AI agents can now query HN stories, comments, and users—and cross-reference with web scraping and AI search to build competitive intelligence tools.
What's New
We've added the official Hacker News API to the SerenAI x402 publisher as serendb.com/bestsellers/hacker-news-api. It's completely free. No payments required. AI agents can now access HN's real-time data through the same MCP interface they use for paid publishers.
Endpoints Available
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
| /topstories.json | Top 500 stories |
| /newstories.json | Newest 500 stories |
| /beststories.json | Best stories |
| /askstories.json | Ask HN posts |
| /showstories.json | Show HN posts |
| /jobstories.json | Job postings |
| /item/{id}.json | Story, comment, or poll by ID |
| /user/{username}.json | User profile with karma and submissions |
Build This: Show HN Competitor Tracker
SerenAI hosts SerenCron LLM-invoked cronjobs, Firecrawl (YC-backed web scraping) and Perplexity (AI search). However, the emergent value-add for SerenAI is the composability of multiple publishers, and compute services, into a new service accessible by any LLM with MCP tooling. Combine SerenCron, Perplexity with Firecrawl and HN to build weekly, automated competitive intelligence.
The Product: Automated Competitor Monitoring
Imagine you're building a developer tool. You want to know when competitors launch on Show HN, when their products get upvoted in comments, what features they're shipping, and how the HN community reacts.
This isn't just Show HN tracking. Upvotes on links to competitor products anywhere on HN are a strong signal. A competitor's blog post hitting the front page with 200 points? That's market intelligence you need to act on.
Architecture
How It Works
- Define competitors — Create a watchlist of domains and keywords
- Monitor Show HN — Query /showstories.json for launches, check URLs against your list
- Track upvotes — Scan /topstories.json for links to competitor domains (200 points on a competitor blog post = significant signal)
- Enrich with Firecrawl — Scrape landing pages for pricing, features, positioning changes
- Analyze with Perplexity — Get AI-powered competitive comparisons
- Automate with SerenCron — Hourly checks, daily digests, weekly deep-dives
Example Prompt
Cost Analysis
| Check Type | HN API | Firecrawl | Perplexity | SerenCron | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Show HN scan (hourly) | Free | — | — | $0.00001 | ~$0.01 |
| Top stories scan (hourly) | Free | — | — | $0.00001 | ~$0.01 |
| Landing page scrape | — | $0.002 | — | — | ~$0.12 |
| Competitive analysis (daily) | — | — | $0.005 | $0.00001 | ~$0.15 |
| Total | — | — | — | — | ~$0.20 |
Ship It As
- SaaS Dashboard: $1/mo for founders tracking 5 competitors
- Slack Bot: Real-time alerts when competitors hit HN
- Weekly Newsletter: Curated competitive intel for your industry
Quick Start
Install the x402 MCP Server
GitHub: github.com/serenorg/x402-mcp-server
Or add to Claude Code:
Via x402 MCP Server
Via cURL
Automate with SerenCron
Schedule weekly competitive scans via MCP:
Results are stored and retrievable via SerenCron.
Cost: $0.00001/execution = ~$0.00004/month for weekly scans.
Why Free?
Hacker News API is public—no API key required. We're not adding a toll to free data. Instead, we're making HN accessible through the same interface agents use for paid publishers, enabling cross-analysis workflows without switching contexts.
The value is in composability with both free and paid sources. An agent tracking competitors can pull HN discussions (free), scrape competitor sites with Firecrawl (paid), then get AI analysis from Perplexity (paid)—all through one protocol.
About SerenAI
SerenAI is building payment infrastructure for the AI agent economy. Our x402 Gateway enables AI agents to autonomously pay for data and services using USDC micropayments on Base—no subscriptions, no API keys, no human intervention.
Our Stack: TypeScript, Rust, PostgreSQL, Cloudflare Workers, Base (Ethereum L2), Coinbase x402 Protocol
Data Publishers: Firecrawl, Perplexity, OpenAI, Exa, Google Trends, SEC Filings, Hacker News, crates.io, and 35+ more
Ready to build? Sign up at console.serendb.com/signup with invite code serenai2025
Questions? Email hello@serendb.com or join our Discord.