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

with the actual item ID:

curl

-s

"https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/.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

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

with the actual story ID:

curl

-s

"https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/.json"

|

jq

'{title, score, descendants, kids}'

Then for each comment ID in the

kids

array, replace

with the actual comment ID:

curl

-s

"https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/.json"

|

jq

'{by, text, score}'

User Data

10. Get User Profile

Fetch user details. Replace

with the actual username:

curl

-s

"https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/.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

with the actual username:

curl

-s

"https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/.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

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

hackernews

安装