Hacker News Alerts #

A Slack bot that tracks when you make it to the front page of Hacker News, made with 💖 @ Hack Club

🚀 Features #

• Front Page Tracking: Get notified when your posts reach the Hacker News front page
• #1 Post Alerts: Special notifications when your post reaches the coveted #1 position
• Leaderboard History: Track how your posts perform over time with rank and point history
• Web Dashboard: View all currently tracked stories and their stats
• Individual Story Pages: View detailed information about any story using HN-compatible URLs
• User Verification: Securely link your HN account with Slack using verification phrases

🚧 Development Setup #

Prerequisites #

• Bun (JavaScript runtime and package manager)
• PostgreSQL database
• Ngrok for local development with Slack

Local Development #

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/taciturnaxolotl/hn-alerts.git
cd hn-alerts

2. Install dependencies:

bun install

3. Create a .env file with the following variables:

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN="xoxb-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"
SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET="xxxxx"
SLACK_CHANNEL="C08KX2YNN87"
NODE_ENV="dev"
SENTRY_DSN="https://xxxxxx@xxxxxx.ingest.us.sentry.io/xxxx"
DATABASE_URL="postgres://user:password@host:5432/table_name"

4. Initialize the database schema:

bun db:push

5. Start the development server:

bun dev

6. In a separate terminal, launch ngrok to expose your local server:

bun ngrok

7. Update your Slack app's manifest in manifest.dev.yaml to point to your ngrok URL

📱 Slack Commands #

• /hn-alerts-link your_username - Link your Hacker News account
• /hn-alerts-link verify - Verify your Hacker News account
• /hn-alerts-link unlink - Remove your linked account
• /hn-alerts-link help - Show command help

🧰 Tech Stack #

• Bun - JavaScript runtime and package manager
• Slack Edge - Slack API client
• Drizzle ORM - Database ORM
• Sentry - Error tracking
• Cron - Scheduled tasks

📜 License #

The code is licensed under MIT! See the LICENSE.md file for more details.

© 2025-present Kieran Klukas