| name | hacker-news |
| description | When a workflow needs public Hacker News data through UnifAPI — the top/new/best/ask/show/jobs story feeds, item metadata, comment trees, or user karma. Also use on "did our launch land on HN," "scan Show HN for," "read this HN thread," "Hacker News sentiment," or when another skill (launch monitor, social listening) needs the deterministic HN read path. No keyword search — scan the feeds. Connect via the `unifapi` skill first. Read-only research, never posts. |
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"author":"UnifAPI","version":"1.0.0","homepage":"https://unifapi.com/agents/hacker-news","source":"https://github.com/unifapi-agent/agents"} |
hacker-news
The deterministic read path for public Hacker News data through UnifAPI. This
is a Data Skill: it does not run a marketing job on its own — it names the
concrete hacker-news/... operations, response shapes, and gotchas so any
launch-reception or listening workflow for dev/infra/startup categories reads
from one known recipe instead of rediscovering the surface each time.
Read-only — eyes, not hands. It researches public HN data and returns cited
records; it never posts stories or comments, and UnifAPI never holds HN
credentials.
Use the unifapi skill for live evidence
Connect once through the shared unifapi skill (OAuth MCP), then call the
operations below. Story feeds take a {feed} of top, new, best,
ask, show, or jobs. Keep any billing metadata so the output can state
record cost.
Response contract
Single-entity endpoints return the object in data:
{
"request_id": "unif_...",
"data": {},
"billing": { "records_charged": 1, "balance_remaining": 99 }
}
List endpoints return an array in data plus pagination:
{
"request_id": "unif_...",
"data": [],
"pagination": { "has_more": false, "next_cursor": null },
"billing": { "records_charged": 1 }
}
When pagination.has_more is true, pass pagination.next_cursor as the next
request's cursor (limit sets page size). Always preserve billing.
Core operations
| Need | Operation |
|---|
| Story feed (hydrated) | hacker-news/stories/{feed}/items |
| Story feed (ids only) | hacker-news/stories/{feed} |
| Item (story / comment) | hacker-news/items/{id} |
| User profile + karma | hacker-news/users/{id} |
| Recently changed | hacker-news/updates |
| Highest item id (scan bound) | hacker-news/max-item |
{feed} ∈ top · new · best · ask · show · jobs.
Need a field not listed here? Use the unifapi skill's get_operation to read
the exact schema before calling — but pick the operation from this table, don't
discover blind.
Workflow
The deterministic recipes. Pick the one that matches the job; each names exactly
what to call.
- Frame the watch. Pick the feeds:
show and ask for launches and
questions, top and best for what's landing, new for the freshest.
- Scan a feed. Call
hacker-news/stories/{feed}/items (hydrated items in
one call — cheaper than ids-then-fetch) and match stories by title or url
to your product or category. Page via next_cursor.
- Read the thread. On a matching item, read
score (points) and
descendants (comment count), then walk the kids ids with
hacker-news/items/{id} to read the candid critique in the comment tree.
- Weight a critic. Call
hacker-news/users/{id} for karma and
submitted to judge how much a commenter's take carries.
- Watch for change. Call
hacker-news/updates for recently changed items
and profiles, or hacker-news/max-item to bound a fresh scan.
- Cite everything. Every figure ties back to the HN item it came from;
report
billing.records_charged (or estimate when billing metadata is
absent).
Shape notes
HackerNewsItem — type (story · comment · job · poll ·
pollopt), by, time, title, url, text, score (points),
descendants (comment count), kids (child comment ids, not objects),
parent.HackerNewsUser — id, created, karma, about, submitted (item
ids).HackerNewsUpdates — items and profiles that recently changed.
Gotchas
- No keyword search. Discovery is feed-driven — scan
top/new/best/ask/show/ jobs and match by title/url. Say so in the brief.
kids are child comment ids, not embedded objects — recurse with
hacker-news/items/{id} to read the comment tree.descendants is the comment count and score is the points — don't confuse
them.- Prefer
hacker-news/stories/{feed}/items over hacker-news/stories/{feed}
when you want the hydrated stories, not a list of ids.
- A low balance can silently truncate list pages: check
billing.truncated_due_to_balance — when true the page is partial.
Output
Return the records the calling workflow needs, each cited to its HN item, plus a
one-line cost note (records_charged). When this skill is used directly, a
compact reception brief is the default:
**{Story title}** ({feed}) — {score} points, {descendants} comments. Landed: {yes/no}. Candid takes: "{quote}" (by {user}, {karma} karma). Evidence: {item URLs}. Records: ~{N}.
Related skills
- competitor-launch-monitor (Competitive Intelligence), social-listening-brief (Social Listening) — launch-reception and listening work on top of this read path.
- unifapi — the shared data skill: connect MCP and look up exact schemas with
get_operation.
