Do I need an account or API key to use the Hacker News node?

No. Hacker News exposes a public API, so the node works with no credentials and no setup. You can drop it into a workflow and start fetching stories or running searches immediately.

What kinds of stories can the Hacker News node fetch?

It fetches top, newest, and best stories, plus Ask HN posts, Show HN posts, and job postings. Each operation lets you set a result limit and choose whether to fetch full story details or just IDs for speed.

How does search work for Hacker News?

The node uses the Algolia-powered Hacker News search with two modes: search by relevance, ranked by points and comments, and search by recent date. Both support tag filters, numeric filters such as points or comment thresholds, and pagination.

Can I look up a specific Hacker News post or comment?

Yes. The fetch item by ID operation retrieves any story, comment, job, or poll by its numeric ID, and fetch user profile returns a user's account details by username.

How do I monitor Hacker News for new activity?

You can run the newest-stories operation or a date-sorted search on a schedule to catch fresh content, and the fetch changed items and profiles operation returns items and profiles that recently updated.

How does OpenClaw act on my apps?

You connect an integration to the agent's tools handle and select operations. OpenClaw calls those operations as tools while it runs.

Is there anything to install?

No. NoClick runs the OpenClaw harness for you in a hosted sandbox.

Can I run it on a schedule?

Yes. A hosted agent can be started from a schedule, a webhook, or another app event.

Which apps can it use?

Any of NoClick’s tool-provider integrations across communication, CRM, developer tools, databases, and more.

Connect OpenClaw to Hacker News

Give an AI agent Hacker News as a tool and it reads the site itself instead of asking you to. It can pull the top, best, and newest stories, fetch Ask HN, Show HN, and job postings, look up any item or user by id, and search by relevance or recent date, calling each as a tool while it works. Wire it into a hosted coding agent in NoClick and it can track a topic or gather a source list on its own.

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Opens a workflow with 12 tools ready to use.

What happens next

Set up in minutes

The open button drops you into a guided setup. It asks exactly this, nothing else:

Choose where it runs
On your computer through your own OpenClaw, or hosted in the cloud. The rest of setup adapts to your choice:
Pick what it can do in Hacker News
A preset of real Hacker News operations. Each one becomes a tool the agent can call, and it can't touch anything outside the list.
Connect Hacker News
One sign-in. The agent acts through your account, scoped to the operations you picked.
Add your personal MCP link
The last step mints a private MCP URL for this agent and walks you through exactly this, with your real link filled in. The page flips to Connected the moment your OpenClaw first calls in. OpenClaw probes the server while adding it, so this lights up during openclaw mcp add.
Run this in your terminal
$openclaw mcp add noclick --url https://mcp.noclick.app/s/<your-link>
<your-link> is your personal server URL — setup mints it for you.

Exact capabilities

Tools OpenClaw gets

Pick the operations you want and each becomes a tool the agent can call directly while it works.

Hacker News

12 tools

Fetch Item by Id

Config for fetching a single item (story, comment, job, poll) by ID

Fetch User Profile

Config for fetching a user profile by username

Fetch Top Stories

Config for fetching top stories

Fetch Newest Stories

Config for fetching newest stories

Fetch Best Stories

Config for fetching best stories

Fetch Ask Hn Stories

Config for fetching Ask HN stories

Fetch Show Hn Stories

Config for fetching Show HN stories

Fetch Job Postings

Config for fetching job postings

Fetch Largest Item Id

Config for fetching the current largest item ID

Fetch Changed Items and Profiles

Config for fetching changed items and profiles

Search by Relevance

Config for Algolia search (sorted by relevance, then points, then comments)

Search by Recent Date

Config for Algolia search sorted by date (most recent first)

Starting points

What you can build

Fetch the top stories on a schedule and send a daily digest of what the tech community is reading.

Search Hacker News for posts mentioning your company or product and alert your team whenever a new one appears.

Pull Show HN stories above a points threshold to monitor new product launches in your space.

Retrieve job postings from the monthly hiring threads and feed them into a roles tracker.

Look up a Hacker News user profile and gather their recent submissions for competitor or community research.

Search recent comments for a technology keyword and run the results through an AI node for sentiment analysis.

Meet the runner

About OpenClaw

OpenClaw is an open command-line agent. NoClick runs it hosted and lets you connect your apps to it as tools, so it can take real actions across your systems. Wire an integration into the agent and OpenClaw can call that app’s operations directly. It is a good fit when you want an open, no-fuss agent with real tool access and nothing to install.

Open and approachable

Simple to point at a task

Solid general tool use

Hosted, with nothing to install

Good to know