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 doctor shows Hacker News as ok out 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