Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Trend Topic Fetcher agent skill (cheat-trends)
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
cheat-trends is an agent skill, a packaged set of instructions that a Claude agent can load and follow. When you ask for trending topics, it collects popular items from configured sources, removes ones you already have or rejected, gives each a rough score, and suggests the best ones to add to a candidates.md file. This guide covers what it does, how to install it, how to trigger it and what it needs, so you can get a working list of topic ideas.
Trend Topic FetcherXBuilderLAB/cheat-on-content · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Download the cheat-trends skill ZIP from this page and unzip it so the folder contains SKILL.md.
- 2Place the skill folder. Move the unzipped folder into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into your project's .claude/skills/ folder. You can also upload the ZIP under Settings, Capabilities, Skills in the Claude apps.
- 3Check your project files. Make sure the project has .cheat-state.json and candidates.md, which are created by the wider cheat-on-content system.
- 4Ask for trending topics. Say something like "fetch trends" or "找选题" and the agent will load the skill and start with the manual-paste source.
- 5Paste your candidates. When asked, paste URLs or titles one per line. The agent fetches snippets and removes duplicates.
- 6Choose which items to keep. Review the scored table and reply with all, a list of numbers, or none. Only the items you pick are added to candidates.md.
What the skill makes the agent do
The skill runs a fixed pipeline. It reads the sources enabled in your project's .cheat-state.json file, fetches items from each one, normalises them, removes duplicates, gives each new item a rough composite score, sorts the results and asks you which to keep. Only the items you choose are written to candidates.md.
The purpose is to solve the problem of having no content ideas. Items you have already used or rejected are filtered out, so the same topic should not keep coming back.
- Reads enabled sources (default: manual-paste, where you paste links or titles yourself)
- Removes duplicates against candidates.md, your predictions folder and a history cache
- Gives each item a rough, snapshot-based score and a one-line rationale
- Asks you to choose which items to add; items you reject are recorded so they are not suggested again
Install the cheat-trends skill
Download the ZIP for the skill from this page and unzip it. The skill is delivered as a folder containing SKILL.md. Put the folder in one of these locations: ~/.claude/skills/ to make it available for all your projects, or a project's .claude/skills/ folder to make it available only in that project.
You can also upload the ZIP in the Claude apps. Go to Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills, and add it there.
- Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
- Project install: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/ folder
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
Trigger the skill with natural requests
You do not need to type a command. The skill's description lists trigger phrases, so asking for trends in these ways should load it: 抓热点, fetch trends, 今天有什么可做的, trending now, 找选题. The skill also documents a slash form, /cheat-trends, with optional arguments for the sources to use and the maximum items per source.
If you want to override the default source for one run, you can specify sources and a limit in the request, for example in the form the source shows: /cheat-trends — sources: manual-paste,aihot,weibo-hot — max-per: 10. Note that only manual-paste is enabled by default; the other source names appear in the source document as examples.
- Natural: "fetch trends" or "find me topics for today"
- Slash form: /cheat-trends with optional sources and max-per values
- Default limit per source is 20 items
/cheat-trends — sources: manual-paste,aihot,weibo-hot — max-per: 10Set up sources and what they need
By default the only enabled source is manual-paste. In this mode the agent asks you to paste today's candidate URLs or titles, one per line, and fetches each URL to pull a short snippet. It needs no credentials and is the fallback that should always work.
Other sources are described in separate adapter files that are not included in the material for this page. Per the skill, some need configuration: trendradar-mcp needs setup, and a Douyin source needs a session cookie. To enable more sources permanently, the skill says to edit the enabled_trend_sources array in .cheat-state.json. Check the adapter documentation for each source's exact requirements.
- Requires Bash and WebFetch access in the agent runtime
- Requires .cheat-state.json and candidates.md in the project (created by the wider cheat-on-content system)
- Optional credentials or cookies for some adapters; exact details are in adapter files not provided here
Review the scored list and choose items
After fetching, the skill shows a table sorted by composite score, with source, bucket and rationale for each item. Items below the minimum suggestion threshold of 6.0 are left out of the suggestions, though they are still logged so they are not proposed again.
Reply "all" to add everything, a list such as "1, 3, 5" to add selected items, or "none" to add nothing. Selected items are appended to candidates.md. The skill marks scores as rough and snapshot-based in that file, so they are not confused with later predictions.
- all: add every suggested item
- 1, 3, 5: add only the numbered items
- none: add nothing; rejected items are logged to avoid repeats
Safety notes: scripts and network access
This skill runs scripts and uses the network. Its tool list includes Bash and WebFetch, so the agent may run commands and fetch web pages to read sources. Review the adapter files and the sources you enable before running it, and only enable sources you trust.
The skill refuses to scrape Douyin feeds without a cookie, because the source says such requests fail. The skill also refuses to skip duplicate checks, since that would make later recommendations less useful. Keep your session cookies and any API keys private, and do not paste them into shared files.
- The skill can run Bash commands and fetch web content
- Enable only sources you trust and have configured
- Keep cookies and keys out of shared documents
What people use it for
- Building a weekly pool of topic ideas for a creator who does not want to search for ideas every day
- Checking what is trending in a niche before planning a set of marketing posts
- Pasting links from articles you have found and turning them into scored candidates
- Keeping a candidates.md list that a later recommend step can read in order
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the cheat-trends agent skill?
Download the ZIP from this page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings, Capabilities, Skills.
What do I need to run cheat-trends?
The agent needs Bash and WebFetch access, plus a .cheat-state.json file and candidates.md in the project. Some optional sources need credentials or cookies, and their exact requirements are in adapter files that are not included here.
Is cheat-trends free?
The source material provided does not state pricing or licence terms beyond the MIT licence listed for the repository, so check the repository for details. MIT is a permissive open-source licence.
Does cheat-trends work without setting up other sources?
Yes. The default source is manual-paste, where you paste links or titles yourself, and the skill describes it as the fallback that should always work without credentials.
Are the trend scores accurate?
No. The scores are a rough, snapshot-based filter meant to decide whether an idea is worth developing. They are not a reliable prediction of how a post will perform.
Why does scraping Douyin fail?
According to the skill, Douyin has strong anti-scraping measures and requests without a session cookie fail. The skill points to a separate douyin-session adapter configuration document for setup.
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Our verdict
Use cheat-trends if you need a steady pool of topic ideas and are comfortable pasting links or enabling a few configured sources. Skip it if you need accurate performance predictions or want automatic scraping of platforms like Douyin without setting up cookies and adapter configuration.
Download the skill