pp-hackernews

What this skill does

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# 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/best/show/ask/job lists and recently-changed items into local SQLite for offline use and snapshot history.

  _Run this once per day (or per hour for agents) — it is the foundation that turns since/velocity/controversial/users-stats from impossible into one SQL query._

  ```bash
  hackernews-pp-cli sync --resources updates --agent
  ```

### Algolia leverage
- **`pulse`** — See per-day mentions, average score, and comment volume for any topic over the last N days.

  _Reach for this when the question is 'is this topic heating up or cooling down' rather than 'what's the top story right now'._

  ```bash
  hackernews-pp-cli pulse rust --days 7 --agent
  ```
- **`repost`** — Has this URL been posted before? Lists every prior submission, with score, comments, and date.

  _Reach for this before submitting a Show HN — duplicate URLs flame out instantly; you want to know how a prior post did first._

  ```bash
  hackernews-pp-cli repost https://example.com/article
  ```
- **`search local`** — Offline full-text search over every story and comment you have ever synced — corpus grows with use.

  _Reach for this when investigating long-tail topics or replaying last quarter's research — Algolia might rank it down or drop it; your local corpus will not._

  ```bash
  hackernews-pp-cli search local "vector database" --limit 20 --json
  ```

### Hiring-thread mining
- **`hiring stats`** — Aggregate the last N monthly Who-is-Hiring threads: top languages, remote ratio, top companies, location distribution.

  _Reach for this when you need quarterly or seasonal hiring trends — language popularity, remote-share shifts, location density — not just this month's listings._

  ```bash
  hackernews-pp-cli hiring stats --months 3 --agent
  ```
- **`hiring companies`** — Companies that posted in M of the last N hiring threads, with first-seen, last-seen, and months-posted count.

  _Reach for this when sourcing or trend-tracking — which companies are persistent hirers vs one-off posters — without scraping HNHIRING.com._

  ```bash
  hackernews-pp-cli hiring companies --months 6 --min-posts 3 --agent
  ```

### Cross-entity local queries
- **`users stats`** — Median and p90 score across a user's submissions, plus traction buckets and hour-of-day score distribution.

  _Reach for this before posting your own work to learn your traction patterns, or when sizing up a poster's history before engaging._

  ```bash
  hackernews-pp-cli users stats pg --json
  ```

## Command Reference

**items** — Fetch any HN item (story, comment, job, poll) by ID

- `hackernews-pp-cli items <itemId>` — Get details for a specific story, comment, job, or poll

**maxitem** — Current maximum item ID

- `hackernews-pp-cli maxitem` — Returns the largest item ID currently assigned by Hacker News

**stories** — Browse top, new, and best Hacker News stories

- `hackernews-pp-cli stories ask` — Get the latest Ask HN posts
- `hackernews-pp-cli stories best` — Get the highest-voted stories on Hacker News
- `hackernews-pp-cli stories job` — Get the latest Hacker News job postings
- `hackernews-pp-cli stories new` — Get the newest stories on Hacker News
- `hackernews-pp-cli stories show` — Get the latest Show HN posts
- `hackernews-pp-cli stories top` — Get the current top stories on Hacker News

**updates** — Recently changed items and profiles

- `hackernews-pp-cli updates` — Items and user profiles that have changed recently

**users** — Look up Hacker News user profiles

- `hackernews-pp-cli users <userId>` — Get a user's profile including karma and submission history


**Hand-written commands**

- `hackernews-pp-cli sync` — Pull top/new/best/show/ask/job lists and recent items into the local SQLite store
- `hackernews-pp-cli search <query>` — Full-text search Hacker News stories and comments via Algolia (use 'search local' for offline FTS)
- `hackernews-pp-cli hiring` — Mine 'Ask HN: Who is hiring' threads (filter, stats, companies)
- `hackernews-pp-cli freelance` — Mine 'Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer?' threads (filter)
- `hackernews-pp-cli since` — Show what changed on the front page since the last sync (added, removed, moved stories)
- `hackernews-pp-cli pulse <topic>` — Show what HN is saying about a topic — per-day mentions, score, and comment volume
- `hackernews-pp-cli controversial` — Find stories with the highest comment-to-point ratio (polarizing discussions)
- `hackernews-pp-cli repost <url>` — Has this URL been posted on HN? Lists prior submissions with scores and dates
- `hackernews-pp-cli velocity <id>` — Show a story's rank trajectory across local snapshots
- `hackernews-pp-cli doctor` — Run a self-diagnostic: API reachability, store writability, config sanity


## Freshness Contract

This printed CLI owns bou