Launch playbook
A practical, honest guide to launching agent-skill-creator. Copy for each channel
is in docs/launch/.
The honest part first
Stars are a launch + virality outcome, not an engineering one. A polished repo
is the floor — necessary, not sufficient. Repos that hit 10K stars in weeks almost
always have a front-page moment: Hacker News front page, a high-reach tweet, a
Product Hunt #1, or a big newsletter/creator pickup — sitting on top of a product
whose value is obvious in ~30 seconds.
This repo is now built to convert attention at a high rate (clear value above the
fold, a working visual, honest positioning, runnable examples, green CI). What it
cannot do by itself is manufacture the attention. That part is distribution, and
it's yours to drive. The single biggest lever is one amplified push on a channel
where the value lands cold — not incremental README tweaks.
Realistic framing: "10K in a month" requires a front-page hit and sustained
follow-through. Treat that as the stretch goal. The controllable goal is: ship a
launch good enough that if it gets seen, it converts — then maximize shots on goal.
The conversion checklist (already done — verify before launch)
GitHub setup (do once, before launch)
- Description: "Turn any workflow into a validated agent skill that installs on
17 AI coding tools — no spec writing, no coding."
- Topics:
agent-skills, claude, claude-code, llm, ai-agents,
developer-tools, cursor, copilot, cross-platform, mcp.
- Social preview image: upload a PNG of
assets/hero.svg
(Settings → Social preview) so shared links render a card, not a generic icon.
- Pin the repo on your profile; enable Discussions.
Sequencing (a sane order)
- T‑minus days: render the demo GIF, set description/topics/social preview,
confirm CI is green, tag
v6.0.0. Line up 3–5 people who'll genuinely engage in
the first hour (comments/upvotes from real users, not vote rings).
- Launch day, morning (US Pacific): post Show HN (title options in
docs/launch/show-hn.md). HN rewards a plain, honest
title and an author who answers every comment fast. Be present for 3–4 hours.
- Same morning: fire the tweet thread
(
docs/launch/tweet-thread.md) with the GIF; ask
your network to amplify. Tag relevant accounts only where genuinely relevant.
- +1 day (if HN went well): Product Hunt
(
docs/launch/product-hunt.md) and the targeted
subreddits (docs/launch/reddit.md). Don't blast all
channels at once — stagger so each gets a real first-hour push.
- Follow-through: turn the best HN/Reddit questions into README FAQ entries and
issues. Momentum compounds when newcomers see an active maintainer.
What actually moves the needle (ranked)
- A demo that makes the value obvious in one glance. Render the GIF.
- Showing up. On HN/Reddit, fast, non-defensive author replies often matter
more than the post itself.
- A title that states the value, not the cleverness. "Show HN: Turn any
workflow into an agent skill that installs on 17 AI tools" beats anything cute.
- One credible amplifier. A single retweet from someone with reach in the
Claude/agent space outperforms 50 cold posts.
- Proof it's real. Runnable examples + green CI + honest limits → trust → stars.
What to avoid
- Vote/star rings or asking for stars directly on HN — it backfires and risks bans.
- Overclaiming ("10x", "magic", inflated tool counts). The repo says 17
platforms because that's the real number; keep every claim true.
- Launching all channels simultaneously, or launching before the GIF exists.
- Going quiet after posting. Silence in the first hour kills threads.