Hacker News Agent
The Hacker News agent that finds the threads worth commenting on and drafts a Show HN that might survive the front page.
Watches the feed, finds relevant threads, drafts Show HN and Ask HN posts, and suggests comments.
Free to start · 50 credits · No credit card required
What changes
Without Xicmo
- A Show HN launch is a one-shot event you get maybe twice a year and nobody on the team has done before.
- Relevant threads appear and vanish within hours, and you find them the next morning.
- Comments written in marketing register get flagged immediately by an audience trained to spot them.
- You have no read on what the audience actually responds to beyond folklore.
- Nothing about the process is repeatable, so each attempt starts from scratch.
With Xicmo
- Show HN and Ask HN drafts are generated daily, so a launch is a decision rather than an event you prepare for.
- Thread discovery runs continuously and surfaces discussions while they are still live.
- Drafts are written flat and technical, because that is the only register that survives on HN.
- Repeated drafting against the same audience makes the pattern visible over time.
- The whole loop is a daily habit rather than a twice-a-year gamble.
What does a Hacker News agent do?
A Hacker News agent monitors the site for discussions where your product is genuinely relevant, drafts Show HN and Ask HN submissions, and suggests comments written for an audience that is unusually hostile to marketing language.
The constraint that shapes everything is the audience. Hacker News readers detect and punish promotional framing faster than almost any other community, and moderation is active. Useful output is therefore flat, specific and technical — closer to a changelog than to a press release.
How it works
- 01
Describe the product
The agent works from what your site says you do, in the plain technical terms the audience expects.
- 02
Review daily drafts
Show HN and Ask HN drafts arrive on a schedule, alongside threads where a comment from you would be relevant.
- 03
Submit it yourself
You post from your own account. Timing a Show HN is the part that decides whether it lands, and that judgement stays with you.
What it does
Daily Show HN and Ask HN drafting
Turns launch writing into a routine, so you are choosing from drafts rather than writing under pressure on the day.
Thread discovery without an HN API key
Finds relevant discussions with nothing to register for and no key to manage.
Comment suggestions in technical register
Drafts written flat and specific, because the marketing register is actively punished here.
Continuous feed monitoring
Runs on a schedule so threads surface inside the hours they are actually active.
Shared voice profile across social agents
Uses the same voice profile as the other channels, tuned down for an audience that dislikes enthusiasm.
Drafts queued for approval, never posted
Everything lands in a queue. The agent has no posting access to Hacker News.
Written for an audience that punishes marketing
Most social drafting tools optimise for engagement, which on Hacker News is precisely wrong — enthusiastic, benefit-led copy is the signal that gets a submission flagged and a comment downvoted. The drafts here are deliberately flatter than what the same agent would write for LinkedIn: specific, technical, and closer to describing what you built than to explaining why it matters.
A technical audience that converts unusually well
Hacker News is small compared to the mainstream social platforms, but its readership skews heavily towards engineers, founders and early adopters — the people who try new developer tooling and tell colleagues about it. A front-page Show HN reaches fewer people than a viral post elsewhere and more of the right ones.
Pricing
Credits meter real AI usage, not seats. Every agent is unlocked on both plans.
Questions
Will posting AI-drafted comments get me flagged?
It can, if you post them unedited. Hacker News readers are unusually good at spotting generated text, and the drafts are a starting point rather than something to paste. Edit them into your own voice before submitting.
Does it post to Hacker News for me?
No. It has no posting access and never authenticates against HN. Drafts land in your queue and you submit them yourself.
Can it guarantee front page?
No, and any tool claiming otherwise is selling you something. Front page depends on timing, the audience that happens to be online, and whether the thing you built is interesting. The agent helps with the writing and the timing; it cannot help with the third.
Do I need an HN API key?
No. Thread discovery runs without one, so there is nothing to register for.
How often should I actually post?
Rarely. Show HN has community norms about frequency and the agent drafting daily does not mean you should submit daily — the drafts are there so you have options when you genuinely have something to show.
Does it publish or send anything without my approval?
No. Every agent drafts into a queue and stops there. You read it, edit it, and press publish — or you don't, and nothing leaves. There is no mode that posts on your behalf unreviewed.
Do I need any technical setup?
Add your website URL and the agents start working. Connecting Search Console or Analytics makes the SEO and GEO agents considerably sharper, and both are OAuth — no keys to paste, no DNS records, no code on your site.
What is included in the free plan?
50 credits on signup, no card required, and every agent unlocked. Credits meter actual AI usage rather than seats, so you can try the agent that matters to you instead of spending a trial learning the interface.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. The Max plan is monthly and cancels from billing in one click — no contract, no notice period, no call to book. Drafts you have already generated stay in your workspace.
Try the Hacker News Agent free
50 credits on signup, every agent unlocked, and nothing publishes without your approval.