feat: Add Hacker News channel (zero-config, public API)
Author: princepal9120Created Sep 4, 2026Updated Sep 15, 2026
Summary
Add Hacker News as a zero-config channel. HN is one of the strongest signals for tech community sentiment, developer consensus, and early trend detection — and its API requires no authentication.
Why
Agent-Reach covers Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, GitHub, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu — but Hacker News is a glaring omission for anyone doing tech research, competitive analysis, or developer-focused trend discovery. HN's front page and comment threads are where technical consensus forms in real time.
Proposed Implementation
Use the official Hacker News API (Firebase-based, no key needed) and Algolia HN Search:
- Top/Best/New stories: firebase HN API (no auth)
- Story details + comments: firebase HN API (no auth)
- Full-text search: Algolia HN Search API (no auth)
- User profiles: firebase HN API (no auth)
Tier: 0 (zero-config, zero-auth) — works immediately after install.
Acceptance Criteria
-
agent-reach doctorshows Hacker News asokout of the box - Channel supports: top/best/new listings, story detail + comment thread, search by keyword, user profile
- Results return structured JSON with title, URL, score, comment count, author, timestamp
- Search uses Algolia API (full-text, sorted by relevance or date)
- SKILL.md documents the new channel with curl examples
- Tests cover: API mocking, URL matching, health check states
Additional Context
- Algolia HN search docs: https://hn.algolia.com/api
- Official API docs: https://github.com/HackerNews/API
- Estimated user value: high — HN is a top-3 signal source for developer tools, startups, and AI trends
Source: Panniantong/Agent-Reach