Hacker News Skill

Overview

This skill provides comprehensive access to Hacker News through both the official Firebase API and Algolia Search API. Use the provided scripts to fetch stories, search content, monitor users, and analyze trending topics.

Core Capabilities

1. Fetch Stories

Use

scripts/fetch_stories.py

to retrieve stories from different categories.

Available story types:

• top

  - Top ranked stories (front page)

• new

  - Newest stories

• best

  - Best stories (highest quality)

• ask

  - Ask HN posts

• show

  - Show HN posts

• job

  - Job postings

Usage:

cd /home/claude/hackernews/scripts
python3 fetch_stories.py --type top --limit 10
python3 fetch_stories.py --type ask --limit 20 --detailed

Common patterns:

• For current front page: Use

  --type top

• For latest posts: Use

  --type new

• For highest quality: Use

  --type best

• For detailed info: Add

  --detailed

  flag

2. Search Content

Use

scripts/search_hn.py

to search across all HN content using Algolia's search API.

Search types:

• all

  - Search everything

• story

  - Stories only

• comment

  - Comments only

• ask

  - Ask HN posts only

• show

  - Show HN posts only

Sort options:

• relevance

  - Most relevant results (default)

• date

  - Most recent results

Usage:

cd /home/claude/hackernews/scripts
python3 search_hn.py "AI security" --type story --limit 20
python3 search_hn.py "Rust" --sort date --limit 15
python3 search_hn.py "" --author pg --limit 10

Common patterns:

• For topic search:

  search_hn.py "topic keywords" --type story

• For recent discussions: Add

  --sort date

• For user activity: Use

  --author username

3. Monitor Users

Use

scripts/user_monitor.py

to track specific users and view their activity.

Usage:

cd /home/claude/hackernews/scripts
python3 user_monitor.py pjmlp --limit 10
python3 user_monitor.py pg sama dang --limit 5
python3 user_monitor.py username --type story --activity-only

Features:

• View user profile (karma, account age, about)
• See recent submissions (stories, comments, etc.)
• Filter by item type
• Monitor multiple users at once

Options:

• --limit

  - Number of recent items per user

• --type

  - Filter by story/comment/poll/job

• --activity-only

  - Skip profile, show only activity

• --profile-only

  - Show only profile, skip activity

4. Analyze Trends

Use

scripts/analyze_trends.py

to identify trending topics and patterns.

Usage:

cd /home/claude/hackernews/scripts
python3 analyze_trends.py --limit 100 --type top
python3 analyze_trends.py --compare

Provides:

• Top trending keywords from story titles
• Most submitted domains
• Most active authors
• Overall statistics (avg score, comments)
• Top stories by score and engagement
• Comparison across story types (when using

  --compare

  )

Typical workflow:

1. Run with

   --limit 50-200

   for good sample size
2. Use

   --type top

   for current trends
3. Use

   --type new

   for emerging topics
4. Use

   --compare

   for comprehensive analysis

5. Programmatic Access

For custom workflows, import the API modules directly:

import sys
sys.path.append('/home/claude/hackernews/scripts')

from hn_api import HNClient, format_item
from search_hn import HNSearchClient

# Use Firebase API
client = HNClient()
top_ids = client.get_top_stories(limit=5)
for sid in top_ids:
    item = client.get_item(sid)
    print(format_item(item))

# Use Search API
search = HNSearchClient()
results = search.search_stories("machine learning", num_results=10)
for hit in results['hits']:
    print(hit['title'])

Quick Decision Guide

User asks for current/top stories? → Use

fetch_stories.py --type top

User asks to search for a topic? → Use

search_hn.py "topic" --type story

User asks about a specific user? → Use

user_monitor.py username

User asks about trending topics? → Use

analyze_trends.py --limit 100

User asks for Ask/Show HN? → Use

fetch_stories.py --type ask

or

--type show

User wants detailed analysis? → Use

analyze_trends.py --compare

Important Notes

1. Always use full paths - Scripts are in

   /home/claude/hackernews/scripts

2. Check for requests dependency - Install with

   pip install requests

   if needed
3. Handle missing data - HN items can be deleted; check for None/null
4. Respect rate limits - Algolia allows 10,000 requests/hour per IP
5. Cache when possible - HN data updates slowly; cache responses

Additional Resources

• API Reference: See

  references/api_reference.md

  for complete API documentation
• Usage Examples: See

  references/examples.md

  for detailed workflow examples

Scripts Reference

All scripts located in

/home/claude/hackernews/scripts/

:

• hn_api.py - Core Firebase API client (can be imported)
• fetch_stories.py - Fetch stories by type (top/new/best/ask/show/job)
• search_hn.py - Search HN using Algolia API
• user_monitor.py - Monitor user profiles and activity
• analyze_trends.py - Analyze trending topics and patterns