GitHub issues are the richest source of developer pain: structured reactions, labels, linked PRs, repo stars, and code context. ghscout scans them at scale, clusters recurring pain patterns, and scores each opportunity.

Install

npx ghscout scan vercel/next.js

# or install globally
npm install -g ghscout

Requires Node.js 18+. Works without a GitHub token (60 req/h), but set GITHUB_TOKEN or use gh auth for 5,000 req/h.

Scan a repo

$ ghscout scan vercel/next.js --top 5

#1 [100/100] server actions
   Issues: 25 | Reactions: 740 | Labels: bug
   Demand: 100  Frequency: 100  Frustration: 100  Market: 100  Gap: 100
   → [65 👍] Unable to import react-dom/server in a server component (1200d)
     https://github.com/vercel/next.js/issues/43810
   → [57 👍] Turbopack dev server uses too much RAM and CPU (263d)
     https://github.com/vercel/next.js/issues/81161

#2 [80/100] pages router
   Issues: 13 | Reactions: 663 | Labels: none
   Demand: 92  Frequency: 48  Frustration: 67  Market: 100  Gap: 100
   → [325 👍] App router issue with Framer Motion shared layout animatio... (1051d)
     https://github.com/vercel/next.js/issues/49279

#3 [58/100] compress false
   Issues: 10 | Reactions: 258 | Labels: Runtime, bug
   → [49 👍] middleware matcher should support template literals (899d)

#4 [54/100] parallel routes
   Issues: 8 | Reactions: 217 | Labels: bug
   → [54 👍] Parallel routes are rendered unnecessarily (967d)

#5 [48/100] image
   Issues: 8 | Reactions: 203 | Labels: Image (next/image), bug
   → [46 👍] next/image not properly sizing images (1186d)

Scan across repos (org or topic)

$ ghscout scan --topic developer-tools --min-stars 1000 --top 5

Scanning 1/10: puppeteer/puppeteer...
Scanning 2/10: hoppscotch/hoppscotch...
...

#1 [97/100] st dataframe
   Issues: 71 | Reactions: 2312 | Labels: type:enhancement
   → [99 👍] st.tabs & st.expander - Improve handling of frontend... (746d)

#2 [61/100] bruno cli
   Issues: 37 | Reactions: 461 | Labels: enhancement
   → [131 👍] Import Open API / Swagger 2.x Spec into Bruno (1147d)

#3 [60/100] sandbox creation
   Issues: 44 | Reactions: 13
   → [2 👍] Live File Synchronization (daytona sandbox sync) (72d)

AI scoring (via Claude Code)

Uses your existing Claude Code subscription. Zero extra cost, zero API key.

$ ghscout scan vercel/next.js --top 3 --ai-score

#1 [3/10] server actions  SKIP
   Issues: 25 | Reactions: 740 | Heuristic: 100/100
   AI: "These are Next.js framework bugs that need fixes from the
   core team, not standalone products. No indie tool can meaningfully
   solve server action cookie reloads or Turbopack memory leaks."

#2 [3/10] pages router  SKIP
   AI: "Framework-level routing bugs tightly coupled to Next.js
   internals. Best resolved upstream via PRs to the library itself."

#3 [3/10] parallel routes  SKIP
   AI: "Parallel routes issues are framework-level bugs in Next.js's
   routing engine that require fixes within Next.js itself."

The AI separates "real pain but not a product opportunity" from "pain you can build a product around." Heuristics gave server actions 100/100. AI gave it 3/10 with a clear rationale.

Deep-dive with evidence

$ ghscout evidence vercel/next.js "middleware"

# Evidence: "middleware" in vercel/next.js

## Summary
- **17 open issues** across 16 unique authors
- **1,111 total 👍 reactions** — strong demand signal
- **20 related PRs**

## Top Issues by Demand
1. [195 👍] [RFC] Dynamic Routes (#7607)
   Opened 2468 days ago | 90 comments
2. [136 👍] trailing slash in link for legit page works for client side...
   Opened 2740 days ago | 124 comments

Output is plain markdown — paste it into a pitch deck, README, or blog post.

$ ghscout trending --top 3

#1 [67/100] claude code
   Issues: 7 | Reactions: 513
   → [119 👍] Support multiple Connector accounts (29d)
   → [79 👍] remote-control shows misleading error (25d)

#2 [58/100] option
   Issues: 5 | Reactions: 583
   → [283 👍] Add collision presets (godot-proposals) (25d)

#3 [28/100] code
   Issues: 3 | Reactions: 263
   → [118 👍] Add a Shader Code variable previewer (18d)

Scoring model

Scores are relative within each scan — the top cluster always gets the highest demand score, differentiating clusters from each other.

Signal	Weight (single-repo)	Weight (cross-repo)	What it measures
Demand	35%	30%	Total 👍 reactions across issues
Frequency	30%	25%	Number of separate issues about the same pain
Frustration	20%	15%	Negative reactions, frustration keywords in title+body, issue age
Market size	0%	15%	Repo stars (constant in single-repo, varies in cross-repo)
Gap	15%	15%	Percentage of issues still open (no solution yet)

Autoresearch

ghscout ships with a program.md — a structured instruction file (inspired by karpathy/autoresearch) that teaches AI coding agents to run autonomous product discovery sessions.

# In Claude Code, just say:
"Read program.md and run a research session"

The agent scans topics, evaluates clusters, and writes findings to discoveries/YYYY-MM-DD.md with BUILD/SKIP/WATCH verdicts.

CLI reference

ghscout scan <repo>              Scan a repo for opportunity clusters
ghscout scan --org <org>         Scan an org's repos
ghscout scan --topic <topic>     Scan repos by GitHub topic
ghscout evidence <repo> <query>  Deep-dive on a specific pain topic
ghscout trending                 Top pain clusters across GitHub

Options:
  --output <format>    json | table | pretty (default: pretty)
  --json               Shorthand for --output json
  --ai-score           Score with AI via Claude Code CLI
  --limit <n>          Max issues per repo (default: 200)
  --period <duration>  Time window: 7d, 30d, 90d (default: all open)
  --min-stars <n>      Min stars to include (default: 100)
  --top <n>            Show top N clusters
  --min-reactions <n>  Min reactions per cluster
  --verbose            Show API calls and rate limits
  --no-cache           Fetch fresh data

Comparison

	ghscout	SaasFinder	GummySearch
Data source	GitHub issues	Reddit	Reddit
AI scoring	Yes (Claude Code)	No	No
Structured signals	Reactions, labels, PRs	Upvotes, comments	Upvotes, comments
Cross-repo analysis	Yes	N/A	N/A
Rejected PR detection	Yes	N/A	N/A
Evidence packages	Yes (markdown)	No	No
Price	Free / open source	$29/mo+	$48/mo+