ph-algorithm-guide

ph-algorithm-guide is a skill for Claude Code from yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills. It costs 31 tokens per session (1,766 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide to how Product Hunt ranks products, including factors that can affect the value of votes and the role of account activity and engagement.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to plan a Product Hunt launch, understand ranking changes, assess voting patterns, and improve activity around known ranking factors.
Why use it?
It helps explain why a product’s position may not match its raw upvote count. It also supports more realistic launch planning and ranking investigations.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the ph-compliance plugin — 3 skills shipped together , and of ph-complete

Good fit Use it to plan a Product Hunt launch, understand ranking changes, assess voting patterns, and improve activity around known ranking factors.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills/ph-algorithm-guide
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills --skill ph-algorithm-guide
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install ph-compliance, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 3 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for ph-algorithm-guide

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills/ph-algorithm-guide.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills/ph-algorithm-guide)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills/ph-algorithm-guide"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills/ph-algorithm-guide.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 31 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,766 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00031 $0.01766
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00883
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00353
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00177

Measured 8d ago against content hash fa68ce9aba2f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

ph-algorithm-guide scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 8d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/compliance/ph-algorithm-guide/SKILL.md · 339 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 339 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Product Hunt Algorithm Guide

This skill explains how Product Hunt's ranking algorithm works, helping you optimize your launch strategy based on publicly known factors.

When to Use This Skill

  • Planning your launch strategy
  • Understanding why rankings change
  • Optimizing for algorithm factors
  • Diagnosing ranking issues
  • Setting realistic expectations

Algorithm Fundamentals

Key Insight

Upvotes ≠ Points

Product Hunt CTO Mike Kerzhner confirmed: "There is not a 1:1 correspondence between upvotes and points."

What This Means

  • Not all votes count equally
  • Account quality matters
  • Engagement quality matters
  • Timing patterns matter

Known Ranking Factors

Factor 1: Vote Weight

Higher Weight Votes:

  • Older accounts (months/years old)
  • Active accounts (regular engagement)
  • Diverse activity (not just voting)
  • Organic voting pattern

Lower Weight Votes:

  • New accounts (recently created)
  • Inactive accounts (created but unused)
  • Single-purpose accounts
  • Suspicious patterns

Potentially Discounted:

  • Brand new accounts
  • Accounts created same day
  • Bulk votes from same source
  • Coordinated voting patterns

Factor 2: Engagement Depth

Positive Signals:

  • Thoughtful comments
  • Discussion threads
  • Maker responses
  • Question-answer exchanges

Why It Matters:

  • Comments indicate genuine interest
  • Discussions show community value
  • Engagement harder to fake than votes

Factor 3: Velocity Pattern

What Algorithm Watches:

  • Rate of upvote accumulation
  • Time distribution of votes
  • Spikes vs steady growth
  • Natural vs artificial patterns

Healthy Pattern:

Hour 1: [████████░░] 40 votes
Hour 2: [██████░░░░] 35 votes
Hour 3: [███████░░░] 38 votes
Hour 4: [█████████░] 45 votes

Suspicious Pattern:

Hour 1: [██████████] 150 votes (spike!)
Hour 2: [█░░░░░░░░░] 5 votes
Hour 3: [█░░░░░░░░░] 3 votes
Hour 4: [█░░░░░░░░░] 2 votes

Factor 4: First 4 Hours

Special Period:

  • Rankings randomized initially
  • Vote counts hidden publicly
  • Algorithm observing patterns
  • Critical for initial position

Read the full file on GitHub · 339 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 8d ago First seen · 339 lines · 31 tokens per session scan A fa68ce9aba2f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ph-algorithm-guide is a skill published in the GitHub repository yoanbernabeu/producthunt-skills (18 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 31 tokens to every session and 1,766 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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