deal-finder - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: deal-finder description: Scan configured sources (Craigslist now; eBay + Facebook Marketplace planned) for used-item listings matching the owner's criteria. Currently configured for a Mac mini search (M2+, 16GB+, 512GB+, ≤$500, near 94566). Notify owner via SMS + Telegram on a match. user-invocable: true

Deal Finder

Watches configured sources for second-hand item listings matching owner-defined criteria. Sends an SMS + Telegram DM when a new matching listing appears.

Usage: /deal-finder (one-shot scan) — typically run from cron every 60 min.

Searches

V1 keeps the original Mac Mini search inline (state/criteria.json). V2 will move this to a state/searches.json array with one entry per search, so adding "Pelican 1535 case", "Aeron chair size B", etc. becomes a JSON edit rather than a code change.

Current Mac Mini search criteria (from state/criteria.json):

Chip family: M2, M3, M4 (M1 explicitly excluded — owner asked for M2+)
Min RAM: 16 GB
Min storage: 512 GB
Max price: $500
ZIP: 94566 (Pleasanton, CA), search radius 50 mi

Edit state/criteria.json to retune the Mac Mini search; v2 will lift this into a per-search config.

Sources

V1 (implemented): Craigslist (sfbay.craigslist.org/search/sss?...). Uses an honest User-Agent (Sutando-Personal-Agent/1.0) that identifies the agent rather than cosplaying a browser — Craigslist can decide whether to allow.

V2 (planned, not yet implemented):

eBay — browse.ebay.com has a local-pickup filter; HTML scraping works without auth.
Facebook Marketplace — requires a headless browser (Playwright via the macos-use skill, or the browser-automation MCP) because the page is JS-rendered and gated.

Behavior

Fetch the Craigslist search results page with the honest UA.
Parse each listing: title, URL, price, neighborhood.
For each listing not in state/seen.json:
- Fetch the listing detail page (one extra HTTP req per listing — cheap, only on first sight).
- Apply criteria filter (chip, RAM, storage, price). Listings missing fields fall through to "soft match" — flagged but still notified, since Craigslist sellers often omit specs.
- On match: notify (SMS + Telegram), record URL in seen.json.
Trim seen.json deterministically to the last 1000 entries (a deque(maxlen=1000) ordered by insertion — replaces the prior set-slicing trim which was non-deterministic).

Notification format

[Mac Mini Deal] $480 — M2 / 16GB / 512GB
Concord (35mi, local pickup)
Posted recent
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/...

SMS goes via TWILIO_* env vars to OWNER_NUMBER. Telegram goes via results/proactive-deal-finder-{ts}.txt (the bridge picks it up).

Run it

python3 scripts/scan.py            # one-shot scan with default criteria
python3 scripts/scan.py --dry-run  # don't notify, print what would notify
python3 scripts/scan.py --reset    # clear seen.json (force re-notify everything)

Cron: every 60 min. Configured in skills/schedule-crons/crons.json as deal-finder.