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Hacker News
The Autohive Hacker News integration connects to the official Hacker News API, enabling:
- Story retrieval - Access top, best, and newest stories from the Hacker News front page
- Community content - Fetch Ask HN discussions and Show HN project showcases
- Job monitoring - Retrieve job postings from YC companies and tech startups
- Discussion analysis - Get story details with threaded comment discussions
- User profiles - Look up Hacker News user profiles and karma scores
- Real-time access - No rate limits, public API with instant data access
Install the integration
Log in to Autohive and navigate to Your user profile > Connections or Your workspace -> Manage workspace
Locate the Hacker News Integration card and click Connect
No authentication required - Hacker News API is public and ready to use
Confirm installation - you’ll see “Connected” status displayed
Use the integration
You can now use the integration with your agents, workflows and scheduled tasks!
- Follow our Create your first agent guide on how to create an agent.
- In the ‘Agent settings’, scroll down to the ‘Add capabilities’ section and turn on the Hacker News capability. You can choose what individual Hacker News capabilities to turn on and off.
- Once the settings have been selected, begin prompting the agent of the workflow you’d like to achieve with Autohive and Hacker News!
Responses could contain inaccurate responses. Especially if your agents Model configuration - Temperature is set high.
Available capabilities
Get Top Stories
- Purpose: Fetch the current top stories from the Hacker News front page, sorted by ranking
- Use cases: Daily tech news digests, trending topic monitoring, content curation
- Returns: Story ID, title, URL, Hacker News URL, score, author, timestamp, comment count, type
Get Best Stories
- Purpose: Fetch the highest-voted stories over time (evergreen high-quality content)
- Use cases: Quality content curation, discovering exceptional articles, long-term trending analysis
- Returns: Story details including title, URL, score, author, and discussion metrics
Get New Stories
- Purpose: Fetch the newest submissions to Hacker News, sorted by submission time
- Use cases: Early trend detection, fresh content monitoring, breaking news tracking
- Returns: Latest story submissions with full metadata
Get Ask HN Stories
- Purpose: Fetch “Ask HN” posts where users ask the community questions
- Use cases: Community discussion analysis, Q&A monitoring, topic research
- Returns: Ask HN posts with question text, discussion metrics, and metadata
Get Show HN Stories
- Purpose: Fetch “Show HN” posts showcasing user projects and creations
- Use cases: Product discovery, project monitoring, innovation tracking
- Returns: Show HN posts with project URLs, descriptions, and engagement data
Get Job Stories
- Purpose: Fetch job postings from Hacker News, typically from YC companies and tech startups
- Use cases: Job board monitoring, hiring trend analysis, recruitment automation
- Returns: Job postings with title, URL, description, poster, and timestamp
Get Story with Comments
- Purpose: Fetch a single story with its threaded comment discussion
- Use cases: Discussion analysis, sentiment tracking, community feedback monitoring
- Returns: Full story details with nested comment tree, author information, and timestamps
Get User Profile
- Purpose: Fetch a Hacker News user’s public profile
- Use cases: User research, karma tracking, community member analysis
- Returns: Username, karma score, account creation date, about text, profile URL
Key features
Public API with No Rate Limits
- Free access to all Hacker News content with no authentication required
- No rate limiting restrictions for seamless data access
- Real-time synchronization with the official Hacker News Firebase API
- Reliable uptime backed by Firebase infrastructure
Comprehensive Content Coverage
- Access to all major content types: stories, comments, jobs, polls, and user data
- Multiple story feed options: top, best, new, Ask HN, Show HN, and jobs
- Threaded comment discussions with customizable depth and pagination
- Complete metadata including scores, timestamps, and author information
LLM-Optimized Data Format
- Pre-formatted data structure designed for AI agent consumption
- ISO timestamps for easy date handling and filtering
- Pre-computed Hacker News URLs for direct linking
- Nested comment trees for hierarchical discussion analysis
Flexible Content Retrieval
- Configurable limits for all story feeds (1-100 items)
- Adjustable comment depth for discussion analysis (1-5 levels)
- Top-level comment limiting for performance optimization
- Batch fetching with concurrent requests for fast data retrieval
Common use cases
Automated Tech News Digests
- Create daily or weekly summaries of top Hacker News stories
- Filter stories by score threshold for quality content
- Generate personalized news feeds based on keywords or topics
- Schedule automated reports delivered via email, Slack, or other channels
Trend and Sentiment Analysis
- Monitor emerging trends by analyzing new and top stories over time
- Track specific topics or keywords across stories and discussions
- Analyze community sentiment through comment analysis
- Identify viral content by tracking score velocity and comment activity
Content Curation and Discovery
- Discover high-quality evergreen content through best stories
- Find new tools and projects from Show HN submissions
- Curate relevant content for team newsletters or knowledge bases
- Surface interesting discussions from Ask HN for team learning
Job Market Intelligence
- Monitor job postings from YC companies and tech startups
- Track hiring trends and popular technologies in job descriptions
- Automate job alerts based on keywords or company names
- Analyze compensation trends and remote work opportunities
Community Engagement Monitoring
- Track discussions on specific topics or articles
- Monitor mentions of your company, product, or competitors
- Analyze user engagement patterns and popular discussion topics
- Identify influential community members and thought leaders
Research and Competitive Intelligence
- Monitor discussions about competitors or market trends
- Track technology adoption through community conversations
- Research public opinion on emerging technologies or approaches
- Analyze product launches and community reactions
Disconnect the integration
Important: Disconnecting stops data access but preserves existing data in Autohive.
- Navigate to Your user profile -> Connections or Your workspace -> Manage workspace
- Find the Hacker News Integration
- Click Disconnect and confirm
Data Impact: Existing data remains unchanged in Autohive, but the integration will stop fetching new content.
Additional information
API Source: This integration uses the official Hacker News Firebase API maintained by Y Combinator.
Read-Only Access: This integration provides read-only access to Hacker News content. Posting stories or comments requires direct access to the Hacker News website.
Data Freshness: Stories and comments are fetched in real-time from the Hacker News API, ensuring up-to-date content.