Hourly or daily

Post the top Hacker News stories to Discord

Your server gets a regular list of what's trending, without repeats.

Runs: Hourly or daily
Apps: Discord
AI: Optional
Access: Send Messages

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every morning at 9am, get the top 5 stories on Hacker News and post them with links to #launches on my Discord, skipping any I've already posted.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Founders, makers and curious community members want to know what launched on Product Hunt today or what is climbing on Hacker News, but checking those sites several times a day is a time sink. The people in a startup Discord who would love a heads-up on a competitor's launch or a hot technical thread usually hear about it from a screenshot a day later, when the conversation has moved on and the best comments are gone.

On an hourly or daily schedule the automation queries the public source you chose, skips anything it already posted, and writes a list of the top launches or threads into your Discord channel. If you turn on the optional AI step, each entry gets a one-line description of what it is, so members can scan the list quickly.

Indie hacker groups, product teams and developer servers use it to keep market awareness in a place everyone already visits.

What you get out of it

Competitor launches seen the same day
A rival's Product Hunt launch appears in the channel while it is still ranking. Your team can read the pitch, check the pricing and discuss a response that afternoon instead of discovering it from a customer's email next week.
Inspiration delivered to the team
Makers get a steady stream of new ideas, naming styles and landing page approaches without browsing. Over a few weeks, the list becomes a shared reference for what the market is building.
No daily browsing habit needed
Nobody has to remember to open Product Hunt or Hacker News. The list arrives where the conversation already happens, which saves a few minutes every day for every person who used to check by hand.
Each story posted once
Because it skips items already posted, an item that stays high all day does not repeat on every run. The channel stays a clean log of distinct launches rather than the same few entries over and over.
Hourly or daily to suit the server
A busy server may want an hourly feed of fresh arrivals, while a quiet one prefers a single morning list. Choosing the rhythm keeps the channel at the volume your members will actually read.

How it works

What happens, step by step

On the schedule you choose, ClickRuntime fetches the top stories from Hacker News.
It skips stories it has already posted.
A list of the new top stories, with their points, is posted to your Discord channel.

Before it runs live

Connect Discord

What you get

RunsHourly or daily

Post the top Hacker News stories to Discordtoday, 9:00Succeeded

Discord · #launches**Top on HN today** • Show HN: A tiny Postgres queue (412 points)

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Discord steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

trending_products_and_threads_roundup.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_trigger, http, credentials, state

LAUNCHES_CHANNEL = "LAUNCHES_CHANNEL_ID"
HN = "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0"

def discord(method, path, **kw):
    r = http.request(method, f"https://discord.com/api/v10{path}",
                     headers={"Authorization": f"Bot {credentials.secret('DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN')}"}, **kw)
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json() if r.content else None

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    posted = set(state.get("posted") or [])
    picks = []
    for sid in http.get(f"{HN}/topstories.json").json()[:30]:
        if sid in posted:
            continue
        item = http.get(f"{HN}/item/{sid}.json").json()
        picks.append(f"• {item['title']} ({item.get('score', 0)} points)\n<{item.get('url') or f'https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id={sid}'}>")
        posted.add(sid)
        if len(picks) == 5:
            break
    if picks:
        discord("POST", f"/channels/{LAUNCHES_CHANNEL}/messages", json={"content": "**Top on HN today**\n" + "\n".join(picks)})
    state.set("posted", list(posted)[-1000:])
    return {"posted": len(picks)}

FAQ

Common questions

Which sources can it pull from?

Product Hunt and Hacker News both publish data that can be read without a login, and the automation uses whichever you pick. Other sources with a public feed can also be added, so name the site you want when you describe it to your AI assistant.

What does the optional AI step add?

With it on, ClickRuntime's built-in AI writes a short description for each entry, which helps when a title alone is cryptic. Without it, the post is simply the title, link and ranking. No separate AI key is needed either way.

Can I post only items above a certain score?

Yes. Hacker News stories have a points count and Product Hunt launches have votes, so a minimum can be applied. That keeps a busy daily feed down to the handful of entries that really took off, which suits larger servers.

What permissions does it need?

Send Messages. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No, but you can ask for an AI step (for example a summary). It then uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it runs (hourly or daily). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

On a scheduleAI