llms.txt
# Nick Launches
> Nick Launches helps developers build and launch AI products faster with practical tutorials, AI tool reviews, launch directory walkthroughs, and product launches.
## Site sections
- [Home](https://nicklaunches.com/): live product launches and weekly rankings
- [Blog](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/): tutorials, AI tooling reviews, launch playbooks
- [Products](https://nicklaunches.com/products/): every product launched on Nick Launches
- [Launch directories](https://nicklaunches.com/tools/launch-directories/): vetted directories to submit your product
- [Dev resources](https://nicklaunches.com/resources/dev-resources/): tools, templates, and references for builders
- [Tool reviews](https://nicklaunches.com/reviews/): scored reviews of builder tools, with sponsored ones labelled
- [About](https://nicklaunches.com/about/): who runs the site and why it exists
## For agents and developers
Nick Launches is reachable programmatically. Reads are anonymous. Writes need a connection, which a human approves in a browser, and an agent can open a launch draft but can never publish, pay, or pick a launch week.
- [API and MCP](https://nicklaunches.com/api-mcp/): what the agent surface is and how to connect
- [Documentation](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/): full reference for the MCP tools and the REST API
- MCP server (Streamable HTTP): https://nicklaunches.com/api/mcp/
- REST API base: https://nicklaunches.com/api/v1/
- OpenAPI spec: https://nicklaunches.com/api/v1/openapi.json
## Recent blog posts
- [Week 23 Recap: 12 Launch Tactics, Where to Launch in 2026, and a Free Idea Checker on Top](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-23-recap-october-11-2026/): A second record in a row with 1,292 upvotes on the week 41 board, Clarno on top with 39 from the free section, a new guide to 12 launch tactics you can automate with AI, our first long YouTube video on where to launch in 2026, and a Busabase setup guide. Week 23 on Nick Launches.
- [Directory Submission Checklist for New Product Launches](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/directory-submission-checklist-new-product-launches/): A directory submission checklist for new product launches: define success first, pick directories that match your audience, prepare one listing kit, verify every live listing and measure what it brings.
- [Product Hunt Alternative: 9 Places to Launch When One Day Is Not Enough](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/product-hunt-alternative/): Why founders look for a Product Hunt alternative, nine launch platforms compared on launch window, free tier, link type and monthly visitors, and how to pick the one that fits the product you are shipping.
- [Week 22 Recap: The Free SEO Playbook, Six New Channels, and a 51-Vote Marketplace at #1](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-22-recap-october-04-2026/): A record 1,219 upvotes on the week 40 board, Zinn Hub at #1 with 51 of them, a free 19-page SEO playbook, two new guides on Resources, and Nick Launches on six platforms. Week 22 on Nick Launches, plus what ten years of GitHub stars say about going solo.
- [Why Your Customers' Questions Are Your Best Content Brief](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/customer-questions-content-brief/): The questions people already send to support, sales and reviews are a free content brief. Where to find them, how to triage them, and how to write the answer.
- [Week 21 Recap: Cheaper Frontier Models, an Agent Marketplace, and 145 GitHub Stars](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-21-recap-september-27-2026/): Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol and Luna landed in the same 24 hours and both cut prices, Claude got a marketplace, open-weight models now run most tokens, and the week 39 board broke last week's tie with 917 upvotes. Week 21 on Nick Launches, plus what ten years of GitHub stars say about going solo.
- [145 GitHub Stars, Two Accounts: From CTO to Solo Founder](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/github-stars-cto-to-solo-founder/): Seven years leading teams: 21,000 commits, one star. One year solo: 116 stars. What changed, and the 20 repos that made it into my daily stack.
- [Week 20 Recap: The Tools Workspace Shipped, Site Audit Went Free](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-20-recap-september-20-2026/): 204 products submitted, 103 live, 843 upvotes for the second week running, and the /tools/ workspace finally shipped with Site Audit free for everyone. Week 20 on Nick Launches, plus the waitlist for AI Visibility, Rankings and Auto Blogs.
- [Startup Directories in 2026: Which Ones Actually Earn You Traffic, Links and AI Citations](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/startup-directories-2026/): A practical checklist for judging startup directories in 2026: which ones pass real dofollow authority, which are dead pages, and why category match now matters for AI citations too.
- [How to Find Your First 100 Customers Without Spending Money on Ads](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/find-first-100-customers-without-ads/): A practical playbook for indie founders: how to find the people already describing your problem on Reddit, in forums and in niche communities, and win your first 100 customers before you spend a dollar on ads.
- [Week 19 Recap: One Builder Shipped Four Launches and Took the Top of the Board, and the Directory Passed 1,800 Products](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-19-recap-september-13-2026/): 227 products submitted, 97 live, 843 upvotes cast, and Mark Zschiegner shipped four launches in a single week, one of which won the board outright. Two free listings finished one vote off the top. Week 19 on Nick Launches, plus the Auto growth and distribution tools landing this week.
- [Week 18 Recap: Upvotes Crossed 1,000, Every Pro Launch Shipped an MCP Server, and a New Account Did 150K on Day One](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-18-recap-september-06-2026/): 1,095 upvotes in a week for the first time, Dante ran away with the board on 29, Vectr4 beat every paid launch but one on a free listing, and all three Pro launches built for coding agents. Week 18 on Nick Launches, plus the launch post that did 121,460 impressions and a new account that did 150,721 on its first day.
- [Week 17 Recap: A Free Launch Beat the Whole Board, and Mark Came Back With Three](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-17-recap-august-30-2026/): Submissions climbed back to 245, GhostPrompter took 22 upvotes without paying for a slot, and last week's dollar-board builder returned with three launches including the $199 Ultimate. Week 17 on Nick Launches, plus the post that found Lyra its next 25 users.
- [Product Hunt Alternative for Founders: Launch Your Startup With More Visibility](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/product-hunt-alternative-weekly-launch-cycles/): Product Hunt concentrates every launch into one crowded day. NxGn Tools runs weekly launch cycles capped at 70 published tools, which changes what a founder without an audience has to do to be seen.
- [Week 16 Recap: A Third Fewer Submissions, More Votes, and the Two Biggest Posts I Have Ever Written](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-16-recap-august-23-2026/): Submissions fell from 309 to 200 and upvotes still went up. Week 16 on Nick Launches, plus the two posts that broke every reach record on the account and what one line in a comment was worth.
- [Before You Build Another AI Product, Follow the Traffic](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/ai-competitor-research-follow-the-traffic/): Competitor research usually stops at features and pricing. Traffic and its sources tell you which products the market is actually rewarding, which small ones are moving, and what users are searching for before you write a line of code.
- [We Don't Need More AI Tools. We Need Better Ways to Find the Right Ones.](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/ai-tool-discovery-problem/): The AI ecosystem does not have a tool shortage. It has a discovery problem. Why search, social feeds and giant directories fail, and what better AI tool discovery actually looks like.
- [What SEO Automation Really Does (and What It Can't)](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/what-seo-automation-really-does/): SEO stopped being a campaign and became an operations job. What an automation workflow actually covers, from topic discovery to optimizing, where the human still has to decide, and a checklist for evaluating platforms that claim to run the loop.
- [Why Startup Directories Still Matter for SaaS Growth](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/why-startup-directories-matter/): How startup directories help SaaS products gain lasting visibility, relevant backlinks, referral traffic, search discovery and customer trust.
- [Week 15 Recap: A Bigger Board, Thinner Votes and a Product Hunt Launch That Came 13th](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-15-recap-august-16-2026/): The featured board nearly doubled to 22 launches while total upvotes stayed flat, so a free listing on 16 votes finished ahead of eighteen of them. Week 15 on Nick Launches, plus an honest account of our Product Hunt day.
- [Nobody Signed Up After Launch: How to Tell If It's Distribution or the Idea](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/nobody-signed-up-after-launch-distribution-or-idea/): Your launch got no signups. Four checks, in order, to work out whether nobody found it or nobody wanted it, and what to do about each.
- [Launching Is Not One Day](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/launching-is-not-one-day/): A guest post on what happens after launch day: writing every submission answer once, posting URLs you can measure, and checking which directory listings actually link back.
- [AI Assistants Read PeerPush 5 Million Times a Month. Here Is What They Look For in a Product.](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/peerpush-ai-assistants-product-visibility/): What AI assistants extract from product pages, why they get small products wrong, and the steps that make any product readable by AI. From PeerPush's crawler data.
- [Where to Launch Your Startup in 2026: 5 Platforms and What Each One Is Actually For](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/where-to-launch-your-startup-2026/): Where to launch your startup in 2026, compared honestly: four launch venues and one catalog that also measures whether anyone noticed. With current DR data and the do-follow conditions each one buries.
- [Week 14 Recap: Real Feedback, Proof Over Claims and a Pixel-Art Solar System](https://nicklaunches.com/blog/week-14-recap-august-09-2026/): A free launch outranked twelve of the thirteen featured. A pixel-art solar system took #2 on Product Hunt and its buyers ignored the pricing model it was built around. Week 14 on Nick Launches, plus 20% off everything until midnight.
## Dev resources
- [Busabase Setup Guide: Let Agents Write, Review Every Change](https://nicklaunches.com/resources/dev-resources/busabase-setup-guide/): Run Busabase locally in one command, connect Claude Code, Codex or Cursor over MCP, build your first Base, and decide which agent writes wait for your review. Every step tested on a fresh install.
- [Ship an MCP Server With Your Product, and Get It Found](https://nicklaunches.com/resources/dev-resources/ship-mcp-server-with-your-product/): You launched the product. Launch two is the MCP server that lets Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and ChatGPT use it without a browser. Transport, clean stdout, OAuth the way clients expect it, install in every client, and the registry, card and skill that get it found.
- [Free Coding Agent with NVIDIA Nemotron: Self-Host on a Cheap VPS](https://nicklaunches.com/resources/dev-resources/free-coding-agent-nvidia-nemotron-self-host-guide/): Run a free cloud coding agent using NVIDIA's Nemotron 3 Super (120B) and an open-source agent like OpenCode. Step-by-step setup on Hetzner, Netcup, or Contabo for under €5 a month.
- [Self-Host Hermes Agent on a Hetzner VPS: A Practical Guide](https://nicklaunches.com/resources/dev-resources/hermes-agent-self-host-hetzner-vps-guide/): Run Nous Research's open-source Hermes Agent 24/7 on a €5 Hetzner VPS. Step-by-step setup with Telegram integration, systemd persistence, and security hardening.
## Tool reviews
- [LaunchAF Review: A Useful Early-Stage Launch Directory, Not a Growth Guarantee](https://nicklaunches.com/reviews/launchaf-review/): LaunchAF runs a weekly launch leaderboard with a dofollow product page and 37 free founder tools. We paid for a launch there, checked the link ourselves, and looked for proof it moves traffic. Here is what holds up and what is still thin. (4/5, sponsored placement)
- [TurboStarter Review: Three Platforms From One Repo for $249](https://nicklaunches.com/reviews/turbostarter-review/): TurboStarter ships web, mobile, and a browser extension from a single monorepo, with auth, billing, and multi-tenancy already wired. Here is what that buys you, what it costs you, and who should skip it. (4/5, sponsored placement)
- [QR Menu Generator Review: A Good Menu Builder That Fixed Its EU Allergen Problem](https://nicklaunches.com/reviews/qr-menu-generator-review/): QR Menu Generator builds a clean digital menu in minutes and updates it instantly. Its headline claim, EU Regulation 1169/2011 allergen coverage, failed the first test. A re-test a week later found the fourteen labels, the audit trail and the guest filter in place. (4.5/5, sponsored placement)
- [Wysera Review: One AI That Posts, Answers, and Follows Up](https://nicklaunches.com/reviews/wysera-review/): Wysera bundles social posting, a CRM, and client follow-up behind a single AI that drafts and waits for your approval. Here is what it does well, what it hides, and who should skip it. (4/5, sponsored placement)
## Documentation pages
Each page also has a raw markdown mirror, linked second, which is the cheaper one to read.
- [Introduction](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/): Search the Nick Launches catalog, audit a site before it launches, and open a launch draft, from an agent or from curl. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/index/)
- [Quickstart](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/quickstart/): Add the MCP server to your agent, run an anonymous search, then approve a connection and open your first launch draft. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/quickstart/)
- [Authentication](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/authentication/): There are no API keys to create. The first write returns a one time approval link, you click it once, and the agent is bound to your account. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/authentication/)
- [Install](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/mcp/install/): Add the Nick Launches MCP server to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or VS Code. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/mcp/install/)
- [Tools](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/mcp/tools/): The seven tools the Nick Launches MCP server exposes, what each one needs, and what it returns. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/mcp/tools/)
- [search_products](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/mcp/tools/search-products/): Plain language search across every product that has already launched on Nick Launches. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/mcp/tools/search-products/)
- [get_product](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/mcp/tools/get-product/): The full listing for one product, by slug. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/mcp/tools/get-product/)
- [check_launch_readiness](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/mcp/tools/check-launch-readiness/): A preflight audit of any URL. Scores the site, names every reason a listing would be sent back, and hands back the fix. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/mcp/tools/check-launch-readiness/)
- [submit_product](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/mcp/tools/submit-product/): Opens a launch draft from a URL. It cannot publish, pick a plan, pick a week, or pay. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/mcp/tools/submit-product/)
- [list_launch_directories](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/mcp/tools/list-launch-directories/): The catalog of launch directories Nick Launches tracks, for planning a submission campaign. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/mcp/tools/list-launch-directories/)
- [get_my_launches](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/mcp/tools/get-my-launches/): Status, plan, requested week, upvotes and impressions for every launch on your account. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/mcp/tools/get-my-launches/)
- [Overview](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/api/overview/): Base URL, versioning, content types, authentication and the full endpoint list for the Nick Launches REST API. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/api/overview/)
- [Products](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/api/products/): Search the catalog and read a single listing over HTTP. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/api/products/)
- [Launch readiness](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/api/launch-readiness/): Audit any URL over HTTP before you submit it. Same audit as the MCP tool. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/api/launch-readiness/)
- [Submissions](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/api/submissions/): Create a launch draft over HTTP. It cannot publish, pick a plan, pick a week, or pay. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/api/submissions/)
- [Rate limits](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/rate-limits/): What is metered, how it is counted, and what to do when you hit a limit. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/rate-limits/)
- [Errors](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/errors/): One error vocabulary across MCP and REST, with what each code means and what to do about it. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/errors/)
- [Roadmap](https://nicklaunches.com/docs/roadmap/): The MCP server is the first piece of a builder toolkit, not a submit endpoint. Here is what lands next. (raw: https://nicklaunches.com/api/docs/roadmap/)
