ClawHub
Synced from skills.sh
Other

hackernews

How to Use ### 1. Get Top Stories Fetch IDs of the current top 500 stories: bash 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 curl -s…

vm0-ai@vm0-ai

Install

openclaw skills install skills-sh:vm0-ai/vm0-skills/hackernews

How to Use

1. Get Top Stories

Fetch IDs of the current top 500 stories:

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

3. Get New Stories

Fetch the newest stories:

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

4. Get Ask HN Stories

Fetch "Ask HN" posts:

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

5. Get Show HN Stories

Fetch "Show HN" posts:

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

6. Get Job Stories

Fetch job postings:

bash
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
idUnique item ID
typestory, comment, job, poll, pollopt
byUsername of author
timeUnix timestamp
titleStory title (stories only)
urlStory URL (if external link)
textContent text (Ask HN, comments)
scoreUpvote count
descendantsTotal comment count
kidsArray 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
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
idUsername
createdAccount creation timestamp
karmaUser's karma score
aboutUser bio (HTML)
submittedArray 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
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
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
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.jsonTop 500 stories
/v0/beststories.jsonBest stories
/v0/newstories.jsonNewest 500 stories
/v0/askstories.jsonAsk HN stories
/v0/showstories.jsonShow HN stories
/v0/jobstories.jsonJob postings
/v0/item/{id}.jsonItem details
/v0/user/{id}.jsonUser profile
/v0/maxitem.jsonCurrent max item ID
/v0/updates.jsonChanged 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