feat(crewai-tools): add GitDealFlowSignalTool for VC deal flow research

[kindrat86]

What

Adds GitDealFlowSignalTool under lib/crewai-tools/ — a read-only research tool that lets CrewAI agents query the public GitDealFlow API for GitHub-derived engineering acceleration signals across venture-backed startups in 20 sectors. No API key required.

Why

There is currently no first-class CrewAI tool for venture-capital sourcing or alternative-data research. Sourcing scouts, analysts, and operator-investors increasingly use GitHub commit signals to spot startups before they raise. This tool bridges that gap with zero auth friction.

The same dataset is already available via the official MCP Registry as io.github.kindrat86/vc-deal-flow-signal and on Glama.ai (A-tier, 4.9 TDQS), so CrewAI users can cross-reference if they prefer the MCP transport.

What's in this PR

1. lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/tools/gitdealflow_signal_tool/gitdealflow_signal_tool.py — the tool, ~240 lines, fully typed with a Pydantic input schema. Five actions: trending, sector, startup, summary, methodology.
2. gitdealflow_signal_tool_test.py — pytest smoke tests with mocked HTTP.
3. README.md — usage docs with sector-slug list, argument table, and an end-to-end CrewAI Agent example.
4. __init__.py for the new tool package.
5. Export updates in lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/tools/__init__.py and lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/__init__.py (alphabetically positioned between GithubSearchTool and HyperbrowserLoadTool).

How it works

from crewai import Agent
from crewai_tools import GitDealFlowSignalTool

scout = Agent(
    role="VC Sourcing Scout",
    goal="Find venture-backed startups with breakout engineering momentum",
    backstory="You read GitHub commit signals to spot startups before they raise.",
    tools=[GitDealFlowSignalTool()],
)

Example output for action='trending':

Top 10 startups by commit-velocity acceleration:

1. ExampleAI (ai-ml) — +87.5% commit velocity · breakout · 42 contributors
2. AnotherCo (fintech) — +63.2% commit velocity · steady · 28 contributors
…

Source: VC Deal Flow Signal (signals.gitdealflow.com), Q2 2026 data.

Safety / privacy

• Read-only, idempotent, no auth.
• All HTTP calls go to signals.gitdealflow.com over HTTPS.
• The tool does not store, log, or transmit user data anywhere outside the GitDealFlow API.
• Safe for autonomous agent use.

Tests

Tests use mocked HTTP and run without network. Live integration verified locally against the public API (/api/signals.json returns expected sectors/startups shape; today's snapshot: 19 sectors, 87 tracked startups).

Related

• API docs: https://signals.gitdealflow.com/AGENTS.md
• Methodology: https://signals.gitdealflow.com/methodology
• Academic preprint: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6606558
• Existing MCP server (same dataset): @gitdealflow/mcp-signal on npm

[greysonlalonde]

https://docs.crewai.com/en/guides/tools/publish-custom-tools