kendreaditya/forage

Forage

Cross-platform experiential search. Searches real human content across YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit — then synthesizes findings.

When to use

Use forage for subjective, experience-based queries where real human perspectives matter more than SEO articles:

• "bay area hikes with waterfalls"
• "indian male chest hair grooming"
• "best mechanical keyboard for programming"
• "is mass gainer worth it"

How it works

For each query, search the relevant platforms in parallel (use multiple tool calls), then synthesize.

Platform selection

Not every query needs every platform. Pick based on query type:

| Query type | Best platforms | Example | |---|---|---| | Lifestyle / experiences | TikTok, Reddit, YouTube | "bay area hikes with waterfalls" | | Product reviews / opinions | Reddit, YouTube, TikTok | "best wireless earbuds under $100" | | How-to / tutorials | YouTube, Reddit | "chest hair grooming for men" | | Trending / culture | TikTok, Reddit, YouTube | "what's viral right now in fitness" | | Technical / niche | Reddit, YouTube | "rust vs go for backend 2026" |

Default: Reddit + YouTube + TikTok (all three, every query).

Search commands

Reddit

reddit-browser search "QUERY" --subreddit SUB --sort relevance --time year --limit 10 --json
reddit-browser comments "<permalink-or-url>" --limit 8 --json   # pull a thread's top comments

Use reddit-browser (at ~/.config/scripts/reddit-browser) — it returns real Reddit JSON (title, subreddit, score, num_comments, permalink, selftext, url). Drop --json for a human-readable listing. --subreddit/-r is optional (omit for a site-wide search). To read a thread's discussion, pass its permalink to the comments subcommand.

Why this CLI and not reddit: as of 2026-06 Reddit hard-403s every anonymous *.json request, and the Redlib mirrors the old reddit CLI fell back to are now all dead behind JS proof-of-work walls (header-spoofing and curl_cffi TLS impersonation both still 403). reddit-browser works around it by driving headless Chrome to clear the JS challenge and reuse the session cookie — cold ~7s, warm ~1.3s (cookie cached 30 min). Needs the ~/.config/config-venv venv (playwright + chromium). Run it with that venv active: source ~/.config/config-venv/bin/activate.

If you ever add REDDIT_CLIENT_ID/REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET to ~/.config/.env, the lighter reddit CLI's OAuth path becomes viable again and is faster — but until then reddit-browser is the reliable Reddit leg.

YouTube (search + optional transcript)

# Search
yt-dlp "ytsearch10:QUERY" --dump-json --flat-playlist --no-warnings 2>/dev/null \
  | jq -s 'sort_by(-.view_count) | .[:5][] | {title, url, channel, views: .view_count, date: .upload_date}'

# Get transcript for top result (optional — use when depth matters)
yt-dlp --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --sub-format vtt --skip-download \
  -o "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s" "VIDEO_URL" && vtt2txt /tmp/VIDEO_ID.en.vtt

TikTok

source ~/.config/config-venv/bin/activate && python ~/.claude/skills/tiktok/scripts/tiktok.py "QUERY" -n 10 --details

Returns descriptions, stickers text, locations, engagement stats, and transcripts.

Synthesis

After gathering results from 2-4 platforms, synthesize into a response that:

1. Leads with the answer — what did real people say?
2. Groups by theme — not by platform. If multiple platforms agree on something, that's a strong signal.
3. Cites sources — mention which subreddit, which YouTuber, which TikTok creator said what.
4. Notes disagreements — where platforms diverge, call it out.
5. Ranks by signal strength — high upvotes on Reddit + high views on YouTube + viral on TikTok = strong consensus.

Example: "bay area hikes with waterfalls"

Search plan:

• Reddit: r/bayarea, r/hiking — real local recommendations with upvotes
• YouTube: video guides showing the actual trails
• TikTok: short clips of the hikes, tagged locations

Parallel execution:

# Reddit
reddit-browser search "bay area hikes waterfalls" --sort relevance --time year --limit 10 --json

# YouTube
yt-dlp "ytsearch10:bay area hikes waterfalls" --dump-json --flat-playlist --no-warnings 2>/dev/null \
  | jq -s 'sort_by(-.view_count) | .[:5][]'

# TikTok
source ~/.config/config-venv/bin/activate && python ~/.claude/skills/tiktok/scripts/tiktok.py "bay area hikes waterfalls" -n 10 --details

Synthesize: Combine Reddit's "Alamere Falls is the best but crowded" + YouTube's trail walkthrough + TikTok's location tags into a ranked recommendation list.

Example: "indian male chest hair grooming"

Search plan:

• Reddit: grooming subreddits — real experiences, product recs
• YouTube: tutorial videos with view counts
• TikTok: short grooming tips, product demos

Tips

• Parallel is key — launch Reddit + YouTube + TikTok searches simultaneously
• Reddit first — fastest, richest signal, best for gauging if a topic has community discussion
• YouTube for depth — grab transcripts when you need detailed how-to or review content
• TikTok for recency — most current trends and real-person demonstrations