The threads that matter are not the ones that name your product. They are the ones where somebody describes the problem your product solves and asks whether anything does that.
Brand alerting misses those completely, because your brand is the one word the thread does not contain. What you want is problem search, run regularly, over the two places developers ask.
Search the problem, not the brand
Write down the sentence a person would type when they have your problem and do not know you exist. That sentence, not your product name, is the query. It usually contains the constraint rather than the category: "without a subscription", "runs offline", "on an M1".
Then read the results as conversations rather than as a count. A listening tool that reports a mentions number invites you to watch the number. Ten threads you have actually read is worth more than a chart, and at this scale reading them is a few minutes.
Start with what this does not do. It is search you run, not a monitored feed: there is no alerting, no stored history and no mentions dashboard. reddit_search searches Reddit posts, not comments, through Reddit's API on your own Reddit account, and returns up to 100 posts per query. hn_search searches stories and comments through the public Algolia Hacker News index and needs no account.
How ToolPiper does it
reddit_search and hn_search are exposed over the local MCP server, so any MCP client can call them. An agent can run several problem queries, drop the threads that are years old or already answered, and hand you the short list.
Both are part of the Outreach family, alongside Search Console and the content queue, so the thread you found and the note you write about it live in the same place.
What you need
macOS 26 or later on Apple Silicon, ToolPiper, and an MCP client if you want an agent to run the queries on a schedule rather than you running them by hand.
A word on how to show up
Finding the thread is the easy half. Both communities are hostile to vendors who arrive with a pitch, correctly so. Answer the question that was asked, say plainly what you work on, and accept that most threads are not yours to reply to.
Limits worth knowing before you start
ToolPiper needs macOS 26 or later on Apple Silicon, and both search tools are part of ToolPiper Pro ($10/month). Reddit search needs your Reddit account connected in ToolPiper over OAuth, through an OAuth app you register with Reddit, and Reddit's API rate limits apply to it. Hacker News is read-only: there is no posting API, so any reply is one you write on the site yourself.
Try it
Download ToolPiper and run three problem queries for the thing you build. Read every result. The rung badge above names the plan the Outreach family sits on, resolved from the pricing catalog.
Part of the SEO tools guide for Mac. The roundup covers SERP capture, keyword discovery, rank checks, Search Console and listening in one place.