Hacker News Search Toolkit (Unofficial)

About

Hacker News Search Toolkit (Unofficial) is a Chrome extension that
helps you compose, save, and launch Hacker News search URLs from a
side panel — without scraping, automation, or API calls. The
extension only generates URLs and opens them in your existing browser
session.

═══ What it does ═══

A guided builder for the Algolia-powered Hacker News search
(hn.algolia.com): author scope, time-range bounds, story-vs-comment
scoping, and points / comments thresholds. Plus built-in templates
for Show HN, Ask HN, and high-engagement-comment hunting. A live URL
preview updates as you compose, and every search can be saved to your
local library for one-click re-use.

Note: generated URLs target hn.algolia.com (the Algolia HN search),
not news.ycombinator.com.

═══ Use cases ═══

• Show HN — past week, 100+ points: filter type=story tag=show_hn
  with `points>100` and a 7-day window — your weekly launch round-up.

• Ask HN — high-engagement threads: type=story tag=ask_hn sorted by
  number of comments — surface the conversations worth reading.

• Author scope: author=<username> sorted by date — track a specific
  commenter's or submitter's recent activity.

• Comments hunting on a topic: type=comment <keyword> with a points
  threshold — find substantive replies, not headlines.

• Date-bound retrospective: <keyword> with `created_at_i>` and
  `created_at_i<` bounds for a specific time window.

═══ What it does NOT do ═══

• No background scraping. No content scripts running on page load.
  No scheduled fetches.
• No automation. No clicks, no API calls, no scraping of
  hn.algolia.com or news.ycombinator.com.
• No data leaves your device. Saved searches and settings live in
  chrome.storage.local. The Export JSON feature writes to a file on
  your disk; nothing is sent over the network.

═══ Permissions used and why ═══

• storage: Persist user-defined saved searches, tags, and settings
  locally.
• sidePanel: Render the UI as a Chrome side panel so you can keep
  the Builder open while browsing.

═══ Privacy ═══

Full privacy policy: https://gvensan.github.io/social-chrome-plugins-home/privacy/hackernews.html

The extension declares no host permissions and runs no content
scripts. It makes no network requests other than navigating tabs to
URLs you explicitly composed.

═══ Source & support ═══

Source code: https://github.com/gvensan/social-chrome-plugins
Support: https://github.com/gvensan/social-chrome-plugins-home/issues

Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Y Combinator.