Hacker News (Show HN): how to get listed

Who lists here

Builders with a working product and time to answer questions in the thread. The guidelines say you must be around to discuss it, and the community is comfortable with early-stage work.

What to prepare

• A Hacker News account with some history: /showlim says Show HNs are temporarily restricted for users new to the site, so take part first. Then a title starting with “Show HN” and a URL people can try immediately.
• Write the title and explanation yourself: how and why you built it. Submit manually: Hacker News prohibits generated or AI-edited posts and automated posting. Your agent can check eligibility and record the thread, but cannot write or publish your HN post.
• No vote solicitation: the guidelines say asking friends to upvote or comment is not ok, and the FAQ notes anti-abuse software drops some votes.

What “live” means here

Every Show HN appears on /shownew immediately; it reaches the /show page only after clearing a small points threshold. Record the item URL and the date; a front-page position is an outcome, not the goal.

Worth knowing

Ranking divides points by a power of time and is affected by flags and moderation; posts by high-karma users do not rank higher. Reposts are tolerated only if the story had no significant attention in the last year, and new features usually do not qualify as a Show HN. The guidelines ask you to write posts and comments yourself, with no generated or AI-edited text, and not to automate posting, so submit by hand. On September 30, 2026, 29 of 30 title links on /shownew carried rel=nofollow: treat the thread as feedback, not as a backlink.