Hackernews Intel

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Asked to monitor Hacker News for mentions
• Track keywords on HN
• Get alerts when something is posted about a topic on Hacker News
• Set up HN keyword monitoring

Example prompts

• “Use the hackernews-intel skill to monitor Hacker News for user-configured keywords, deduplicates against a local SQLite cache, and sends Slack…”
• “/hackernews-intel”

Requirements

• Node.js
• Compatibility (from SKILL.md): ["claude-code","gemini-cli","github-copilot"]

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1Check Setup
2. 2Run the Monitor
3. 3Review Results
4. 4Schedule the Monitor
5. 5Tune Keywords and Thresholds

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 62e437a. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Ships 1 file in scripts/ (JavaScript), which the agent can run.

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • node
  • npm
  • claude

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

  • hn.algolia.com

  Also links to:

  • api.slack.com

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

• Compatibility

  ["claude-code","gemini-cli","github-copilot"]

  From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Hackernews Intel loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 118 tokens; SKILL.md has 575 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~118

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

• NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:142

  Update `HN_KEYWORDS` in your `.env` or environment. No restart needed — the script reads it fresh each run.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Varnan-Tech/opendirectory at commit 62e437a, republished under its MIT licence (© Varnan-Tech). 575 words, ~1,432 tokens.

name

hackernews-intel

description

Monitors Hacker News for user-configured keywords, deduplicates against a local SQLite cache, and sends Slack alerts for new matching posts. Use when asked to monitor Hacker News for mentions, track keywords on HN, get alerts when something is posted about a topic on Hacker News, or set up HN keyword monitoring. Trigger when a user mentions Hacker News alerts, HN monitoring, keyword tracking on HN, or wants to know when a topic appears on Hacker News.

compatibility

["claude-code","gemini-cli","github-copilot"]

author

OpenDirectory

version

1.0.0

ls /Users/ksd/Desktop/Varnan_skills/hackernews-intel/node_modules/better-sqlite3 2>/dev/null

cd /Users/ksd/Desktop/Varnan_skills/hackernews-intel && npm install

cd /Users/ksd/Desktop/Varnan_skills/hackernews-intel && node scripts/monitor-hn.js

Run complete.
  Keywords checked: N
  Posts found: N
  Posts alerted: N
  Posts skipped (already seen): N
  Errors: N

crontab -e

0 */4 * * * cd /Users/ksd/Desktop/Varnan_skills/hackernews-intel && node scripts/monitor-hn.js >> /tmp/hn-intel.log 2>&1

name: HN Intel Monitor
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 */4 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  monitor:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install
        working-directory: hackernews-intel
      - name: Run monitor
        run: node scripts/monitor-hn.js
        working-directory: hackernews-intel
        env:
          HN_KEYWORDS: ${{ secrets.HN_KEYWORDS }}
          SLACK_WEBHOOK: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK }}
          HN_MIN_POINTS: ${{ secrets.HN_MIN_POINTS }}

© Varnan-Tech, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 5 other files (scripts) in skills/hackernews-intel of Varnan-Tech/opendirectory.

• SKILL.md
• .env.example
• README.md
• evals/evals.json
• package.json
• scripts/monitor-hn.js

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 62e437a

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in Varnan-Tech/opendirectory, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

• majiayu000/claude-skill-registryskills/bash/hackernews-intel