Stars mislead; issues do not. Developers file structural pain, feature gaps, and switching debates in GitHub every day. Needle searches GitHub alongside Stack Overflow, Reddit, and Hacker News so you catch buyers who never post elsewhere.
Look for enhancement requests, migration pain, and competitor mentions - not vanity metrics.
Research ≠ spamming issues. Capture evidence internally; engage only when you add genuine value.
Bring thread excerpts to prioritization - community language beats abstract ticket counts.
| Approach | Best for | Intent | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub notifications | Your repos only | Direct | Yes |
| Star trackers | Vanity metrics | Low | Varies |
| Needle | Cross-repo + multi-platform | Yes | Preview |
Preview from your URL, then search communities with buying intent on paid plans.