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r14dd/patent

A CLI and TUI that searches package registries, GitHub and Hacker News for existing tools matching a plain-English dev tool idea before you build it.

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Last commit
3 days ago

What is it?

patent takes a plain-English description of a developer tool and searches 19 sources, including package registries such as crates.io, npm, PyPI, Homebrew, Packagist and Hex, along with GitHub and Hacker News. Matches are ranked locally by semantic similarity using embeddings rather than keyword matching, so differently worded prior art still appears.

Results are summarised as Open, Crowded or Saturated. Matches untouched for two or more years are flagged, and the verdict covers only what was found in the sources checked, so a clean result means keep looking rather than confirmed novelty. The verdict can be produced by a local Ollama model, an OpenAI-compatible API, or skipped entirely with --fast.

The tool offers an interactive TUI, JSON output for scripts, and exit codes that reflect the verdict. The engine is also published as a Rust library crate.

Key features

  • 01Searches 19 sources, including package registries, GitHub and Hacker News, in one query.
  • 02Ranks matches by semantic similarity computed locally with embeddings.
  • 03Flags matches not updated in two or more years.
  • 04Produces Open, Crowded or Saturated verdicts, using a local or OpenAI-compatible LLM or none.
  • 05Offers an interactive TUI, JSON output and shell completions.

Use cases

  • Checking whether a CLI or developer tool idea already exists before starting to build it.
  • Scripting a go/no-go gate in CI using the exit code of the verdict.
  • Searching for existing packages across several language ecosystems at once.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Install with Homebrew

    brew install r14dd/patent/patent
  2. 2

    Search for an existing tool matching your idea

    patent "interactive cli to kill whatever's on a port"

Things to know

  • On Linux, the prebuilt binaries and cargo install need glibc 2.38 or newer, so older distributions such as Ubuntu 22.04 need a newer container build.

In collections

CLI & terminal tools

Topics

#cli#semantic-search#prior-art#embeddings#developer-tools#rust#tui#llm#ai#command-line-tool

FAQ

What is patent?
A CLI and TUI that searches package registries, GitHub and Hacker News for existing tools matching a plain-English dev tool idea before you build it. patent takes a plain-English description of a developer tool and searches 19 sources, including package registries such as crates.io, npm, PyPI, Homebrew, Packagist and Hex, along with GitHub and Hacker News. Matches are ranked locally by semantic similarity using embeddings rather than keyword matching, so differently worded prior art still appears.
Is patent free to use? What license does it have?
patent is open source under the Apache-2.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is patent still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to patent was on Nov 3, 2026.
What can I use patent for?
Checking whether a CLI or developer tool idea already exists before starting to build it. Scripting a go/no-go gate in CI using the exit code of the verdict. Searching for existing packages across several language ecosystems at once.
How do I install patent?
Install with Homebrew: brew install r14dd/patent/patent Search for an existing tool matching your idea: patent "interactive cli to kill whatever's on a port"
Where can I get patent?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/r14dd/patent

Summary generated by AI from the project's README. GitHub stats refresh daily.

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