Find customer pain points on Reddit with a repeatable research skill
Idea + starter prompt, not run by us yet
For: Founders checking whether a problem is real before they build
Rather than keep a separate agent system, the author turned a Reddit research process into a single Codex skill. The agent does the thinking, browsing and file work, while the skill sets the method and adds a human check before the main research. Small Python helpers handle fixed jobs like scoring and removing duplicates. It finds pain points, checks communities, groups problems and looks at buying signals.
Steps
- Write the research method as a skill: where to look, what counts as evidence, how to group.
- Add a checkpoint where you approve the communities and questions before the main run.
- Use small scripts for fixed tasks such as removing duplicate links and scoring.
- Read the grouped problems and open the source threads for the top ones.
- Remember this depends on Codex as the runner, so it is not a standalone tool.
Starter prompt
I want to know what problems people in [market or role] complain about. First suggest 5 to 10 communities on Reddit where they talk, with a reason for each, and stop for my approval. After I approve, collect posts that describe real problems, with links. Remove duplicates. Group the problems into themes, count how often each appears, and note any sign people would pay for a fix. Read only. Do not post or comment anywhere.
Original post: Reddit · found via agentusecases.ai. Written up in our own words. We haven't run it, so test it on made-up data first.