hn-watch 0.1.0

Watch a URL for new comments and likes with cross-platform desktop notifications.

HN-Watch

HN-Watch is a small cross-platform CLI that watches a Hacker News item page and alerts you when the post gets new comments or more points.

It is built with:

• Python
• requests
• BeautifulSoup

It works on:

• Linux
• macOS
• Windows

What It Watches

HN-Watch only supports Hacker News item pages:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345

It checks:

• comment count
• point count

If either number goes up, HN-Watch prints an alert in the terminal and sends a desktop notification.

How Notifications Work

HN-Watch uses platform-specific notifications:

• Linux: notify-send
• macOS: terminal-notifier if installed, otherwise osascript
• Windows: PowerShell WinForms message box

The tool always also prints alerts in the terminal, so it still works even if desktop notifications are unavailable.

Install

The easiest install path for most users is pipx.

Linux

python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath
pipx install hn-watch

Optional desktop notification dependency:

sudo apt install libnotify-bin

macOS

brew install pipx
pipx ensurepath
pipx install hn-watch

Optional preferred notification tool:

brew install terminal-notifier

Windows

py -m pip install --user pipx
py -m pipx ensurepath
pipx install hn-watch

Usage

Pass the Hacker News item URL with --url:

hn-watch --url "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779274"

Or run it with no URL and it will prompt for one:

hn-watch

Useful options:

hn-watch --url "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779274" --interval 60
hn-watch --url "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779274" --timeout 15
hn-watch --url "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779274" --show-unchanged

Example Output

Watching https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779274
Polling every 60 seconds
Baseline: Making Wax Sealed Letters at Scale | Hacker News | comments=3 | points=1
[ALERT] HN-Watch Alert: Comments: 3 -> 4 (+1)

How It Works

1. HN-Watch fetches the Hacker News item page with requests.
2. It parses the HTML with BeautifulSoup.
3. It reads the post's current point count and comment count from the page.
4. It sleeps for the configured interval.
5. It fetches the page again and compares the new counts to the previous snapshot.
6. If points or comments increased, it sends a notification.

Important Notes

• HN-Watch is intentionally limited to Hacker News item pages.
• It does not watch the HN front page, user pages, or external sites.
• It tracks increases in points and comments only.
• A URL with an anchor is fine. HN-Watch ignores the #... fragment and watches the underlying item page.

Help

See the built-in CLI help:

hn-watch --help