichment targets
(see references/vertical-presets.md). Skip entities without the required ID/URL
for the enrichment WSA.
Save checkpoint: ~/.nimble/memory/market-finder/checkpoints/{slug}/enrichment.json
Step 6b: Financial Verification (SaaS vertical)
For SaaS entities, verify funding claims before reporting. Never label a company's funding stage without a source.
For each entity in the top results (top 5 in quick scan, all in comprehensive):
nimble search --query "{company name} funding raised series" --max-results 5 --search-depth lite
- Source found: Use the sourced amount and date
- No source found: Display "Undisclosed" -- never guess "Early stage" or "Bootstrapped"
This step prevents publishing unverified financial claims. It's fast (one search per entity, lite depth) and catches recent funding rounds that directory sites miss.
Step 7: Deduplication & Scoring
Final deduplication: Run a final dedup pass across all phases following the
Entity Deduplication pattern from references/nimble-playbook.md. Merge fields
from multiple sources into a single record per entity.
Discovery strength scoring (skill-specific, varies by vertical):
Geographic verticals (Healthcare, Restaurants, Legal, Auto/Home, Custom):
| Level | Criteria |
|---|---|
| High | 3+ sources OR 2+ sources with reviews > 50 |
| Medium | 2 sources OR 1 source with reviews > 10 |
| Low | 1 source only, few/no reviews |
SaaS vertical (funding + directory presence matter more than review count):
| Level | Criteria |
|---|---|
| High | Verified funding > $10M OR 3+ directory sources OR 1000+ G2 reviews |
| Medium | Verified funding < $10M OR 2 sources OR 100+ G2 reviews |
| Low | 1 source only, no verified funding, few reviews |
Display as: *** High, ** Medium, * Low
Step 7b: Audit Comparison (Audit mode only)
Skip this step in Discovery mode.
Read references/audit-mode.md for the full matching algorithm, normalization rules,
and output template.
- Parse reference list — detect format (Google Sheet / CSV / inline), extract
records, normalize to
{name, domain, city, state, phone}per the parsing rules inreferences/audit-mode.md - Run three matching layers in order (domain → name+city → phone). Once an entity matches at any layer, stop. Track which layer produced the match.
- Categorize every entity:
matched— in both reference list and discovery resultsdiscovered_only— found by discovery, not in reference listreference_only— in reference list, not found by discovery
- Calculate coverage score —
matched / reference_count × 100
Proceed to Step 8 with the categorized results.
Step 8: Output
# Market Finder: [Business Type] in [Geography]
*Found [N] businesses | [Date] | Strength: [H] High, [M] Medium, [L] Low*
## Summary
- **Total discovered:** [N] unique businesses across [M] metros
- **Geographic breakdown:** [top 5 metros by count]
- **Source coverage:** [list each source used with entity counts]
## Top Results (High Strength)
| # | Name | Location | Rating | Reviews | Strength | Sources |
|---|------|----------|--------|---------|----------|---------|
| 1 | Acme Dental | Miami, FL | 4.8 | 312 | *** High | Maps, Yelp, BBB |
| 2 | WidgetCo Health | Orlando, FL | 4.6 | 89 | *** High | Maps, Yelp |
...
## All Results by Geography
### Miami, FL ([n] businesses)
[Table of businesses in this metro]
### Orlando, FL ([n] businesses)
[Table of businesses in this metro]
...
## What's Missing
[Data gaps: metros with low coverage, entities without websites, etc.]
SaaS output variant (when vertical is SaaS, replace "All Results by Geography" with tier-based grouping):
## Players by Tier
### Pure-Play (dedicated to this vertical)
| # | Name | Domain | Funding | Key Metric | Strength | Sources |
...
### Adjacent (feature overlap from larger platforms)
| # | Name | Domain | Funding | Key Metric | Strength | Sources |
...
### Open Source
| # | Name | Repo | Stars | Key Metric | Strength | Sources |
...
Source links are mandatory. Every entity must have at least one clickable source URL (Google Maps link, Yelp listing, website, BBB profile, G2 page, or GitHub repo).
Audit output variant (when in Audit mode, replace the Discovery output above):
Use the audit output template from references/audit-mode.md. Key sections: Summary
with coverage score, Matched table, Discovered Only table (expansion candidates),
Reference Only table (coverage gaps), and "What This Means" interpretation.
Step 9: Save to Memory
Make all Write calls simultaneously:
Discovery mode:
- Report ->
~/.nimble/memory/reports/market-finder-{slug}-{date}.md - Entity data ->
~/.nimble/memory/market-finder/{slug}/entities.json
Audit mode:
- Report ->
~/.nimble/memory/reports/market-finder-audit-{slug}-{date}.md - Structured data ->
~/.nimble/memory/market-finder/{slug}/audit-{date}.json(all three categories with match metadata)
Both modes:
- Profile -> update
last_runs.market-finderin~/.nimble/business-profile.json(only if profile exists) - Follow the wiki update pattern from
references/memory-and-distribution.md: updateindex.mdrows for all affected entity files, append alog.mdentry for this run. - Clean up checkpoint (complete run) or keep (partial run)
Step 10: Share & Distribute
Always offer distribution -- do not skip this step. Follow
references/memory-and-distribution.md for connector detection, sharing flow, and
source links enforcement.
Notion: full results table as a dated subpage. Slack: TL;DR with total count + top 10 entities only.
Step 11: Follow-ups
Discovery mode follow-ups:
- "Tell me more about #N" -> show full detail for that entity
- "Filter by [criteria]" -> re-filter existing results
- "Expand to [new geography]" -> add metros and re-run discovery
- "Export as CSV" -> generate CSV from entities.json
- "Run enrichment on all" -> extend enrichment beyond top entities
- "Audit against my existing list" -> switch to Audit mode with this run's results
- "Looks good" -> done
Audit mode follow-ups:
- "Export discovered-only as CSV for outreach?" -> CSV of expansion candidates
- "Investigate reference-only gaps?" -> targeted searches for reference_only entries
- "Run company-deep-dive on new discoveries?" -> deep research on discovered_only
- "Re-run with a different geography?" -> audit the same list against a new area
- "Looks good" -> done
Sibling skill suggestions:
Next steps:
- Run
company-deep-divefor a full 360 profile on any business from this list- Run
competitor-positioningto compare top players in this market- Run
local-placesfor neighborhood-level discovery with social enrichment and maps
Sub-Agent Strategy
For large jobs, nimble agent run-batch handles WSA parallelism server-side (see
Scaled Execution in references/nimble-playbook.md). Sub-agents are useful for
preparing batch inputs and processing results, not for running individual
WSA calls.
Use nimble-researcher agents (agents/nimble-researcher.md) when:
- Building metro query lists for large geographies (one agent per state)
- Processing and deduplicating batch results in parallel
Follow the sub-agent spawning rules from references/nimble-playbook.md
(bypassPermissions, batch max 4, fallback on failure).
Agent Teams Mode (Dual-Mode)
Check at startup: echo $CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS
Team mode (flag set): Spawn teammates for parallel phases:
- Discovery teammate(s): Run all discovery WSAs across metro batches
- Enrichment teammate: Run enrichment WSAs for top entities
- Lead (you): Coordinate, scope, deduplicate, score, generate output
Solo mode (flag not set): Standard sequential flow from Steps 5-8.
Error Handling
See references/nimble-playbook.md for the standard error table (missing API key,
429, 401, empty results, extraction garbage). Skill-specific errors:
- WSA not found: Skip silently and rely on other discovery sources. Log which WSAs were unavailable.
- Search 500/timeout: Retry once without
--focusflag. If still failing, retry with a simplified query. Log the failure but don't skip the entire search category -- partial data is better than none. - No results for metro: "No [type] found in [metro]. Skipping to next metro." Don't abort the entire job for one empty metro.
- Ambiguous business type: "Did you mean [option A] or [option B]?" (e.g., "practice" could be medical, dental, legal)
- SaaS with geography: If the selected preset has no geo-tiling but the user specified a geography, offer it as a search qualifier instead.
- Reference list parse failure: If Google Sheet extraction returns garbage or CSV is malformed, ask the user to paste the data inline instead.
- Empty reference list: If parsed list has 0 valid records, warn and offer to switch to Discovery mode.
- No matches found: If all three matching layers produce zero matches, report it — a 0% coverage score is valid and informative.