# hn-summarize

A skill that pulls top Hacker News and hckrnews.com stories, fetches the linked articles, and groups the comment threads by theme.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · ★ 10273
- Author: ykdojo
- License: LicenseRef-Proprietary · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/ykdojo/claude-code-tips/tree/HEAD/skills/hn-summarize/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-09-25
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/hn-summarize

## What it does

The skill talks to the official Hacker News APIs, Firebase and Algolia. They hand back the same stories with scores, comment counts and the full comment tree as plain JSON, so `curl` is enough. It does not scrape `hckrnews.com` — that front end renders in JavaScript and returns an empty shell.

Four jobs are covered. One reads `topstories.json`, keeps the first N IDs and prints title, score, comment count and link. Another searches Algolia by topic, with a date filter so an old duplicate headline does not win. A third fetches a story with its comment tree and prints root replies in thread order. The last one grabs the article itself and strips tags with `sed`; for JS-heavy or paywalled pages the skill looks up a Wayback Machine snapshot instead.

Python 3 is required — the JSON parsing and HTML entity cleanup run on it. If the host blocks outbound `curl`, the skill suggests going through a container or proxy you have. Sorting comments by score is off the table: Algolia returns `points` as `null`, so thread order is the ranking you get. The write-up groups discussion into 3–6 recurring lines and flags it when the top thread turns contrarian, which happens a lot on HN.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add ykdojo/claude-code-tips --skill hn-summarize -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/hn-summarize/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/hn-summarize/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add ykdojo/claude-code-tips --skill hn-summarize -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/hn-summarize/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add ykdojo/claude-code-tips --skill hn-summarize -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/hn-summarize/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install ykdojo/claude-code-tips hn-summarize
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/hn-summarize/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add ykdojo/claude-code-tips --skill hn-summarize -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/ykdojo/claude-code-tips --path skills/hn-summarize
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/hn-summarize/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add ykdojo/claude-code-tips --skill hn-summarize -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/ykdojo/claude-code-tips/tree/HEAD/skills/hn-summarize/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- build a digest of the HN front page top 10
- find one story on a topic without hitting an old duplicate
- pull readable text from an article that resists fetching
- compress hundreds of comments into a few discussion lines
- fall back to a Wayback snapshot for a paywalled page

## Example prompts
- Give me a digest of the top 10 on Hacker News
- Find the HN story about Rust and summarize the discussion
- Fetch the article linked in that story and tell me what it says

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From the same set: [ykdojo/claude-code-tips](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/by/ykdojo/claude-code-tips.md) — 8 cards

---
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