Pp Hackernews
Query Hacker News from the terminal with local SQLite history, snapshots, and agent-friendly output for market and tech pulse checks.
Overview
pp-hackernews is an agent skill most often used in Idea (also Validate and Grow) that drives hackernews-pp-cli for searchable, snapshot-based Hacker News research from the terminal.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library --skill pp-hackernewsWhat is this skill?
- Local SQLite store with snapshot history—diff front page over time
- Agent-native CLI output designed for automation vs scraping the web UI
- Trigger phrases: check hacker news, search hn, hn who is hiring, pulse on hn
- Install path via Printing Press Go module hackernews-pp-cli
- Requires verifying CLI binary before any skill-driven command
- Apache-2.0 licensed Printing Press skill mirror
Adoption & trust: 593 installs on skills.sh; 1.5k GitHub stars; 2/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You want Hacker News signal for validation or content angles but browser tabs and unofficial APIs do not give diffable history or clean agent-parseable output.
Who is it for?
Terminal-first solo builders who combine Claude Code or similar agents with Go-installed Printing Press CLIs for ongoing market listening.
Skip if: Teams that need official HN API compliance only in-browser with no local CLI install or Bash access.
When should I use this skill?
Trigger phrases such as check hacker news, search hn, diff the hn front page, pulse on hn, hn who is hiring, or install cli|mcp.
What do I get? / Deliverables
Structured HN queries and local snapshot diffs land in your agent session so you can cite threads and trends without manual copy-paste from the site.
- Terminal HN search and story listings in agent-parseable form
- Snapshot diffs and pulse-style summaries from local store
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Canonical shelf is idea research—founders use HN to sense problems, launches, and hiring threads before building. Research subphase fits discovery workflows: search, front-page diff, user lookup, and pulse commands.
Where it fits
Search HN for pain points in your niche before committing to a feature list.
Pull pulse summaries to anchor a technical blog post in live community reactions.
Look up prolific commenters on a topic to find expert threads worth reading.
How it compares
Local SQLite-backed HN CLI skill—not a generic web search MCP or RSS reader with no snapshot diff.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is pp-hackernews for?
Indie builders and agents who monitor Hacker News for product ideas, competitor chatter, and hiring trends from the terminal.
When should I use pp-hackernews?
In idea research for trend search; in validate competitors for launch threads; in grow content when drafting posts grounded in what HN is discussing.
Is pp-hackernews safe to install?
It installs and runs a third-party CLI with network access; review the Security Audits panel on this page and verify the binary source before granting Bash to your agent.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Pp Hackernews
<!-- GENERATED FILE — DO NOT EDIT. This file is a verbatim mirror of library/media-and-entertainment/hackernews/SKILL.md, regenerated post-merge by tools/generate-skills/. Hand-edits here are silently overwritten on the next regen. Edit the library/ source instead. See the repository agent guide, section "Generated artifacts: registry.json, cli-skills/". --> # Hacker News — Printing Press CLI ## Prerequisites: Install the CLI This skill drives the `hackernews-pp-cli` binary. **You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill.** If it is missing, install it first: 1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to `$HOME/.local/bin` on macOS/Linux and `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin` on Windows: ```bash npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install hackernews --cli-only ``` 2. Verify: `hackernews-pp-cli --version` 3. Ensure the reported install directory is on `$PATH` for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill. If the `npx` install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.3 or newer): ```bash go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/media-and-entertainment/hackernews/cmd/hackernews-pp-cli@latest ``` If `--version` reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on `$PATH`. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds. ## When to Use This CLI Reach for hackernews-pp-cli when you need to monitor or analyze HN signal programmatically: agent-driven daily diffs, topic pulses, hiring-thread aggregation, repost checks before submitting, structured thread digests for context windows. The local store makes follow-up queries cheap and offline-friendly. ## When Not to Use This CLI Do not activate this CLI for requests that require creating, updating, deleting, publishing, commenting, upvoting, inviting, ordering, sending messages, booking, purchasing, or changing remote state. This printed CLI exposes read-only commands for inspection, export, sync, and analysis. ## Unique Capabilities These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API. ### Local snapshots that compound - **`since`** — See exactly what climbed, fell, appeared, or dropped off the front page since your last sync. _Reach for this when an agent wakes up daily and needs to know what shifted on HN since yesterday — without re-fetching 500 items every poll._ ```bash hackernews-pp-cli since --json ``` - **`controversial`** — Stories ranked by the highest comment-to-point ratio over a recent window — the discussions everyone is arguing about. _Reach for this when you want stories with high engagement-to-approval — heated debate signal — instead of just popularity._ ```bash hackernews-pp-cli controversial --window 7d --json ``` - **`velocity`** — Show a story's rank trajectory over time from local snapshots — climb, plateau, or fall. _Reach for this when an agent asks 'is this story still gaining traction or already cresting' — only meaningful answer comes from snapshots._ ```bash hackernews-pp-cli velocity 47998158 --json ``` - **`sync`** — Pull top/new/be