148 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
148 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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name: idea-autopsy
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description: "Autopsy a business idea before you build it: kill-list check, five hard filters, a free-AI one-prompt test, live ad-market verification, and a verdict with a named kill-pattern."
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category: product
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risk: critical
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source: community
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source_repo: hafiz-actyte/idea-autopsy
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source_type: community
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date_added: "2026-07-10"
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author: hafiz-actyte
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tags: [business-ideas, idea-validation, market-research, startup, founders]
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tools: [claude, cursor, gemini]
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license: "MIT"
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license_source: "https://github.com/hafiz-actyte/idea-autopsy/blob/main/LICENSE"
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---
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# Idea Autopsy
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## Overview
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Turns the agent into a ruthless business-idea pathologist: instead of encouraging
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the user, it hunts for the one sentence that kills an idea — before any money or
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weeks are spent building it. Built from a real founder kill-list of 42 dead ideas
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(including a 9/10-scored idea and one that turned out to be federally illegal to
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charge for). Every autopsy ends in a hard verdict: DEAD with a named kill-pattern,
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or SURVIVED with the one cheapest test that could still kill it.
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## When to Use This Skill
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- Use when the user proposes a new business, product, or side-project idea
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- Use when the user asks "should I build X?" or "validate this idea"
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- Use when the user says "autopsy my idea"
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- Use before any market-research or build-planning task for a new venture
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## How It Works
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### Step 1: Kill-list check
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If the project contains a `REJECTION.md` (the user's personal kill-list), read it
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first. A NICHE match (same niche as a killed row) = verdict DEAD, cite the row,
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stop. A KILL-PATTERN match alone (new niche, previously-seen pattern) is a strong
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prior, NOT a verdict: name the matching pattern, then run the specific check for
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that pattern (the relevant filter or test below) to confirm it actually applies
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before declaring death. If no kill-list exists, ask the user for permission to create one
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with exactly this schema — this autopsy writes its first row:
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```markdown
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# REJECTION.md — my kill-list
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## Killed ideas
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| # | Idea/Niche | Killed (date) | Hard reason (one line) | Pattern |
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|---|-----------|---------------|------------------------|---------|
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## Survivors under test
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| Idea | Passed filters (date) | Pending test | Deadline |
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|------|----------------------|--------------|----------|
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```
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### Step 2: The five filters
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Demand evidence, not optimism. One hard NO = dead.
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1. **Real pain?** 2am-problem, or a nice-to-have "vitamin"?
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2. **Buyer has money?** Right now — not after the product helps them.
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3. **Proven demand?** Can the user name a single live competitor ad?
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4. **Legal to charge for?** Regulated, licensed, or illegal in the target market? Name the law if suspicion exists.
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5. **A moat?** What stops the 50th copycat next month?
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### Step 3: The free-AI test
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Try to produce the idea's core deliverable with one prompt to a frontier model.
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If one prompt produces the whole deliverable free, the verdict is DEAD with
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kill-pattern `free-AI`: the user doesn't have a product, they have a prompt.
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### Step 4: Live-market verification (own eyes)
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Desk research lies. Walk the user through the Meta Ad Library (or equivalent) with
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an explicit checklist: number of ACTIVE advertisers, age of the oldest running ad
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(90+ days = someone is paying because it works), and the three traps — zero ads
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(`wrong-channel`), a few giants (`incumbent-owned`), or hundreds of ads
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(`crowded` commodity knife-fight: demand ≠ room for you).
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### Step 5: Verdict
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```
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VERDICT: DEAD | SURVIVED
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KILL-PATTERN: <name> (if dead)
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THE ONE SENTENCE: <the single finding that decided it>
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EVIDENCE: <2-4 hard facts with sources/numbers>
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NEXT: <if survived: the ONE cheapest test that could still kill it>
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```
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Then record the result — gated on consent: if `REJECTION.md` exists, or the user
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approved creating it in Step 1, append a one-line row (dead) or note the survivor
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with the date and pending test. If the user declined the kill-list, do NOT create
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or write the file — print the proposed row as text so they can save it wherever
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they prefer. The kill-list is the compounding asset — every autopsy makes the
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next one faster, but only with the user's consent.
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## Examples
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### Example 1: Idea that dies on the free-AI test
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```
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User: Should I build a chargeback-response kit for Shopify sellers? Ready-to-send
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evidence packets, $29 one-time.
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Agent: Running the autopsy... Step 3 kills it: one prompt to a frontier model
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produces a complete, usable evidence packet for free.
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VERDICT: DEAD. KILL-PATTERN: free-AI.
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THE ONE SENTENCE: If AI ships your whole deliverable in one prompt, you
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don't have a product — you have a prompt.
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```
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### Example 2: Proven demand that still dies
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```
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User: An app that identifies plants from a photo — there are over a thousand
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active ads for these, demand is proven!
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Agent: Step 4 confirms ~1,100 active advertisers — and that's the trap. The AI is
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free, the datasets are public, everyone could build it, so everyone did.
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VERDICT: DEAD. KILL-PATTERN: no-moat.
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THE ONE SENTENCE: Demand tells you a market exists; it doesn't tell you
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there's room for you.
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```
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## Best Practices
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- ✅ Demand a number, a law, a live ad, or a quote for every claim
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- ✅ Treat a fast honest kill as a WIN — it saves weeks and dollars
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- ✅ Make the user verify ad-library findings with their own eyes
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- ❌ Don't soften verdicts to be encouraging — "it depends" is a failed autopsy
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- ❌ Don't let buildability excitement skip the buyer questions; building was never the problem
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## Limitations
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- This skill does not replace legal advice, financial advice, or professional market research.
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- Kill-patterns are priors, not verdicts — a new niche matching an old pattern still deserves a fresh check that the pattern applies.
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- Ad-library checks reflect one acquisition channel; some categories legitimately sell through search or app stores.
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- Stop and ask for clarification if the idea's target market, buyer, or deliverable is unclear.
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## Security & Safety Notes
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- This skill performs no shell commands, network calls, or credential handling.
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- It modifies project state in exactly one place: creating or appending rows to the project's own `REJECTION.md` (hence `risk: critical`). It never edits other files; ask permission before creating the file on first run.
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- Web checks (ad libraries) are performed by the USER in their own browser; the skill only provides the checklist.
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