google-trends-research

Google Trends Research

Use this skill for Google Trends platform-data work: topic discovery, keyword momentum, regional interest, rising queries, and search-intent watchlists.

Apply shared rulebook and user-guidance rules from postplus-shared. When a supported command completes but evidence is empty, sparse, noisy, off-topic, or the wrong record type, apply the postplus-shared reference research-quality-recovery.md; hard execution errors still fail fast.

Core Rule

Treat Google Trends as a search-intent source, not full demand proof.

Good uses: topic discovery, keyword momentum, regional comparison, rising-query discovery, and watchlist monitoring.

Do not overclaim transaction demand, conversion intent, marketplace competitiveness, creator execution quality, or merchant-model fit from Google Trends alone.

Task Shapes

Classify the request first:

• Trending now scan: hot searches by country or recent lookback.
• Keyword momentum check: trend changes across one or more terms.
• Regional interest mapping: which markets are warmer for a topic.
• Related query expansion: rising terms usable as seeds.

Route

Use google-trends-fast with one --query, a country, and a time range. PostPlus locks the route to keyword analysis so the Agent only supplies research intent.

postplus research run google-trends-fast \
  --query "example topic" \
  --wait \
  --output ./result.json

Bounded recovery: Current PostPlus CLIs handle a compatible update and retry the command once when no agent-session restart is required. If an older CLI only reports that an update is required, run postplus update and retry once under the same condition. For a missing or invalid CLI session, run postplus auth login yourself; it opens the browser by default. Immediately share its exact URL as a clickable link for the user to Connect, then retry the original command once only after the CLI confirms success. Never ask the user to run the command or enter/compare a code, approve the connection for them, or automatically restart a cancelled/expired login. For a local usage rejection before remote work starts, use that command's --help to make one unambiguous correction from existing user input and retry once.

If PostPlus returns postplus_cli_balance_required with an open_url user action, give the user its exact label and URL and stop for account action. Do not invent a checkout link, claim whether provider work or charging occurred, or blindly resubmit after payment; continue from the command's documented status or checkpoint once the user confirms credits are available.

Otherwise stop and report the exact error. Never expose login polling secrets, resubmit an operation when remote work may have started, change user intent, bypass approval, switch providers, rewrite payloads, or make a second recovery attempt. After success, briefly say that PostPlus updated, using only the official update details PostPlus reported.

Default Workflow

1. Classify the request into one task shape.
2. Compile one keyword with country and timeframe.
3. Collect a small valid sample through google-trends-fast.
4. Extract trend signals that matter.
5. Separate observation from inference.
6. Hand off to platform or marketplace research if deeper evidence is needed.

The result record shape for the route is documented in the postplus-shared reference dataset-item-schemas.md; consult it before writing result-processing code, and probe a single record only to verify.

Keep query briefs, raw trend payloads, normalized outputs, and watchlist caches under .postplus/google-trends/; keep final summaries or shortlist exports where the user can inspect them.

Good Output

Return keyword or topic set, observed trend signal, timeframe, geo scope, strongest rising queries or related topics, provisional implication, and the missing evidence layer.

Failure Modes

• Do not treat search spikes as proof that a product will sell.
• Do not confuse news-driven spikes with durable category demand.
• Do not skip geo and timeframe details when comparing terms.
• Keep each run to one clear keyword; compare multiple terms as separate bounded runs.
• Stop on unsupported keys, missing auth, unavailable hosted service, stable network failure, or malformed collection output.
• Do not answer Google Trends platform-data requests from generic web articles when the hosted route is available.

Handoff

• TikTok content heat or hook patterns -> tiktok-research.
• Instagram creator, account, or campaign scouting -> instagram-research.
• Instagram/Meta content proof -> social-media-extractor.
• Cross-source sourcing or selection judgment -> sourcing-selection.

Public Command Boundary

• Choose the smallest matching command or workflow from the user input and run it directly.
• Readiness diagnostics: postplus doctor --skill google-trends-research.
• If an owned CLI or script command still fails after any bounded recovery allowed by the executing PostPlus skill, report the exact error and stop. Do not bypass the failure with metadata-only answers, readiness probing, local payload rewrites, alternate services, or unpublished tools.
• Inspect flags with postplus research run google-trends-fast --help only when needed.
• Run postplus research run google-trends-fast --query <term> --country <code> --time-range <window> --wait --output <result.json>.
• Preview and approval boundaries stay explicit; do not execute irreversible publishing without the required approval artifact.
• If the CLI returns a quote-confirmation challenge, run postplus quote confirm --json --challenge-file <challenge.json> and retry with the returned token.