hackernews — Claude Code skill: what it does, how to install
Fetches stories, comments, and user profiles from Hacker News using the Firebase API. Useful for monitoring tech discussions directly in your terminal.
npx skills add okou-ai/okou-skills --skill hackernews -a claude-codeWhat hackernews does
The skill instructs the agent to query the official Hacker News Firebase API using curl and jq. It fetches lists for top and new stories alongside Ask HN feeds. The agent queries endpoints like /v0/topstories.json to inspect current tech discussions. You need curl and jq installed.
Item details require separate lookups through the /v0/item/<item-id>.json endpoint. Comment trees require multiple steps because parent items only provide arrays of child IDs. The API documents no request limits. Even so, the skill advises caching responses and pacing bulk queries.
What it helps with
- retrieve current top or best stories from Hacker News
- filter posts by keyword or minimum score threshold
- fetch comments for a specific story identifier
- inspect user karma and recent submissions
Example prompts for the agent
- Show the top 10 stories on Hacker News with their scores
- Find Hacker News posts about LLMs with at least 100 points
- Fetch details and top comments for <story-id>
How to install hackernews
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add okou-ai/okou-skills --skill hackernews -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/hackernews/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/hackernews/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add okou-ai/okou-skills --skill hackernews -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/hackernews/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add okou-ai/okou-skills --skill hackernews -a cursor2Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/hackernews/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install okou-ai/okou-skills hackernews2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/hackernews/SKILL.md1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add okou-ai/okou-skills --skill hackernews -a gemini-cli2Platform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/okou-ai/okou-skills --path hackernewsManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/hackernews/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add okou-ai/okou-skills --skill hackernews -a opencodeClaude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways
Questions about hackernews
How do I install hackernews in Claude Code?
Run npx skills add okou-ai/okou-skills --skill hackernews -a claude-code in your terminal.
What system tools does the skill require?
It relies on curl to make network calls and jq to parse JSON output.
How does the skill retrieve nested comments?
It queries the story endpoint to extract comment IDs from the kids array. Each comment is then retrieved through its own item request.
