A Show HN post is the canonical way to share something you made on Hacker News — a side project, a tool, an experiment. The community is technical and allergic to marketing copy, so the winning formula is a plain, factual title plus a substantive first comment from you, the author. This builder assembles both from a few fields, following the official Show HN guidelines.
What makes a Show HN succeed
Show HN posts succeed or fade based on a small number of factors that the builder helps you control.
The title is your hook. HN readers scan titles in a list; the title has to make a technical person stop and think “that sounds interesting.” Plain and specific outperforms clever and vague every time. “Show HN: A terminal app that diffs two Postgres schemas” tells a reader exactly who it is for and what it does. “Show HN: I built something cool for developers” tells them nothing.
The first comment is your reputation. It signals whether you are present to engage, honest about limitations, and genuinely interested in feedback rather than just promotion. Comments that lead with a problem (“I was frustrated that…”), explain the technical approach, admit what is missing, and end with a concrete question consistently receive the most useful replies.
Timing and engagement matter. HN front-page momentum builds in the first two hours after posting. Submitting during US morning (8–10 AM ET on weekdays) reaches the broadest audience. Reply to every comment for the first few hours — HN surfaces posts where the author engages.
How it works
Hacker News requires Show HN titles to begin with the literal prefix Show HN: and then describe the thing as neutrally as possible. The builder:
- Prepends
Show HN:to your one-line summary and strips trailing punctuation and hype words. - Drafts a first comment with the standard structure the community responds to: what it is, why you built it, the tech behind it, and an explicit ask for feedback.
- Flags common rejection triggers — exclamation marks, words like “revolutionary”, a missing URL, or a title that starts with “I built…”
Per the HN guidelines, Show HN is for things people can try out, not announcements or blog posts. The URL should go straight to the working thing, not a landing page or waitlist.
Title patterns that work
| Pattern | Example |
|---|---|
| ”A [noun] that [verb]" | "A CLI that diffs two JSON schemas" |
| "[Noun] for [audience]" | "Markdown editor for terminal users" |
| "Open-source [description]" | "Open-source Stripe billing dashboard in Next.js” |
Avoid: “I built…”, “We launched…”, superlatives, exclamation marks, vague product-category names without specifics.
First-comment structure
A strong Show HN first comment usually covers: the problem you had → what you built → the tech stack (briefly) → what is not working yet or what trade-offs you made → a specific question. Keeping it under 300 words and using short paragraphs makes it more likely to be read in full.