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idea-reality-mcp

How to check if someone already built your app idea — automatically.

idea-reality-mcp is an MCP server that scans GitHub, npm, PyPI, Hacker News, and Stack Overflow to check if your startup idea already exists. It returns a 0–100 reality score with evidence, trend detection, and pivot suggestions — so your AI agent can decide whether to build, pivot, or kill the idea before writing any code.

When to use this: You're about to start a new project and want to know if similar tools already exist, how competitive the space is, and whether the market is growing or declining.

Project status (August 2026): Maintenance mode. The tool works, stays free & open source, and the hosted API remains up; bug reports are reviewed, but no new features are planned.

Not just checking — building it? After a reality check, open your idea as a public project on AngelRun — ship updates, climb the season, and get seen by angels.

How it works

1. Describe your idea in plain English — e.g. "a CLI tool that converts Figma designs to React components"
2. idea_check scans 5 databases in parallel (GitHub repos + stars, Hacker News discussions, npm/PyPI packages, Stack Overflow questions)
3. Get a 0–100 reality score with trend direction (accelerating/stable/declining), top competitors, and AI-generated pivot suggestions

What you get

You: "AI code review tool"

idea_check →
├── reality_signal: 92/100
├── trend: accelerating ↗
├── market_momentum: 73/100
├── GitHub repos: 847 (45% created in last 6 months)
├── Top competitor: reviewdog (9,094 ⭐)
├── npm packages: 56
├── HN discussions: 254 (trending up)
└── Verdict: HIGH — market is accelerating, find a niche fast

One score. Six sources. Trend detection. Your agent decides what to do next.

Try it in your browser — no install

Quick Start

# 1. Install
uvx idea-reality-mcp

# 2. Add to your agent
claude mcp add idea-reality -- uvx idea-reality-mcp   # Claude Code

3. Ask your agent: "Before I start building, check if this already exists: a CLI tool that converts Figma designs to React components"

That's it. The agent calls idea_check and returns: reality_signal, top competitors, and pivot suggestions.

Other MCP clients

Claude Desktop / Cursor — add to config JSON:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "idea-reality": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["idea-reality-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Config location: macOS ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json · Cursor .cursor/mcp.json

Smithery (remote, no local install):

npx -y @smithery/cli install idea-reality-mcp --client claude

Setup & Configuration

First-time guided setup:

idea-reality setup

This walks you through:

1. Terms acceptance — data collection policy and disclaimer
2. Platform detection — auto-detects Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline
3. Config generation — prints the exact JSON snippet for your platform
4. Health check — verifies MCP server, tools, and scoring engine

Platform Configs