Hacker News API

Use the official Hacker News API via direct

curl

calls to fetch stories, comments, and user data.

Official docs:

https://github.com/HackerNews/API

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

Fetch top/best/new stories from Hacker News
Get story details including title, URL, score, comments
Retrieve comments and discussion threads
Look up user profiles and their submissions
Monitor trending tech topics and discussions

Prerequisites

No API key required! The Hacker News API is completely free and open.

Base URL:

https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0

Important: When using
$VAR
in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing
$VAR
in
bash -c '...'
. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.
bash
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"'

How to Use

1. Get Top Stories

Fetch IDs of the current top 500 stories:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json"' | jq '.[:10]'

2. Get Best Stories

Fetch the best stories (highest voted over time):

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/beststories.json"' | jq '.[:10]'

3. Get New Stories

Fetch the newest stories:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/newstories.json"' | jq '.[:10]'

4. Get Ask HN Stories

Fetch "Ask HN" posts:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/askstories.json"' | jq '.[:10]'

5. Get Show HN Stories

Fetch "Show HN" posts:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/showstories.json"' | jq '.[:10]'

6. Get Job Stories

Fetch job postings:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/jobstories.json"' | jq '.[:10]'

Item Details

7. Get Story/Comment/Job Details

Fetch full details for any item by ID. Replace

<item-id>

with the actual item ID:

bash

curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/<item-id>.json"

Response fields:

Field	Description
`id`	Unique item ID
`type`	`story` , `comment` , `job` , `poll` , `pollopt`
`by`	Username of author
`time`	Unix timestamp
`title`	Story title (stories only)
`url`	Story URL (if external link)
`text`	Content text (Ask HN, comments)
`score`	Upvote count
`descendants`	Total comment count
`kids`	Array of child comment IDs

8. Get Multiple Stories with Details

Fetch top 5 stories with full details. Replace

<item-id>

with the actual item ID:

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json"' | jq '.[:5][]' | while read id; do
  curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/${id}.json" | jq '{id, title, score, url, by}'
done

9. Get Story with Comments

Fetch a story and its top-level comments. Replace

<story-id>

with the actual story ID:

bash

curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/<story-id>.json" | jq '{title, score, descendants, kids}'

Then for each comment ID in the

kids

array, replace

<comment-id>

with the actual comment ID:

bash

curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/<comment-id>.json" | jq '{by, text, score}'

User Data

10. Get User Profile

Fetch user details. Replace

<username>

with the actual username:

bash

curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/<username>.json"

Response fields:

Field	Description
`id`	Username
`created`	Account creation timestamp
`karma`	User's karma score
`about`	User bio (HTML)
`submitted`	Array of item IDs submitted

11. Get User's Recent Submissions

Fetch a user's recent submissions. Replace

<username>

with the actual username:

bash

curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/<username>.json" | jq '.submitted[:5]'

Real-time Updates

12. Get Max Item ID

Get the current largest item ID (useful for polling new items):

bash

curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/maxitem.json"

13. Get Changed Items and Profiles

Get recently changed items and profiles (for real-time updates):

bash

curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/updates.json"

Practical Examples

Fetch Today's Top 10 with Scores

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json"' | jq '.[:10][]' | while read id; do
  curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/${id}.json" | jq -r '"\(.score) points | \(.title) | \(.url // "Ask HN")"'
done

Find High-Scoring Stories (100+ points)

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json"' | jq '.[:30][]' | while read id; do
  curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/${id}.json" | jq -r 'select(.score >= 100) | "\(.score) | \(.title)"'
done

Get Latest AI/ML Related Stories

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json"' | jq '.[:50][]' | while read id; do
  curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/${id}.json" | jq -r 'select(.title | test("AI|GPT|LLM|Machine Learning|Neural"; "i")) | "\(.score) | \(.title)"'
done

API Endpoints Summary

Endpoint	Description
`/v0/topstories.json`	Top 500 stories
`/v0/beststories.json`	Best stories
`/v0/newstories.json`	Newest 500 stories
`/v0/askstories.json`	Ask HN stories
`/v0/showstories.json`	Show HN stories
`/v0/jobstories.json`	Job postings
`/v0/item/{id}.json`	Item details
`/v0/user/{id}.json`	User profile
`/v0/maxitem.json`	Current max item ID
`/v0/updates.json`	Changed items/profiles

Guidelines

No rate limits documented: But be respectful, add delays for bulk fetching
Use jq for filtering: Filter JSON responses to extract needed data
Cache results: Stories don't change frequently, cache when possible
Batch requests carefully: Each item requires a separate API call
Handle nulls: Some fields may be null or missing (e.g.,
```
url
```
for Ask HN)
Unix timestamps: All times are Unix timestamps, convert as needed

hackernews

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Hacker News API

When to Use

Prerequisites

How to Use

1. Get Top Stories

2. Get Best Stories

3. Get New Stories

4. Get Ask HN Stories

5. Get Show HN Stories

6. Get Job Stories

Item Details

7. Get Story/Comment/Job Details

8. Get Multiple Stories with Details

9. Get Story with Comments

User Data

10. Get User Profile

11. Get User's Recent Submissions

Real-time Updates

12. Get Max Item ID

13. Get Changed Items and Profiles

Practical Examples

Fetch Today's Top 10 with Scores

Find High-Scoring Stories (100+ points)

Get Latest AI/ML Related Stories

API Endpoints Summary

Guidelines