Introduction
# Hacker News
CLI tool for the Hacker News API. No authentication required.
## CLI Usage
Run `scripts/hn.sh <command>`. All commands support `--json` for raw JSON output.
### Browse Stories
```bash # Top/trending stories (default 10) scripts/hn.sh top scripts/hn.sh top --limit 20
# Other lists scripts/hn.sh new --limit 5 # newest scripts/hn.sh best --limit 10 # highest rated scripts/hn.sh ask # Ask HN scripts/hn.sh show # Show HN scripts/hn.sh jobs # job postings ```
### View Item Details & Comments
```bash # Full item details (story, comment, job, poll) scripts/hn.sh item 12345678
# Top comments on a story scripts/hn.sh comments 12345678 scripts/hn.sh comments 12345678 --limit 10 --depth 2 ```
### User Profiles
```bash scripts/hn.sh user dang ```
### Search
```bash # Basic search scripts/hn.sh search "rust programming"
# With filters scripts/hn.sh search "LLM" --type story --sort date --period week --limit 5 scripts/hn.sh search "hiring remote" --type comment --period month ```
### Who is Hiring
```bash # Latest "Who is hiring?" job postings scripts/hn.sh whoishiring scripts/hn.sh whoishiring --limit 20 ```
## Common Workflows
| User asks | Command | |---|---| | "What's trending on HN?" | `scripts/hn.sh top` | | "Latest Ask HN posts" | `scripts/hn.sh ask` | | "Search HN for X" | `scripts/hn.sh search "X"` | | "Show me comments on story Y" | `scripts/hn.sh comments Y` | | "Who is hiring?" | `scripts/hn.sh whoishiring` | | "Tell me about HN user Z" | `scripts/hn.sh user Z` |
## Notes
- Story lists use parallel fetching for speed - HTML in comments/bios is auto-converted to plain text - Timestamps shown as relative time ("2h ago", "3d ago") - For API details, see [references/api.md](references/api.md)