Hacker News

Access Hacker News stories, comments, and discussions

Overview

Hacker News tool allows you to fetch top stories, new stories, and comments from Hacker News. No API key required.

The user asks for tech news; the agent fetches Hacker News stories and returns them.

Diagram

Installation

bash

pip install "praisonai[tools]"

No API key required!

Quick Start

Simple Usage

python

from praisonai_tools import HackerNewsTool

# Initialize
hn = HackerNewsTool()

# Get top stories
stories = hn.get_top_stories(limit=5)
print(stories)

With Configuration
Use the same tool with an agent — see Usage with Agent below, or pass env vars and options from the sections above.

Usage with Agent

python

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonai_tools import HackerNewsTool

agent = Agent(
    name="TechNews",
    instructions="You are a tech news assistant. Use Hacker News to find trending stories.",
    tools=[HackerNewsTool()]
)

response = agent.chat("What are the top stories on Hacker News today?")
print(response)

Available Methods

get_top_stories(limit=10)

Get top stories from Hacker News.

python

from praisonai_tools import HackerNewsTool

hn = HackerNewsTool()
stories = hn.get_top_stories(limit=5)

# Returns:
# [
#     {"title": "...", "url": "...", "score": 150, "comments": 45},
#     ...
# ]

get_new_stories(limit=10)

Get newest stories.

python

stories = hn.get_new_stories(limit=5)

get_best_stories(limit=10)

Get best stories.

python

stories = hn.get_best_stories(limit=5)

get_story(story_id)

Get a specific story by ID.

python

story = hn.get_story(12345678)

Function-Based Usage

python

from praisonai_tools import get_hackernews_top

# Quick access without instantiating class
stories = get_hackernews_top(limit=5)

CLI Usage

bash

# Use with praisonai
praisonai --tools HackerNewsTool "What are the trending tech stories today?"

Error Handling

python

from praisonai_tools import HackerNewsTool

hn = HackerNewsTool()
stories = hn.get_top_stories(limit=5)

if stories and "error" in stories[0]:
    print(f"Error: {stories[0]['error']}")
else:
    for story in stories:
        print(f"- {story['title']} ({story['score']} points)")

Common Errors

Error	Cause	Solution
`requests not installed`	Missing dependency	Run `pip install requests`
`Connection error`	Network issue	Check internet connection
`Rate limited`	Too many requests	Add delay between requests