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Hacker News · Free accountSend a Hacker News thread to ChatGPT or Claude.
Pull every comment in an HN thread, nested replies included, and open ChatGPT or Claude with the comments and a prompt already in the chat box. Nothing is sent until you press send.
- Every reply, every level
- ChatGPT or Claude
- Ready-made prompts
- Chrome and Edge
How do you send a Hacker News thread to ChatGPT or Claude?
Open the thread, pull it with Threadpull in Chrome or Edge, choose Send to AI and pick ChatGPT or Claude. The chat opens with every comment, replies nested as quotes, and your chosen prompt already in the box. Nothing is sent until you press send. It uses the ChatGPT or Claude account you're already signed in to, so you don't need an API key.
What one real thread showed
We pulled a live Show HN and asked for the themes a maker should act on. This is what came back, checked against the thread.
Show HN: Capsule – Single-file web apps that save their data into SQLite
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712278 ↗The change for the next launch post: place the product against the tools people kept naming, and say plainly how sharing and syncing work.
Comparisons to existing tools
about 30 comments"This sounds like the modern take on MS Access."m-p-3
"This reminds me of Clipper/dBase software tools."molsongolden
Praise for local AI-built mini-apps
about 17 comments"It's so easy to create small tools with AI now, but hard to install them as local apps or share them."andix
"AI has reignited my interest in building based 100% on browser native features."eleventen
How do sharing and syncing work?
about 16 comments"Will that merge into my copy if I've added some more items or would it open as a "fresh" app?"domh
"I think data and apps should be separated, I might want to share an app with someone else without sharing the data"andix
A closed format needs a viewer app
about 13 comments"they first need to download the capsule app to associate the file extension with the OS and have it launch, right?"al_borland
"Curious: this requires users to have a host app installed on their machine that can read .capsule file right?"lewisjoe
The thread in numbers
"Show HN: Capsule – Single-file web apps that save their data into SQLite" had 166 comments from 122 people when we pulled it on 1 Nov 2026. 95 of them (57%) were replies to other comments, nested up to 11 levels deep, and the median comment was 29 words long. The theme raised most, comparisons to existing tools, came up in about 30 comments (18% of the thread).
How we did this research
- Pulled with Threadpull on 1 Nov 2026: every comment still live, at every reply level, from news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712278.
- Read and grouped into themes. A comment can raise more than one theme, so counts are approximate.
- Every quote on this page is checked word for word against the export, under its author, each time the page is built.
| Score on the post | 380 |
|---|---|
| Comments | 166 |
| Top-level comments | 71 |
| Replies | 95 (57%) |
| People commenting | 122 |
| Comments by the original poster | 13 |
| Deepest reply level | 11 |
| Median comment length | 29 words |
| Comments from the 5 most active people | 25 (15%) |
| Theme | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Comparisons to existing tools | about 30 | 18% |
| Praise for local AI-built mini-apps | about 17 | 10% |
| How do sharing and syncing work? | about 16 | 10% |
| A closed format needs a viewer app | about 13 | 8% |
The words they used
How many comments used each word or named each product. Counted from the export each time the page is built; a comment counts once however often it repeats the word. Variants count together, so "self-host" includes "self-hosted" and "self hosting".
"Show HN: Capsule – Single-file web apps that save their data into SQLite"
| Word or phrase | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| share | 17 | 10% |
| sync | 11 | 7% |
| File System Access | 8 | 5% |
| single file | 7 | 4% |
| open source | 6 | 4% |
| security | 5 | 3% |
| Name | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| SQLite | 9 | 5% |
| Firefox | 7 | 4% |
| Google Drive | 5 | 3% |
| PWA | 5 | 3% |
| Electron | 4 | 2% |
| Microsoft Access | 4 | 2% |
| Excel | 3 | 2% |
| Tauri | 3 | 2% |
Where the conversation happened
Comments per reply level. The deep chains are often where people disagree, and a skim of the top-level comments misses them.
How to send an HN thread to your AI
Open the thread
Any news.ycombinator.com/item page: a story, Ask HN, Show HN or a single comment.
Pull the comments
Threadpull collects every reply in HN's order. A 400-comment thread takes about half a minute.
Choose Send to AI
Pick ChatGPT or Claude, and one of the ready-made prompts or just the comments.
Read the answer
The chat opens with everything in the box. Add your own question if you like, then press send.
Prompts you can choose
Pick one in the Send to AI sheet, or choose Comments only and type your own question.
| Prompt | What it asks for |
|---|---|
| Comments only | The post and comments, no instructions |
| Top objections | What stops people buying, with quotes |
| Praise and benefits | What people love, in their words |
| 10 ad hooks | Scroll-stopping lines from real phrasing |
| Customer avatar | Who they are, pains, desires, language |
The prompt we used
Copy it into the chat box above the comments, or start from one of Threadpull's ready-made prompts.
These are every comment from a Hacker News thread about a product launch. 1. Find the 4 themes that come up most, with a count for each. 2. For each theme, quote one comment word for word. 3. List the tools the product is compared to. 4. List the questions the maker should answer in the post. 5. Suggest the single most useful change to the launch post.
Getting a good answer from a whole thread
Why send every comment instead of a summary?
A summary keeps what one reader noticed. Sending every comment lets the model count themes across the whole thread. In the Show HN above, 95 of 166 comments were replies, which a skim of the top-level comments would miss.
How does the AI know who replied to whom?
Threadpull writes each comment under its author's username, and each reply as a Markdown quote one level deeper than the comment it answers, so the model can follow a back-and-forth.
How long a thread can I send?
Threadpull includes up to 500,000 characters, roughly 80,000 words. Longer threads are trimmed, and a note in the chat says how many comments were included. The Show HN above was about 6,700 words, well inside the limit.
Which prompt should I start with?
Top objections before a launch, Praise and benefits for copy, Customer avatar to learn who's commenting, and 10 ad hooks for ads. For anything else, choose Comments only and write your own question, like the one above.
How to find threads like these
Searches that turn up the threads worth pulling. Open one, then pull it with Threadpull.
| Search | Where | What it finds |
|---|---|---|
"Show HN" plus your category | hn.algolia.com | Launch threads to summarise for objections and requests |
"Ask HN" how do you | hn.algolia.com | Workflow threads where people explain what they actually do |
site:news.ycombinator.com "I switched from" | Switching stories: what pushed people to leave a tool | |
Sort by comments on hn.algolia.com | hn.algolia.com | The biggest threads in a time range, the ones most worth an AI pass |
Threads worth pulling next
Comment counts as of 2 Nov 2026.
- Show HN: I quit coding years ago. AI brought me backA big, personal thread on what AI coding changed for people.
- Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to ObsidianAsk the AI which features people say they'd switch for.
- Show HN: Gitdot – A better GitHub. Open-source, written in RustObjections to a challenger in a crowded category.
- Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOSFeature requests from people who want the product.
- Show HN: Bento - An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)Compare with the Capsule thread above: single-file apps again.
Hacker News to AI FAQ
Does Threadpull send anything to ChatGPT or Claude by itself?
No. It opens the chat and fills in the box. Nothing is sent until you press send there.
What if the thread is too long for the chat?
Threadpull tells you when it trims the comments to fit, and how many were included. Export the full thread as CSV or JSON if you need every comment.
Do I need an OpenAI or Anthropic API key?
No. It uses the ChatGPT or Claude account you're already signed in to.
Is it free?
Hacker News threads need a free account. Reddit threads work without one.