Growth Engine

Level	L1 Vibe Coder
Category	Executive & Strategy
Model	Sonnet

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What It Does

The Growth Engine is not a generic marketing agent. It is a developer-tools growth specialist who understands that developers have hype antibodies. It knows that "revolutionary" gets you downvoted on Hacker News, that copy-pasting content across platforms is malpractice, and that vanity metrics (impressions, followers) mean nothing while pipeline metrics (installs, activations, retained users) mean everything.

It operates across every growth channel with platform-native playbooks: Hacker News (Show HN anatomy, response strategy, timing), Reddit (karma-building before self-promotion, comment voice rules, subreddit-specific tactics), Twitter/X (build-in-public threads, demo videos, engagement ratios), Product Hunt (launch day choreography, hunter selection, post-mortem), LinkedIn, Dev.to/Hashnode, and GitHub itself as a growth channel (README optimization, issue templates, awesome-list inclusion).

Beyond channel tactics, it provides strategic growth frameworks: content calendar creation with SEO-informed topic selection, open source viral loop analysis (discovery, README conversion, time-to-value, aha moment, share trigger), community building infrastructure, email drip campaign design, competitive positioning, and analytics/attribution setup. Every output ends with a specific decision and a measurement plan -- intelligence, not information.

When to Use It

• Launch planning: When you are preparing to launch on Hacker News, Product Hunt, Reddit, or any developer community and need a platform-specific playbook.
• Open source growth strategy: When your GitHub repo has great code but nobody finds it, and you need a systematic plan to grow discoverability and adoption.
• Content marketing: When you need a quarter's content calendar with topic research, keyword targets, distribution channels, and publishing cadence.
• Competitive positioning: When competitors are shipping similar features and you need to find your differentiated angle backed by evidence.
• Post-launch analysis: After any launch (successful or not), when you need a structured post-mortem to learn what worked and what did not.

Do not use this agent for visual design (Design Vanguard) or pricing strategy (Revenue Architect). The Growth Engine drives adoption; other agents handle the product and revenue surfaces.

How It Works

1. Context Gathering: Understands the ask -- which channel, what stage of growth, what has been tried before.
2. Current State Audit: Reads the repo, README, existing content, and analytics to establish a baseline.
3. Landscape Research: Uses web search to check competitors, trending topics, and keyword volumes for informed planning.
4. Strategy Building: Applies channel-specific playbooks and growth frameworks to create a specific, actionable plan.
5. Deliverable Writing: Produces content calendars, launch playbooks, post drafts, and audit reports as structured files in .claude/growth/.
6. Measurement Setup: Defines metrics, creates tracking templates, and establishes baselines with UTM parameter standards.

Examples

Example 1: Hacker News Launch Playbook

User: "We're ready to launch on HN next week"

Growth Engine:
  - Builds complete Show HN playbook:
    Title: "Show HN: NXTG-Forge -- AI agents that actually build,
           not just suggest"
    Timing: Tuesday 9am ET (peak HN traffic)
    First comment: Personal problem statement, technical approach,
      honest limitations, repo link
    Response strategy: Reply to every comment within 2 hours,
      technical depth for technical questions, "you're right,
      here's what we're doing" for criticism
  - Blacklisted: "revolutionary", "game-changing", landing page
    links, coordinated upvotes
  - Post-mortem template prepared for Day 2 analysis
  - Result: Full playbook with timeline, templates, and response
    scripts.

Example 2: Open Source Growth Audit

User: "Our repo has great code but nobody finds it"

Growth Engine:
  - Audits the viral loop: Discovery -> README -> Install -> Aha -> Share
  - Discovery: Not in any awesome-lists, no newsletter mentions
  - README: Install command below the fold, no GIF/screenshot
  - Install: Works but requires 4 config steps before first output
  - Aha moment: Buried behind setup -- users give up before reaching it
  - Share trigger: None designed -- no shareable output or metric
  - Prescribes:
    1. README: Hero GIF above fold, install as first section
    2. Zero-config mode that works on first run
    3. Submit to 3 awesome-lists and 2 newsletters
    4. Add "Share your results" prompt after first successful run
  - Result: Prioritized 12-item growth plan with expected impact
    per item.

Example 3: Content Calendar Creation

User: "We need a content plan for Q2"

Growth Engine:
  - Defines 4 content pillars mapped to product value props
  - Builds 12-week calendar:
    Week 1: Technical blog post (SEO: "AI code generation best practices")
    + Twitter thread summarizing key findings
    + Reddit comment in r/programming on related discussion
    Week 2: Tutorial (SEO: "build your first AI agent in 5 minutes")
    + Dev.to cross-post with canonical URL
    + HN submission if traction on Dev.to
    ...
  - Metrics dashboard: blog views, star delta, npm installs,
    new contributors, email list growth
  - Monthly retrospective template included
  - Result: Actionable content calendar with topics, channels,
    metrics, and review cadence.

Power Use Cases

Platform-Native Content Generation: The Growth Engine does not write one piece and blast it everywhere. It adapts content to each platform's culture and norms. A Reddit comment uses casual voice, one paragraph, no formatting. A LinkedIn post has a hook in the first line and short paragraphs. A HN comment leads with technical depth. This platform-native approach prevents the "AI marketing speak" that gets content flagged and downvoted.

Funnel Analysis and Optimization: Map the full growth funnel -- Awareness (found the repo), Interest (read README), Activation (installed, ran first command), Retention (used again within 7 days), Advocacy (starred, shared, contributed) -- and identify where conversions drop. If Week 1 retention is below 30%, the onboarding is broken, and no amount of top-of-funnel content will fix it.

AI Content Guardrails: The Growth Engine maintains a strict blacklist of AI-detectable words and phrases (delve, tapestry, robust, holistic, seamless). All generated content must pass the human smell test -- varied sentence lengths, strong opinions over balanced analysis, specific numbers over generic claims, platform-native voice over polished prose.

Combines With

Feature	Synergy
Scout	Scout provides competitive intelligence; Growth Engine turns it into positioning and content strategy
Wordsmith	Growth Engine plans the content calendar; Wordsmith writes the actual posts and copy
Product Strategist	Strategist defines the value proposition; Growth Engine distributes it to the right audiences
Revenue Architect	Growth Engine drives adoption; Revenue Architect converts adoption into revenue

Level Progression

Level	What You Get
L1 Vibe Coder	Channel playbooks, content calendars, launch planning, SEO audits, community strategy, analytics setup
L2 Pro Builder	+ forge_capture_knowledge records growth experiments and learnings; forge_get_knowledge recalls past launch data
L3 Ship Lord	+ Dashboard panel showing growth metrics, content performance, and funnel conversion rates

Tips & Gotchas

• Do: Build genuine community presence (karma, comments, helpful answers) on a platform BEFORE any self-promotion.
• Do: Run a post-mortem after every launch, including failed ones. The failures teach more than the wins.
• Don't: Cross-post identical content to multiple platforms. Each platform has its own culture and format.
• Don't: Measure stars and followers. Measure installs, activation rate, and weekly retained users.

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See also: scout, wordsmith, product-strategist