Summary
This hooks you into the official Hacker News API to pull stories, comments, and user profiles without dealing with scraping or authentication. You get all the standard feeds (top, new, best, Ask HN, Show HN, jobs) plus granular item lookups and user karma data. The API is straightforward Firebase endpoints returning JSON, no rate limits published but you'll want to be reasonable since every story detail needs its own request. The skill includes practical filters for high-scoring posts and topic-specific searches using jq. Honestly most useful when you need to analyze HN trends, monitor specific topics, or build dashboards without hitting the website. Just remember to cache aggressively since stories don't update that often.
Install to Claude Code
npx -y skills add vm0-ai/vm0-skills --skill hackernews --agent claude-codeInstalls into .claude/skills of the current project.
belt cli automatically finds the best tools and skills for your agent. image, video, music, tts...
one prompt install →
Plug Mailtrap into your AI workflow and let it handle the email.
Connect Mailtrap MCP →
Agent, run crypto. Access onchain data & trade routes via 1inch.
Install now →
Make coding agent sessions - Searchable, Shareable, Vendor-neutral & Scored.
Try For Free →
Your agent targets a perfect 10 Code Health score. Deterministic. Every commit.
Try For Free →
Integrate web data into your AI product. One API to scrape website & brand data.
Get API Key Now →Files
SKILL.mdView on GitHub
How to Use
1. Get Top Stories
Fetch IDs of the current top 500 stories:
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json" | jq '.[:10]'
2. Get Best Stories
Fetch the best stories (highest voted over time):
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/beststories.json" | jq '.[:10]'
3. Get New Stories
Fetch the newest stories:
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/newstories.json" | jq '.[:10]'
4. Get Ask HN Stories
Fetch "Ask HN" posts:
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/askstories.json" | jq '.[:10]'
5. Get Show HN Stories
Fetch "Show HN" posts:
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/showstories.json" | jq '.[:10]'
6. Get Job Stories
Fetch job postings:
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:
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/${id}.json" | jq '{id, title, score, url, by}'
done
9. Get Story with Comments
Fetch a story and its top-level comments. Replace <story-id> with the actual story ID:
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/<story-id>.json" | jq '{title, score, descendants, kids}'
Then for each comment ID in the kids array, replace <comment-id> with the actual comment ID:
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/<comment-id>.json" | jq '{by, text, score}'
User Data
10. Get User Profile
Fetch user details. Replace <username> with the actual username:
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/<username>.json"
Response fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
id | Username |
created | Account creation timestamp |
karma | User's karma score |
about | User bio (HTML) |
submitted | Array of item IDs submitted |
11. Get User's Recent Submissions
Fetch a user's recent submissions. Replace <username> with the actual username:
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/<username>.json" | jq '.submitted[:5]'
Real-time Updates
12. Get Max Item ID
Get the current largest item ID (useful for polling new items):
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/maxitem.json"
13. Get Changed Items and Profiles
Get recently changed items and profiles (for real-time updates):
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/updates.json"
Practical Examples
Fetch Today's Top 10 with Scores
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json" | jq '.[:10][]' | while read id; do
curl -s "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/${id}.json" | jq -r '"\(.score) points | \(.title) | \(.url // "Ask HN")"'
done
Find High-Scoring Stories (100+ points)
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
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.,
urlfor Ask HN) - Unix timestamps: All times are Unix timestamps, convert as needed
Featured
belt cli automatically finds the best tools and skills for your agent. image, video, music, tts...
one prompt install →Plug Mailtrap into your AI workflow and let it handle the email.
Connect Mailtrap MCP →Agent, run crypto. Access onchain data & trade routes via 1inch.
Install now →Make coding agent sessions - Searchable, Shareable, Vendor-neutral & Scored.
Try For Free →Your agent targets a perfect 10 Code Health score. Deterministic. Every commit.
Try For Free →Integrate web data into your AI product. One API to scrape website & brand data.
Get API Key Now →Categories
