Hacker News API Skill | Agent Skills

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

3. Get New Stories

Fetch the newest stories:

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

4. Get Ask HN Stories

Fetch "Ask HN" posts:

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

5. Get Show HN Stories

Fetch "Show HN" posts:

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

6. Get Job Stories

Fetch job postings:

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:

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 -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:

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:

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:

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:

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):

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):

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

Practical Examples

Fetch Today's Top 10 with Scores

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 -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 -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

Agent Skills: Hacker News API

Skill Files