CLI
Every command and subcommand, with the flags that matter.
hn <command> [arguments] [flags]
Run hn <command> --help for the exact flag list on any command.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
hn top |
Top stories (front page) |
hn best |
Highest-rated recent stories |
hn new |
Newest submissions |
hn ask |
Ask HN posts |
hn show |
Show HN posts |
hn jobs |
YC job listings |
hn item <id> |
One item and its comment tree |
hn user <name> |
A user profile, optionally with submissions |
hn search <query> |
Full-text search via Algolia |
hn updates |
Recently changed items and profiles |
hn maxitem |
The current maximum item id |
hn version |
Print version information |
The story-list commands (top, best, new, ask, show, jobs) default to
30 records; raise or lower it with -n.
Command-specific flags
item <id>
Accepts a bare id or a news.ycombinator.com/item?id=... URL.
| Flag | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
--depth |
1 |
Comment-tree depth. 0 = item only, -1 = the full tree |
user <name>
Accepts a bare username or a news.ycombinator.com/user?id=... URL.
| Flag | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
--submissions |
off | Also resolve and list the user's submissions (capped by -n, default 20) |
search <query>
| Flag | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
--tags |
story |
What to search: story, comment, ask_hn, show_hn, front_page, job |
--sort |
relevance |
relevance or date (newest first) |
--since |
none | Only results newer than a duration: 90m, 24h, 7d |
--points |
0 |
Minimum points |
--comments |
0 |
Minimum comment count |
version
| Flag | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
--short |
off | Print just the version number |
Global flags
These work on every command. See output formats and configuration for detail.
| Flag | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
-o, --output |
auto |
table, json, jsonl, csv, tsv, url, raw |
--fields |
all | Comma-separated columns to include |
--no-header |
off | Omit the header row in table/csv/tsv |
--template |
none | Go text/template applied per record |
-n, --limit |
per command | Limit the number of records |
-j, --workers |
16 |
Concurrent item fetches |
--delay |
50ms |
Minimum spacing between requests |
--timeout |
30s |
Per-request timeout |
--retries |
5 |
Retry attempts on 429/5xx |
--user-agent |
hn/dev ... |
User-Agent sent with each request |
-q, --quiet |
off | Suppress progress on stderr |