Hacker News Thread Reader
Hacker News Thread Reader — Read HN in Markdown or PDF Free
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Paste a Hacker News thread URL and get the full discussion with all comments as Markdown or PDF. Comment tree preserved.
How it works: Hacker News has a public JSON API backed by Firebase. We fetch the post and all comments with one request per item — no auth, no API key, generous free limits. Format it as Markdown, save as .md/.txt, or copy to clipboard.
Paste a Hacker News thread URL and get the full discussion with all comments as Markdown or PDF. Comment tree preserved.
How it works
Paste your URL or input
Copy the URL or content you want to process and paste it into the input above.
Click the action button
We fetch, parse, or generate the output in your browser or via our fast API.
Download or copy the result
Save the result as PDF, Markdown, MP4, or your chosen format. Done.
How do I read a Hacker News thread?
Open the Hacker News thread you want to read. Copy the URL from your browser's address bar (looks like news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345). Paste it into the box above and click Load. The thread loads with all comments nested under the post, authors and timestamps preserved. Read on-page or export as Markdown or PDF.
Does this work on long threads?
Yes — tested with threads containing 1,000+ comments. The tool walks the full comment tree via the Algolia HN Search API. Long threads take a few seconds to fetch but render correctly.
Why read HN threads offline
Four common reasons. Archive technical discussions. HN has some of the highest-quality technical discussions on the internet. Saving them locally preserves them for future reference. Read without distraction. HN's web UI has its own pattern (indented replies, collapsed threads, voting). A Markdown export gives you a clean reading view. Share outside HN. Forward a discussion to a non-HN colleague as a clean Markdown file or PDF. Research. Building a knowledge base from HN's expert communities (HN's Ask HN, Show HN, programming threads).
How HN threads work
HN threads are tree-structured: a post (top-level item) with comments nested underneath. Each comment has an ID, parent ID, author, timestamp, body, and score. We fetch the thread via the Algolia HN Search API (the same API powers hn.algolia.com). For each item, we capture the comment tree structure and render it as nested Markdown lists in the output. For very old threads (pre-API archive), the Algolia API may not have full data. In that case, we fall back to the official Firebase API used by HN itself.
Privacy and how we handle your data
We don't log HN URLs. We don't store thread content. We don't require account creation. When you paste a URL, we fetch the thread via HN's public APIs and render the Markdown/PDF in your browser. Threads never land on our disk.
Can I get the thread with timestamps?
Yes — timestamps are preserved in both Markdown and PDF exports.
What about deleted comments?
Deleted comments are preserved in the export as 'deleted' markers. The metadata (when it was posted, depth in tree) is captured if available.