topics-lobsters

name	topics-lobsters
description	Fetch the Lobsters (lobste.rs) hottest list for LinkedIn topic ideation. Use when the user wants "fetch Lobsters", "lobste.rs hottest", or a curated SWE-heavy alternative to HN signals. Returns JSON entries with title, url, score, comments, tags.

topics-lobsters

Pulls the current Lobsters hottest list and returns clean JSON. Lobsters skews more SWE-focused than HN and includes useful per-story tags.

Run

bun src/briefing/cli/lobsters.ts --limit 25

--limit defaults to 25 (one page). The script auto-paginates if you ask for more.

Output shape

[
  {
    "source": "lobsters",
    "title": "Some article title",
    "url": "https://example.com/external",
    "score": 42,
    "commentCount": 17,
    "author": "alice",
    "publishedAt": "2026-05-18T12:00:00.000-07:00",
    "body": "Plain-text submitter note (optional)",
    "extra": {
      "tags": ["rust", "performance"],
      "permalink": "https://lobste.rs/s/abc123/..."
    }
  }
]

For self-posts the url falls back to the Lobsters permalink so you always have something clickable.

When to use

• "What's hot on Lobsters" / "fetch Lobsters topics"
• Filter by tag downstream (e.g. rust, ai, performance)
• For a multi-source briefing, use topics-briefing instead.