James pulled up ClawHub in his browser. He could see TutorClaw listed under his publisher account. Published. Available. Anyone could install it with a single command. But when he searched for "tutor," his product appeared somewhere in the middle of the results, below products with more installs.
"It is published," he said. "But nobody is finding it."
Emma sat down next to him. "Publishing is a technical step. Distribution is a business problem. At the warehouse, you might have a great product, but if it's on page forty-seven of a three-hundred-page catalog, nobody finds it. Distribution is the shelf placement problem."
You published your product to ClawHub. Technically, the work is done. Strategically, it is just beginning. How do people find it?
Publishing makes your product Available. Distribution makes it Discoverable.
ClawHub is a marketplace, not just a registry. It adds discovery layers:
Notice what is missing: Paid Placement. ClawHub is merit-based. Quality signals determine ranking. The product itself is the primary distribution mechanism.
Distribution is not one-size-fits-all. You must optimize for three distinct user segments:
Your TutorClaw already supports all three. The CLI command works. The launch button exists. The manual config is possible via the shim skill. The distribution challenge is knowing which path your users actually take.
Each install generates a potential rating. Each rating improves ranking. Ranking improves discovery. Discovery drives more installs.
This cycle compounds, but it works in both directions. Poor ratings push the product down, leading to stagnation. Because the marketplace is meritocratic, marketing cannot overcome a poor product.
Beyond mechanics, community engagement creates trust:
James was quiet. "We had three channels: Direct, Distributors, and Catalog. Each reached people the others missed. If we only used one, we'd lose two-thirds of the market."
Emma nodded. "Engineers think distribution is about delivering bytes. Business people think about reach. The technical problem was solved when you pushed to ClawHub. The reach problem determines if anyone ever uses it."
James looked at his notes—pivots, invariants, lessons, ADRs, versions, and distribution.
"Time to look back at the entire journey," Emma said.