name	hn-extract
description	Extract a HackerNews post (article + comments) into single clean Markdown for quick reading or LLM input.
metadata	{"openclaw":{"always":true,"emoji":"🦞","homepage":"https://github.com/guoqiao/skills/blob/main/hn-extract/hn-extract/SKILL.md","os":["darwin","linux","win32"],"tags":["hn","hackernews","comments","extract","markdown","python","uv","scraper","rss","reader","summarize"],"requires":{"bins":["uv"]}}}

HackerNews Extract

Extract a HackerNews post (article + comments) into single clean Markdown for quick reading or LLM input.

see Examples

What it does

Accepts an HackerNews id or url
Download the linked article HTML, cleans and formats it.
Fetches the Hacknews post metadata and comments.
Outputs a readable combined markdown file with original article, threaded comments, and key metadata.

Requirements

uv installed and in PATH.

Install

No install beyond having uv. Dependencies will be installed automatically by uv into to a dedicated venv when run this script.

Usage Workflow (Mandatory for Agents)

When an agent is asked to extract a HackerNews post:

Run the script with an output path: uv run --script ${baseDir}/hn-extract.py <input> -o /tmp/hn-<id>.md.
Send ONE combined message: Upload the file and ask the question in the same tool call. Use the message tool (action=send, filePath="/tmp/hn-<id>.md", message="Extraction complete. Do you want me to summarize it?").
Do not output the full text or a summary directly in the chat unless specifically requested.

Usage

# run as uv script
uv run --script ${baseDir}/hn-extract.py <hn-id|hn-url|path/to/item.json> [-o path/to/output.md]

# Examples
uv run --script ${baseDir}/hn-extract.py 46861313 -o /tmp/output.md
uv run --script ${baseDir}/hn-extract.py "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46861313"

Omit -o to print to stdout.
Directories for -o are created automatically.

Notes

Retries are enabled for HTTP fetches.
Comments are indented by thread depth.
Sites requires authentication or blocks scraping may still fail.

HackerNews Extract

Extract a HackerNews post (article + comments) into single clean Markdown for quick reading or LLM input.

What it does

Accepts an HackerNews id or url

Download the linked article HTML, cleans and formats it.

Fetches the Hacknews post metadata and comments.

Outputs a readable combined markdown file with original article, threaded comments, and key metadata.

Requirements

uv installed and in PATH.

Install

No install beyond having uv. Dependencies will be installed automatically by uv into to a dedicated venv when run this script.

Usage Workflow (Mandatory for Agents)

When an agent is asked to extract a HackerNews post:

Run the script with an output path: uv run --script ${baseDir}/hn-extract.py <input> -o /tmp/hn-<id>.md.

Send ONE combined message: Upload the file and ask the question in the same tool call. Use the message tool (action=send, filePath="/tmp/hn-<id>.md", message="Extraction complete. Do you want me to summarize it?").

Do not output the full text or a summary directly in the chat unless specifically requested.

Usage

# run as uv script uv run --script ${baseDir}/hn-extract.py <hn-id|hn-url|path/to/item.json> [-o path/to/output.md] # Examples uv run --script ${baseDir}/hn-extract.py 46861313 -o /tmp/output.md uv run --script ${baseDir}/hn-extract.py "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46861313"

Omit -o to print to stdout.

Directories for -o are created automatically.

Notes

Retries are enabled for HTTP fetches.

Comments are indented by thread depth.

Sites requires authentication or blocks scraping may still fail.