How to write a Hacker News Show HN post that survives the notoriously tough HN crowd.
Show HN: project-name – What it does in plain EnglishShow HN: measure-fn – One-line timing, tracing, and error handling for TSShow HN: measure-fn – The ultimate TypeScript observability frameworkHN does NOT support Markdown. No \``code blocks````, no bold, no headers.
Leave an empty line, then indent every line by 2 spaces:
Normal text here.
const x = await doThing();
console.log(x);
More normal text.
Just paste the raw URL. HN auto-links them. No markdown link syntax.
Use asterisks for italic. No bold available.
HN commenters are notoriously pedantic. They will debate your premise instead of discussing your project if you give them an opening.
Some contexts are undebatable — everyone agrees they need try-catch:
But don't limit your tool to these — just use them to avoid philosophical debates.
If your tool has a design choice that will trigger debate, address it early:
T | null and that .assert() exists for fail-fastFrame the pain point. Use "Whenever" or "When building X" — not absolutes.
The single most effective way to sell a dev tool. Show the manual boilerplate, then the one-liner. Both should produce the same output.
If your tool catches errors by default, mention the escape hatch (.assert(), rethrow) right after the first example.
What makes this different from console.log + try-catch? Show it (nesting, hierarchy, timeouts, etc.)
One line listing the extras. Don't over-explain — link to the README.
Something actionable. Links to GitHub and npm.
## Title
Show HN: [name] – [what it does, max 80 chars]
## URL