HN mention radar

One HTTP GET sweeps Hacker News for mentions via the Algolia search API — read-only radar.

A real, replayable Reelier skill against a live public API. Every replay proves the same thing: The Algolia HN search API answers with a well-formed hits array — and writes a receipt saying exactly which assertions held.

01What this checks

One step: an HTTP GET to the Algolia Hacker News search API with query "reelier". Two assertions: the API answered 200 and hits is an array.

Zero hits is a perfectly healthy replay — the assertion is that the search API answered with a well-formed result set, not that anyone is talking about you this week. The bound mentions count (json.nbHits) is the number worth watching over time.

Endpoint it hits:

• https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=reelier

02The skill file

This is the whole artifact — a markdown file with an assertion on every step. Copy it, check it into your repo, replay it anywhere.

---
name: hn-mention-radar
description: Hacker News mention search for "reelier" via the Algolia HN API — read-only radar sweep
---

<!-- synced from seldonframe/reelier examples/portfolio — edit there -->

# HN mention radar

Inputs: (none — this file replays green as-is; see the personalization note)

<!--
  Personalization: swap the literal `reelier` in the query string for your
  own project name (the portfolio README's "Point these at YOUR project"
  section has the one-command version). The skill grammar has no
  default-value syntax for {{var}} holes — an unbound {{var}} is an explicit
  error, never a guessed fallback — so this file ships with a literal that
  works with zero flags.

  Endpoint verified live on 2026-07-21: 200, `hits` is an array.
-->

Zero hits is a perfectly healthy replay — the assertion is that the search
API answered with a well-formed hits array, not that anyone is talking about
you this week. The receipt's bound `mentions` count is the number worth
watching over time.

## Steps

### Step 1 — Search HN for mentions
- intent: Search Hacker News (Algolia API) for mentions of reelier and confirm a well-formed result set
- action: http.get {"url": "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=reelier"}
- assert: status == 200
- assert: json.hits is array
- bind: mentions = json.nbHits
- effect: read

03Run it yourself

reelier run takes a local file, so fetch the canonical copy first (or clone the repo). The replay is read-only, needs no account and no keys, and writes its receipt to .reelier/runs/.

# straight from the repo's main branch (the canonical copy):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/seldonframe/reelier/main/examples/portfolio/hn-mention-radar.skill.md -o hn-mention-radar.skill.md
npx -y reelier@latest run hn-mention-radar.skill.md

# or from a clone:
git clone https://github.com/seldonframe/reelier
cd reelier && npx -y reelier@latest run examples/portfolio/hn-mention-radar.skill.md

04The receipt

The portfolio README records a real seed run of this skill, replayed with the published CLI on 2026-07-21. Verbatim output:

✓ Step 1 — Search HN for mentions [passed] 411ms

PASSED: 1/1 steps ok, 0 failed, 411ms total
[measured] 0 LLM tokens

And the proof keeps accumulating without anyone touching it: a GitHub Action replays all five portfolio skills every 6 hours (plus on demand) — the public Actions tab is the standing audit log. A failing endpoint produces an honestly failing receipt there, never a retried-until-green one.

05Point it at your project

Swap the literal `reelier` in the query string for your own project name. The skill grammar has no default-value syntax for {{var}} holes — an unbound {{var}} is an explicit error, never a guessed fallback — so this file ships with literals that replay green with zero flags.

sed 's/reelier/YOUR-PROJECT/g' hn-mention-radar.skill.md > my-mention-radar.skill.md \
  && npx -y reelier@latest run my-mention-radar.skill.md