The Competitive Analyzer is a Claude Code subagent that pairs Perplexity search with Firecrawl scraping to track competitor content, pricing, and positioning. It runs a weekly report or an on-demand topic check, then surfaces content gaps the reader can actually fill instead of just listing what changed on competitor sites.
What you will be able to do
- Run a weekly /competitive-check report that lists new competitor content, pricing changes, and content gaps in about 90 seconds.
- Run a topic-specific /competitive-check --topic "X" scan before writing an article to see who has covered the topic and what angles they used.
- Build a competitor watchlist file covering direct competitors, adjacent players, and tool-specific sources.
- Spot whitespace topics with zero competitor coverage and turn them into content angles with a recommended positioning.
- Replace a paid competitor monitoring subscription with an agent that costs about $1.20 a month in API usage.
Before you start
- Claude Code CLI installed (verify with claude --version)
- Free Perplexity API key and free Firecrawl API key
- Perplexity and Firecrawl configured as MCP servers in Claude Code
- Business context and content strategy profile files plus a completed competitor watchlist, set up per Article 1 of the series
Reference
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Weekly command | /competitive-check (no topic flag), about 90 seconds |
| Topic command | /competitive-check --topic "AI automation costs", about 45 seconds |
| Agent name | competitive-analyzer |
| Model | sonnet |
| Tools | Read, Glob, Grep, Write, mcp__perplexity__search, mcp__perplexity__reason, mcp__firecrawl__firecrawl_scrape, mcp__firecrawl__firecrawl_map |
| Watchlist file | .claude/research-profiles/competitor-watchlist.md |
| Watchlist categories | Direct competitors, adjacent players, tool-specific sources, 3 to 5 names each |
| Weekly cost | About $1.20/month, 4 reports at roughly $0.30 each |
Common errors and fixes
| What goes wrong | The fix |
|---|---|
| Agent can't run any commands | Claude Code CLI isn't installed. Install it with curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash and verify with claude --version |
| Search or scrape steps fail silently | Perplexity or Firecrawl API key is missing. Get free keys at perplexity.ai/api and firecrawl.dev |
| Agent has no search or scrape tools available | MCP servers for Perplexity and Firecrawl aren't configured in Claude Code settings |
| Report comes back generic with no real competitor names | The competitor watchlist file hasn't been created yet at .claude/research-profiles/competitor-watchlist.md |
| Report reads like a data dump instead of a recommendation | Business context and content strategy profile files aren't loaded, so the agent has no lens to interpret gaps through |
Read the full walkthrough
The complete lesson, with screenshots and any downloads, is published on Substack as part of PubFlow OS Agents: Build Your AI Research Team.
More in this section
- Lesson 5: Never Publish Outdated Technical Content Again (Verification Agent Build)
- Lesson 6: My Agent Found 47 Content Opportunities (Gap Analyzer Build)
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