Stage: PRE-CHECK (Feasibility Critique)

Validate that an opportunity is technically and legally feasible BEFORE writing a full spec. This is a kill-or-proceed gate.

Purpose

Catch blockers early:

• APIs that don't exist or cost too much
• Legal/TOS issues that make the idea non-viable
• Platform limitations that prevent monetization
• Dependencies that are dead or dying

Goal: Spend 30 minutes validating feasibility, not 3 hours writing a spec for something that can't be built.

Prerequisites

Requires validated opportunity from outputs/validate/validated-opportunities-*.json

Parameters

• --name: Opportunity name to pre-check
• --all: Pre-check all validated opportunities

Process

1. API/Dependency Check

For each required API or service:

□ Does it exist?
□ Is it actively maintained? (check last commit, status page)
□ What's the pricing?
  - Free tier limits
  - Cost per request/record
  - Minimum monthly commitment
□ Rate limits that could break our model?
□ Authentication complexity (API key vs OAuth vs Enterprise-only)?
□ Any recent news? (acquisitions, shutdowns, lawsuits)

Red flags:

• Service shut down or acquired
• Enterprise-only pricing ($1000+/month)
• Rate limits that make our use case impossible
• No public API (would require scraping)

2. Legal/Compliance Check

□ Terms of Service review
  - Commercial use allowed?
  - Reselling data allowed?
  - Scraping prohibited?
□ Active lawsuits or enforcement?
□ GDPR/CCPA implications?
□ Platform-specific policies (LinkedIn, etc.)?

Red flags:

• Explicit TOS prohibition
• Active lawsuits against similar services
• Data residency requirements we can't meet

3. Platform Viability Check

□ Where will we publish? (Smithery, Apify, self-hosted)
□ Does platform support our monetization model?
□ Any platform-specific requirements?
□ Deployment complexity?

Red flags:

• No viable monetization path
• Platform discontinuing features we need
• Deployment requires infrastructure we don't have

4. Competitive Moat Check

□ Who else does this?
□ Why would they not add our features?
□ What's stopping the platform (Notion, Airtable) from building this?
□ How defensible is our position?

Red flags:

• Platform announced similar feature
• Well-funded competitor with same approach
• Trivial to replicate (< 1 week for competent dev)

Output

Saves to outputs/{name}/pre-check.md:

# Pre-Check: {name}

## Summary

| Check | Status | Notes |
|-------|--------|-------|
| API Availability | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | ... |
| API Costs | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | ... |
| Legal/TOS | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | ... |
| Platform | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | ... |
| Competition | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | ... |

## Decision

[ ] **PROCEED** - No blockers, move to draft spec
[ ] **PROCEED WITH NOTES** - Minor issues, document in spec
[ ] **PIVOT** - Fundamental issue, try different approach
[ ] **KILL** - Non-viable, move to next opportunity

## Details

### API/Dependencies
...

### Legal/Compliance
...

### Platform
...

### Competition
...

## If Pivoting

Recommended pivot path: {new_idea | new_approach | new_scope}
Reason: ...
Next action: ...

Decision Criteria

PROCEED (All Green)

• APIs exist and are affordable
• No legal blockers
• Clear monetization path
• Reasonable competition

PROCEED WITH NOTES (Yellow flags)

• Minor cost concerns (document in spec)
• Some TOS ambiguity (get legal review later)
• Competition exists but we have differentiation

PIVOT (Orange flags)

• Primary API too expensive → try different data source
• Legal gray area → try different approach
• Platform doesn't support → try different platform

KILL (Red flags)

• Primary API dead/dying
• Clear legal prohibition
• No viable monetization
• Platform building same thing

Usage

/mcp-opportunity-pipeline:pre-check --name notion-database-sync-mcp
/mcp-opportunity-pipeline:pre-check --all

Next Steps

• If PROCEED → /mcp-opportunity-pipeline:draft
• If PIVOT → /mcp-opportunity-pipeline:pivot --type {type} --reason "..."
• If KILL → Document and move to next opportunity