Free tool The Scout

Find your niche first. Free.

The Scout is the niche-discovery system from Directory Stack — installed straight into Claude Code.

No card. You get the Scout skill, the niche-discovery chapter, and a practice dataset to test your structure on.

How it works

Three steps, no card.

  1. Drop your email above. Your personal key arrives — on this page and in your inbox.
  2. Paste the two commands into Claude Code, one at a time. That’s the whole install — no file to download.
  3. Type /scout and it takes over — it asks for a niche idea (or hands you a practice one) and scores it on a repeatable grid: demand, data, incumbent, monetization, upkeep. A verdict in minutes, not a gut feeling.

The commands

Two lines in a terminal.

Enter your email above and your personal key lands right on this page — and in your inbox — already dropped into the two install commands. They’re specific to your key, so we show them once you have one, not before.

It’s two lines: the first adds your private catalog, the second installs the Scout. You run them one at a time — that’s the whole install, no file to download or unzip. Then you type /scout and it takes over.

You need Claude Code running in a terminal — install it here.

Then what

The Scout finds it. The Stack builds it.

When the Scout finds you a niche worth building, the build system — schemas, templates, the quality classifier, chapters 2 through 11 — is the full Directory Stack. One-time $149.

Want to see it end to end first? The Trail Scout build roadmap walks through all eleven steps of a real directory built this way — Scout included.

FAQ

Questions.

Is the Scout actually free?

Yes. You trade an email address for a personal key — no card, no trial clock. The key installs the Scout skill, the niche-discovery chapter, and a practice dataset into Claude Code, and it keeps working whether or not you ever buy the full product.

What do I need to run it?

Claude Code running in a terminal. The install is two commands, shown on this page the moment you sign up and sent to your inbox as well. Once the Scout is installed, it tells you what to type next.

What does the Scout actually do?

It scores a directory niche on the signals that predict whether it is worth building — supply, demand, monetization, and how many facets it can support — so the go/no-go call comes from a repeatable grid instead of a gut feeling. It discovers and evaluates; you validate and decide.

How is the Scout different from Directory Stack?

The Scout is niche discovery — the free first step. Directory Stack is the full build system: database schemas, page templates, the quality classifier, and the remaining chapters covering data, structure, indexing, and monetization, for $149 one time.

If I buy Directory Stack later, do I reinstall everything?

No. Your existing key upgrades in place. The same marketplace you already added starts serving the full product, and the next /plugin marketplace update pulls it down.

Stuck? Email me — a person answers.