Analyse a competitor newsletter's top posts with Claude Cowork and Firecrawl and get a content-gap report
A step-by-step tutorial that points Claude Cowork at a Substack archive, scrapes the top free posts, and returns a Word report on audience, themes, gaps and ten content ideas.
Evidence: The source shows its work: steps, screenshots, code or data you can inspect.
The business problem
A newsletter founder wants to know what a competitor's audience cares about and where content gaps are, without reading the whole archive by hand.
What was tried
Install Claude Desktop with Cowork and the Claude in Chrome extension, add Firecrawl as a connector with an API key (Jina is an optional free fallback), and keep a short Claude.md describing your audience and themes. Paste the shared five-phase prompt with the competitor's URL: screenshot the homepage, open the archive sorted by top posts, skip paywalled posts, scrape five to seven free posts, then synthesise audience, themes, voice, gaps, ten content ideas, keyword territory and the top five actions into a Word document.
What was reported (mixed)
The author reports one successful demo that produced a 17-page Word report and says it identified the author's own product from the posts. When Firecrawl ran out of credits mid-run, Claude's built-in web fetch took over. No timing or accuracy comparison against manual analysis is given.
Limitations
Only one demo is reported and it is the author's own account. Paywalled posts are skipped, so the analysis covers free content only. The built-in fetch cannot see visual layout. The workflow is token-heavy and API billing can add up, the progress indicator can freeze, and Cowork is limited to the home directory. The post also promotes the author's own course and tools.
What you need
Claude Desktop with Cowork, the Claude in Chrome extension, a Firecrawl account (the post says 500 credits), and a recommended Claude Max plan for token costs. Plan tiers and Firecrawl pricing are not stated.
Sources
- GenAI Unplugged (Substack) ↗ Tutorial, published March 28, 2026
Source published: March 28, 2026. Last reviewed here: October 11, 2026. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Tools in this workflow
- Claude: Runs the analysis in CoworkTry Claude
- Firecrawl: Scrapes the competitor's postsTry Firecrawl
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