AnyPost
All guides
5 min read

Convert Hacker News posts to Markdown

Turn a public Hacker News URL into clean, portable Markdown for LLMs, notes, research, and archives. This guide follows the same domain-swap workflow as the X guide, adapted for Hacker News.

Want to test the form first? Use the Hacker News converter or start from the all-platform preview.

Why use AnyPost for Hacker News?

Stories and comment trees as readable Markdown. Instead of pasting a live URL and hoping an AI tool can read it, AnyPost returns the post as a stable Markdown document with attribution.

ApproachWhat you get
Paste the original linkPreview cards, login walls, or incomplete context
anypost.mdClean Markdown with source URL and platform context

01: Cleaner context
Markdown removes navigation, overlays, embeds, and tracking parameters so models see the post content first.

02: Better archives
The output is plain text, easy to diff, store in Obsidian, add to a CMS, or keep in a research folder.

03: Predictable automation
The browser URL swap and the JSON API share the same conversion pipeline, so scripts and manual workflows produce the same style of output.

Step-by-step workflow

01: Copy the Hacker News URL
Use the public permalink for the post, article, story, video, pin, or thread you want to preserve.

02: Swap the domain to anypost.md
Open the AnyPost URL in your browser. The platform prefix keeps routing explicit.

Before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1
After:  https://anypost.md/hackernews/item?id=1

03: Add paid options when needed
Free tier covers 10 single-post conversions per day. Threads, comments, author metadata, and API usage need credits and an apk_ key.

04: Copy the Markdown output
Use the result in a prompt, archive, markdown editor, CMS, or API workflow.

What you get

  • Stories and comment trees as readable Markdown
  • Comment threads unrolled, up to 50 with comments=50
  • Story + comments as a flat 10-credit conversion
  • Free tier covers single stories
# Example Hacker News post

Clean post text appears here, with line breaks preserved and noisy page chrome removed.

- Source platform: Hacker News
- Original URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1
- Markdown URL: https://anypost.md/hackernews/item?id=1

---
2026-06-01 · Hacker News · [Original post](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1)

Good for

  • Feeding exact Hacker News context into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Cursor, or another AI assistant.
  • Saving source posts in Obsidian, Notion, a research database, or a static-site content folder.
  • Quoting public posts with the original URL and platform timestamp kept together.
  • Building lightweight review, monitoring, or archive scripts around a stable Markdown response.

For agents: fetch Markdown, not web pages

Give AnyPost to OpenClaw, Codex, Cursor agents, Claude Code, and RAG workers as their Hacker News fetch layer. Instead of driving the original site, the agent should rewrite the URL to anypost.md or call /api/convert, then read the clean Markdown response.

That keeps agents out of brittle DOM scraping, rate-limit loops, login walls, and browser automation noise.

Agent setup

  • Install the anypost-md skill, or give your agent the raw SKILL.md.
  • Store an apk_ key from Login for Agents and send it as Authorization: Bearer apk_live_xxx for paid options.
  • Use the domain-swap URL when the agent wants a plain Markdown document; use /api/convert when it needs JSON fields such as markdown, credits, or structured errors.
Original: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1
Agent:    https://anypost.md/hackernews/item?id=1

Paid options and API usage

Single Hacker News posts work on the free tier. Add your key when you want comments, thread context, author metadata, or reliable API usage:

curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer apk_live_xxx" \
  "https://anypost.md/hackernews/item?id=1"

When your app needs JSON fields such as markdown, credits, or structured errors, call /api/convert with the original URL:

curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer apk_live_xxx" \
  "https://anypost.md/api/convert?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2Fitem%3Fid%3D1"
Entry pointResponseBest for
/hackernews/... domain swaptext/plain MarkdownBrowser, curl pipes, agents that want a document
/api/convert?url=...JSON with markdownApps that need metadata and structured errors

See Documentation for query parameters, credit costs, and authentication.

Hacker News FAQ

Can I capture a Hacker News comment thread?

Yes. Turn on Comments and AnyPost returns the story plus its comment tree as nested Markdown lists. Story + comments is a flat 10-credit conversion.

Which Hacker News URLs work?

Any news.ycombinator.com/item?id= link works. Swap the domain for anypost.md to convert it.

Is Hacker News available on the free tier?

Yes. Free tier users get 10 single-post Hacker News conversions per day. Threads, comments, author metadata, and API access require credits and an apk_ key.

Can agents use AnyPost instead of scraping Hacker News?

Yes. Give OpenClaw, Codex, Cursor agents, Claude Code, or your RAG worker the anypost-md skill at /i/skill.md and an apk_ key from Login for Agents. The agent should call AnyPost for Hacker News URLs and read Markdown instead of scraping the original page, which avoids brittle selectors, rate limits, and login walls.

Next