Research competitors and generate comparison reports

Competitor Analysis is a reusable AI skill that automates structured competitor research using Browserbase's search and discovery APIs. It orchestrates a multi-stage pipeline that discovers competitors through three parallel waves (alternatives search, category search, and comparison-page graph parsing), validates candidates through a gating step that fetches hero text to filter wrong-category URLs, enriches each competitor across five research lanes (marketing, discussion, social, news, technical), and compiles findings into an HTML report with per-competitor deep dives, a side-by-side feature/pricing matrix, and a chronological mentions feed.

Use this skill when you need structured competitor research with Browserbase discovery, enrichment lanes, screenshots, comparison matrices, and a final HTML report. It handles automated discovery across multiple search strategies and consolidates findings into actionable outputs.

Do NOT use this for quick lookups of a single known competitor (manual research is faster) or when you lack the required Browserbase API key and browse CLI installation.

You provide your company name or URL and optionally seed competitor URLs. The skill asks you to select a depth mode (quick/deep/deeper) that controls research thoroughness and presents discovered candidates for confirmation before enrichment.

You receive a timestamped desktop directory containing markdown files and generated HTML views. The compilation step generates index.html, competitors/*.html, matrix.html, mentions.html, and results.csv in one step. The pipeline includes homepage screenshots captured at 1280×800 resolution. In deep/deeper modes, a Battle Card synthesis lane produces per-competitor Landmines, Objection Handlers, and Talk Tracks grounded in cited evidence.

Requires Browserbase API (via BROWSERBASE_API_KEY environment variable) for web search and page fetching. Uses the browse CLI tool (installed via npm install -g browse) for cloud search, fetch operations, and screenshot capture. Runs Node.js scripts for report compilation, URL deduplication, and partial merging.

First-run setup requires approving Bash permissions in ~/.claude/settings.json:

"Bash(browse:*)", "Bash(bunx:*)", "Bash(bun:*)", "Bash(node:*)",
"Bash(cat:*)", "Bash(mkdir:*)", "Bash(sed:*)", "Bash(head:*)", "Bash(tr:*)", "Bash(rm:*)"

Output directory setup:

OUTPUT_DIR=~/Desktop/{company_slug}_competitors_{YYYY-MM-DD}
mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"

Product marketers who need positioning and messaging grounded in competitive evidence. Sales teams building battle cards with objection handlers and talk tracks. Strategic planners conducting market landscape analysis. Founders validating their competitive set and identifying differentiation opportunities. The skill's multi-wave discovery approach (alternatives, precise category, comparison-page graph) combined with gated validation helps identify relevant competitors, while the 5-lane enrichment pattern (marketing, technical, discussion, social, news) gathers information across multiple sources.