hackernews

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Hacker News API via curl. Use this skill to fetch top stories, new posts, comments, and user profiles from Hacker News.

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NPX Install

npx skill4agent add vm0-ai/vm0-skills hackernews

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hacker-news-apicurl-commandsdata-fetchingapi-usagejq-tools

SKILL.md Content

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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:
FieldDescription
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:
FieldDescription
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

EndpointDescription
/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

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