Preview
What it is.
It reads what you want to post and tells you whether Hacker News wants it, then writes the submission: the title, the segment you are aiming at, and the Show HN path where that applies.
The reason to run it before posting is the flagging rules and the segment map. Founders read for growth stories and senior engineers for architecture depth, so a post aimed at the wrong one dies with no explanation.
What you get.
- An audience segmentation with what each group cares about
- What gets flagged, so a launch does not burn the account
- Show HN guidance separated from link posts
- A read on whether your content suits the audience at all
- Timing and title guidance for a submission
How to set it up.
Install with npx add-skill jonathimer/devmarketing-skills, or clone and copy the folders into .agents/skills.
Run the developer-audience-context skill first if you have it. This library reads a shared context file, same pattern as the Marketing Skills set.
Answer the honesty question before drafting: is this genuinely interesting to hackers, founders and deep-tech readers.
Pick your segment. A growth story lands with founders and a systems writeup lands with senior engineers, and one post rarely does both.
Write the title as the thing itself. Marketing phrasing in a title is the fastest way to get flagged.
For a Show HN, follow the Show HN path specifically. It has different norms from a link submission.
Pricing Plans
Free. MIT license.
Checked against the repo in July 2026.
Use cases
Prepping a Show HN
The tool launches next week and the founder wants Hacker News. Hand over the launch draft; back comes the Show HN path with a title written as the thing itself, plus what would get the post flagged.
Autopsy on a dead post
Your submission sank with no comments and no explanation. Give it the post; the read usually names a segment mismatch or a marketing title, which tells you what to change before trying again.
The go or no-go call
You suspect the piece is marketing dressed as content. Run the honesty question first; sometimes the answer is to skip the channel, which costs less than burning the account's standing.
Aiming at one segment
The draft tries to speak to founders and senior engineers at once. Hand it the piece; it picks the segment, since a growth story and a systems writeup rarely survive in the same post, and shapes the title for that reader.
Best for
A developer tool launch
Show HN reaches developers at volume, and the norms are strict enough to be worth reading first.
A post that died with no explanation
The flagging and culture sections usually explain it, and the reason is normally segment mismatch or a marketing title.
Deciding not to post
The honesty check gives you permission to skip a channel that would have cost you goodwill.