# Niche Finder & Trend Radar: What to Build Next (`nerolabs/rush-radar`) Actor

Checks product ideas against live demand on the Apify Store and x402: matching tools, monthly users, failure rates, verdict. Daily brief of rising tools, platform launches, new UK/US business rules, toolkit downloads. Input: ideas list, CSV or Sheet. $0.02 per check. Agent-ready via MCP and x402.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/nerolabs/rush-radar.md
- **Developed by:** [Adam Pearce](https://apify.com/nerolabs) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, AI, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $15.00 / 1,000 lane checks

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Niche Finder & Trend Radar: What to Build Next

Check any product idea against live demand before you build it, and see where new demand is opening every day.

Building is fast now. Knowing **what** to build is the hard part: obvious lanes fill up with copies within weeks. Rush Radar tells you, with real numbers, whether a lane is unproven, small, open, heating up, contested or crowded, and gives you a daily brief of the doors that just opened.

### What it does

**Lane check (one row per idea).** Give it a list of ideas or keywords ("invoice ocr", "google hotels prices", "tiktok shop products"), or a CSV or Google Sheet of them. For each one you get:

- how many tools on the Apify Store already match
- monthly users across the top 25, and how many tools have 100+ monthly users
- the leader, its monthly users and its 30-day failure rate
- how many tools gained most of their users this month (a lane heating up)
- x402 tools that AI agents already pay for in the same lane, with paying wallets in 30 days
- a plain verdict: **UNPROVEN, SMALL, OPEN, HEATING UP, CONTESTED or CROWDED**, with the reason

**Daily brief.** Everything new from the daily radar, as rows by section:

- **New doors:** platform launches from official sources (Shopify developer changelog, OpenAI, Google Ads & Commerce, Meta, TikTok, Amazon, eBay, Microsoft Advertising, Apple developer, GitHub, Cloudflare, Stripe, WooCommerce, Hugging Face, Apify)
- **New business rules:** UK legislation and US Federal Register rules that affect sellers, payments, data, AI, customs or tax
- **Rising tools** on the Apify Store (users this week vs this month)
- **Where AI agents pay:** top x402 services by paying wallets
- **Toolkit downloads:** platform toolkits on npm and PyPI growing fastest (builders adopt a platform before their apps appear in any store)
- **New GitHub projects** gaining stars fastest, and **Wikipedia interest** in platform topics week on week
- What builders are publishing on the official MCP Registry

**New doors** and **rising tools** give you one section on its own.

### Input

| Field | Use |
|---|---|
| `mode` | `lane_check` (default), `daily_brief`, `new_doors`, `rising_tools` |
| `keywords` | Ideas to check, up to 200 per run |
| `keywordsCsvUrl` | Public CSV or Google Sheet link, first column read as keywords |
| `source` | For `rising_tools`: `apify`, `x402`, `mcp`, `packages`, `github`, `wikipedia` |
| `days` | For `new_doors`: briefs to cover, 1 to 30 |

### Output example (lane check)

```json
{
  "keyword": "google hotels prices",
  "verdict": "OPEN",
  "verdictReason": "proven demand with few strong tools, or a leader that fails often or rates poorly. A better tool can win here.",
  "matchingTools": 322,
  "monthlyUsersTop25": 699,
  "toolsWith100PlusUsers": 2,
  "leader": "Google Travel Hotel Prices",
  "leaderMonthlyUsers": 522,
  "leaderFailRate30dPct": 0
}
```

### Pricing (pay per event)

- **Lane check:** $0.02 per idea checked
- **Daily brief:** $0.05 per brief
- **New doors list / rising tools list:** $0.02 per list

Failed checks are free. Volume discounts apply on higher Apify plans.

### For AI agents

Call this Actor through the Apify MCP server or the Apify API. Use `mode: "lane_check"` with `keywords` before recommending a product idea; read `verdict` and `verdictReason`. Use `mode: "daily_brief"` for a morning summary of new openings. All data is public, read-only and refreshed daily at 06:00 UTC.

### Where the data comes from

Only sources whose terms allow automated reading: the Apify Store public API, the official MCP Registry API, the Coinbase x402 Bazaar discovery API, the Hacker News API, npm and PyPI download statistics, the GitHub API, Wikimedia page views, the US Federal Register API, legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK and official RSS feeds. The Shopify App Store, Google Trends and Reddit are not used, because their terms do not allow it.

Monthly users are unique accounts that ran a tool in the last 30 days. Verdicts are a starting point for your own judgement, not a promise of sales.

### Support

Questions or a source you would like added: open an issue in the Issues tab.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

lane_check returns one row per keyword with matching tools, monthly users, failure rates and a verdict. daily_brief returns today's brief as rows by section. new_doors returns recent platform launches and UK and US business rules. rising_tools returns the fastest-growing tools in the source you pick.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

For lane_check. One idea per line, in a few words, for example "invoice ocr", "google maps reviews", "tiktok shop products". Up to 200 per run.

## `keywordsCsvUrl` (type: `string`):

For lane_check. Public CSV link or Google Sheet share link; the first column is read as keywords (a header row is skipped if it says keyword or idea). Added to the list above.

## `source` (type: `string`):

For rising_tools.

## `days` (type: `integer`):

For new_doors: how many daily briefs to cover, 1 to 30.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "lane_check",
  "keywords": [
    "invoice ocr",
    "google hotels prices",
    "tiktok shop products"
  ],
  "source": "apify",
  "days": 7
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Lane check: one row per idea with verdict, matching tools, monthly users, leader and failure rate. Brief, doors and rising tools: one row per item with section, title, source and link.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "mode": "lane_check",
    "keywords": [
        "invoice ocr",
        "google hotels prices",
        "tiktok shop products"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("nerolabs/rush-radar").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "mode": "lane_check",
    "keywords": [
        "invoice ocr",
        "google hotels prices",
        "tiktok shop products",
    ],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("nerolabs/rush-radar").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "mode": "lane_check",
  "keywords": [
    "invoice ocr",
    "google hotels prices",
    "tiktok shop products"
  ]
}' |
apify call nerolabs/rush-radar --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,nerolabs/rush-radar"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/bMjE6rliaf8XnEA76/builds/UkyNnzms7TckcBrdn/openapi.json