A high-performance integration for monitoring, searching, and extracting real-time content from the HackerNews platform via its official API.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install hn-reader
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install hn-reader using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is HackerNews Skill?
The HackerNews skill provides a bridge between your automated workflows and the tech community's pulse. By utilizing this within Openclaw Skills, developers and AI agents can programmatically fetch top stories, latest submissions, and trending discussions. It abstracts the official Firebase API into simple commands, making it easier to ingest community-driven tech news, Job postings, and Ask HN threads directly into your environment.
This skill is designed for efficiency and speed, requiring no authentication while providing deep access to the HN ecosystem. Whether you are building a news aggregator or a market research bot, this addition to your Openclaw Skills library ensures you stay informed with the most relevant tech data.
HackerNews Skill Use Cases
- Automated monitoring of the tech front page for trending software development topics.
- Real-time job market tracking by filtering the HN Jobs section for specific roles.
- Researching community sentiment and technical discussions on niche technologies.
- Enriching AI research agents with live data from the HackerNews community via Openclaw Skills.
- Programmatic retrieval of specific story details and user profile metadata for data analysis.
How HackerNews Skill Works
- The user or agent triggers the skill using defined keywords like hn, top stories, or search.
- The skill parses the command and any optional parameters, such as the number of stories to retrieve or specific search terms.
- A request is dispatched to the official HackerNews Firebase API endpoint.
- The skill fetches the item IDs and then resolves the metadata for each story or comment.
- Structured JSON data is returned to the Openclaw Skills interface for display or further processing.
HackerNews Skill Setup
Integrating this into your project is straightforward as it leverages the public API. Ensure you have a Node.js environment ready to execute the skill commands within your Openclaw Skills workflow.
# Clone the repository and enter the skill directory
cd hackernews-skill
# Fetch the top 10 stories from the front page
node index.js top
# Search for specific technology trends
node index.js search "rust"
HackerNews Skill Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill returns structured data based on the HN Firebase schema, ensuring compatibility across different Openclaw Skills implementations:
| Attribute | Description | Data Type |
|---|---|---|
| ID | Unique identifier for the item | Integer |
| Title | The headline of the story or post | String |
| URL | The link to the external article | String |
| Score | Total points/upvotes received | Integer |
| By | The username of the author | String |
| Type | Category (story, job, comment, ask, show) | String |
HackerNews Skill Advanced Features
- Deep item inspection using unique IDs to retrieve full thread details and metadata.
- Customizable result limits allowing users to fetch anywhere from 1 to 500 stories per request.
- Direct access to specialized feeds including Ask HN, Show HN, and latest job postings.
- User profile analysis to track specific contributors or influential posters within the community.
- Keyword-based search functionality to filter the vast HN archive for specific technical terms.
SKILL.md
Loading
Related Openclaw Skills
Tabela FIPE Skill
A dedicated interface for querying the official Brazilian FIPE table for car, motorcycle, and truck market values.
Feed Watcher
An automated monitoring tool for tracking RSS/Atom feeds and pushing real-time updates to webhooks.
Correios Tracking Skill
A professional command-line integration for monitoring Correios packages and managing delivery history via official API access.
CNPJ Lookup
A robust tool for retrieving detailed Brazilian corporate information and registration status using CNPJ identifiers.
Klaus IOC Scanner
A high-performance security tool that analyzes IOCs using leading threat intelligence APIs to detect malware and phishing.
Klaus Processos BR
A specialized tool for querying and monitoring Brazilian judicial proceedings via the DataJud (CNJ) Public API.
Featured*
