Use ChatGPT Agent to shortlist Gurkha trousers
Thomas Manandhar-Richardson asked ChatGPT Agent to find an affordable pair of Gurkha trousers. He had previously spent considerable time searching manually and found relatively few options, making this a practical test of product discovery.
Suggested prompt
Suggested prompt written by Agents In Use, not the source author. Replace bracketed inputs and review tool permissions first.
Find affordable Gurkha trousers available to a UK buyer. Return active product links, prices and made-to-measure options, excluding sold-out, over-budget and unsuitable seller listings.
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See placements →What happened
Five candidates yielded two useful options and a selected made-to-measure Etsy tailor; unavailable, over-budget and rejected items plus missing links weakened the shortlist.
Reported by Thomas Manandhar-RichardsonHow the agent did it
- Specify the clothing type and affordability requirements.
- Review candidates for budget, UK availability and seller quality.
- Follow up the selected tailor directly when links and images fail.
Where a person stepped in
The author judged the candidates, rejected poor matches and selected the Etsy tailor.
Thomas Manandhar-Richardson asked ChatGPT Agent to find an affordable pair of Gurkha trousers. He had previously spent considerable time searching manually and found relatively few options, making this a practical test of product discovery.
The agent returned five options. Manandhar-Richardson considered two useful, and one of those was an Indian tailor offering affordable made-to-measure clothing through Etsy. He reports choosing that option. The remaining candidates exposed problems with relevance: one was sold out and unavailable in the UK, another exceeded the budget substantially, and the last was a dropshipped item he rejected.
The output also failed as a shopping handoff. It omitted item links, and an apparent attempt to put product images into a spreadsheet did not work. The author therefore found a usable lead within a shortlist that still required judgment and additional navigation.
This was a discovery task rather than account-based purchasing. In the article's caveats, he says he deliberately avoided extensive tests that would grant agents commercial-site credentials. The source does not report an agent checkout or completed delivery. Its concrete outcome is an Etsy tailor selected from imperfect candidates, with price, availability and output quality problems visible.
Prompt
Suggested prompt (written by Agents In Use, not the author's)
Source: evolvingimpact.wordpress.com · Thomas Manandhar-Richardson
Frequently asked questions
Which candidate was selected?
The author reports choosing an Indian tailor selling affordable made-to-measure items on Etsy.
Why was the shortlist unreliable?
Other candidates were unavailable, outside the budget or rejected for seller quality, despite being returned as options.
Did it make the purchase?
The article describes discovery and selection, with missing links and failed images; no agent checkout or delivery is reported.
More details
About this account
ChatGPT Agent researched retail options and attempted a product spreadsheet.
Firsthand source opened and read. Suggested prompt written by us from the reported workflow; no original task prompt is quoted.
Credit: Thomas Manandhar-Richardson
Source published 30 Jul 2025
Source checked 14 Oct 2026
Tools and topics
ChatGPT agent · Retail websites · Etsy
Clothing shortlist · Gurkha trousers · UK availability
Editorial completeness: 100/100. Measures documented fields, not agent performance or verified outcomes.