Ghost Buyer Skill

Ghost Buyer is an iterative Codex skill for Taobao/Tmall shopping research: it browses for you, investigates like a careful shopping scout, and turns messy marketplace evidence into concise Markdown + HTML buying reports.

This skill is designed for Chinese marketplace research where details such as exact SKU, material, seller trust, after-sales terms, negative reviews, follow-up reviews, and 问大家 can materially change the recommendation.

Use, Star, And Feedback

Ghost Buyer is open source under the MIT License. You can use it, copy it, modify it, and share improved versions under the license terms.

If this skill is useful to you, please star the repository so more people can find it. Feedback is welcome:

• Open an issue for bugs, broken setup steps, Taobao/Tmall workflow problems, or feature requests.
• Start a discussion for shopping research ideas, report examples, category-specific improvements, or general questions.

What It Does

• Aligns with the user's requirements before browsing.
• Uses Taobao/Tmall through a browser session controlled by the user.
• Requires manual login inside the browser when needed.
• Checks local readiness with a shopping_doctor.py status dashboard.
• Encourages human-speed browsing and respects marketplace risk-control boundaries.
• Captures SKU-level candidate evidence.
• Treats missing hard-constraint evidence as needs_review, not as a pass.
• Requires negative review, follow-up review, and Q&A inspection for serious Taobao/Tmall candidates.
• Produces both Markdown and HTML reports for each research pass.

Safety And Privacy

This repository does not include shopping reports, screenshots, cookies, browser profiles, or account data.

The skill instructs agents to:

• Never ask for passwords or verification codes in chat.
• Let the user log in manually inside the browser.
• Never automate captcha, slider, account-security, checkout, payment, address changes, or coupon redemption.
• Keep browser profiles under work/shopping-sessions/ local and private.
• Stop and ask the user when Taobao/Tmall shows captcha, account-security checks, repeated access denial, or incomplete login-gated pages.

Repository Layout

skills/
  ghost-buyer/
    SKILL.md
    agents/
    references/
    scripts/

The skill folder follows the Codex skill shape: a required SKILL.md plus optional agents/, references/, and scripts/ resources.

Install

Copy the skill folder into your Codex skills directory:

mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
cp -R skills/ghost-buyer ~/.codex/skills/

Then restart or refresh Codex so the skill list is reloaded.

Local Setup

From the workspace where you want to run shopping research:

bash ~/.codex/skills/ghost-buyer/scripts/setup_env.sh

Check the environment:

python3 ~/.codex/skills/ghost-buyer/scripts/verify_env.py

Before Taobao/Tmall browsing, run the unified status doctor:

python3 ~/.codex/skills/ghost-buyer/scripts/shopping_doctor.py --json

If the doctor says manual login is needed, launch the user-controlled browser:

python3 ~/.codex/skills/ghost-buyer/scripts/launch_chrome_cdp.py \
  --profile-dir work/shopping-sessions/taobao-cdp

Log in manually in the opened browser window, then keep at least one Taobao/Tmall tab open as the session anchor.

Example Prompt

Use the ghost-buyer skill to help me choose a compact microwave on Taobao/Tmall.
I want a reliable mainstream brand, white or light color, enough power for daily reheating,
low height for a small shelf, and a budget around 500 RMB.

Notes

• This skill is a decision-support workflow, not an automated buying bot.
• It does not place orders.
• It does not bypass marketplace access controls.
• It is optimized for Taobao/Tmall and Chinese-language shopping evidence.