Facebook Research — Setup State (v2)

Run this first. It checks prerequisites, creates the project, and sets up Chrome.

Steps

1. Gather Parameters

Ask the user:

1. "What's the Facebook page name or URL to analyze?" (e.g., ESPN, https://www.facebook.com/ESPN)
2. "Give it a short project name (e.g., espn-sports)" — this becomes the directory name
3. "What's the page's niche/industry?" (e.g., sports, news, fitness, entertainment)
4. "What competitor pages should we analyze? (comma-separated URLs or names, e.g., BleacherReport, SportsCenter)" — leave empty if none
5. "Any specific keywords/topics this page targets?" (comma-separated, e.g., soccer, NBA, highlights)
6. "What topics are YOU creating content about? (for replication scripts)" (comma-separated)
7. "How many top posts to analyze?" (default: 10)
8. "Date range for analytics?" (default: last 28 days)
9. "Is this a first-time analysis or a repeat?" (if repeat, existing history will be loaded)

2. Create Project Directory Structure

SESSION=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S)
mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/$SESSION"
mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/$SESSION/screenshots"
mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/$SESSION/screenshots-competitors"
mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/$SESSION/replication-scripts"
mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/$SESSION/competitors"
# legacy dirs for back-compat (also create at project root)
mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/screenshots"
mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/competitors"

For each competitor, create a subdirectory:

mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/$SESSION/competitors/<competitor-name>"
mkdir -p ".fb-research/projects/<project-name>/competitors/<competitor-name>"

3. Create config.json

{
  "name": "<project-name>",
  "pageUrl": "<facebook_page_url>",
  "pageName": "<page name>",
  "niche": "<niche>",
  "competitors": [
    {"name": "<competitor-1>", "url": "<competitor_url>"},
    {"name": "<competitor-2>", "url": "<competitor_url>"}
  ],
  "targetKeywords": ["<keyword1>", "<keyword2>"],
  "yourTopics": ["<your_topic1>", "<your_topic2>"],
  "maxPosts": 10,
  "dateRange": "last_28_days",
  "analysisRound": 1,
  "createdAt": "<YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS>",
  "updatedAt": "<YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS>"
}

If this is a repeat analysis, increment analysisRound from the existing config.

4. Initialize or Load History Files

Check if history files exist:

cat .fb-research/projects/<project-name>/page-analytics-history.json  # global history, not per-session 2>/dev/null || echo '{"snapshots": []}'
cat .fb-research/projects/<project-name>/report-history.json 2>/dev/null || echo '{"reports": []}'
cat .fb-research/projects/<project-name>/replication-history.json 2>/dev/null || echo '{"scripts": []}'

If any are missing, initialize them with empty arrays. If they exist, load them — they'll be used by the scrape and report phases for trend comparison.

5. Install Node dependencies

# scripts are now bundled inside the skill — install there (global-safe):
npm install --prefix "$CLAUDE_SKILL_ROOT/scripts"  # e.g. ~/.claude/skills/facebook-research-setup/scripts
# fallback for local dev without global install:
npm install --prefix ./skills/facebook-research/scripts

Installs chrome-remote-interface for the scrape/report/download scripts.

6. Set Up Chrome with Facebook Access

Facebook requires authentication. Two options:

Option A — Import cookies via setup-browser-cookies skill (recommended):

/setup-browser-cookies

When the picker opens, select Facebook/Meta domains (facebook.com, fb.com, etc.).

Option B — Manual login:

Tell the user:

"Open Chrome DevTools on a new page and navigate to https://www.facebook.com/. Log into Facebook manually, then come back and tell me 'ready'."

Wait for the user to confirm they're logged in.

7. Verify Access

chrome-devtools navigate_page --url "https://www.facebook.com/"
chrome-devtools take_snapshot

Check if the page shows the logged-in Facebook feed (look for the Facebook logo, stories, or news feed elements — not the login screen).

If login screen shows, return to step 6.

8. Confirm Setup Complete

✅ Facebook Research Setup Complete!

Project: .fb-research/projects/<project-name>/
Config: config.json
Page: <page_name> (<page_url>)
Competitors: <N> configured (<list_names>)
Analysis Round: <round_number>

History loaded:
  - Page analytics snapshots: <N> previous
  - Reports: <N> previous
  - Replication scripts: <N> previous

Next step: skill facebook-research-scrape