SCHEDULED1 CREDIT / RUN

Hacker News digest

Pull the current Hacker News front page every 12 hours and get an AI summary of the stories that actually matter.

Use this skillFREE KEY INCLUDED · 100 RENDERS / MONTH

The workflow

This skill is a 3-step workflow. Everything below is the full definition — nothing hidden. Use it from the Dashboard (no code), the REST API, or an AI agent via MCP.

workflow.json

{
  "name": "Hacker News digest",
  "trigger": {
    "type": "cron",
    "everyMinutes": 720
  },
  "steps": [
    {
      "action": "fetch",
      "url": "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?tags=front_page&hitsPerPage=15"
    },
    {
      "action": "ai",
      "prompt": "These are Hacker News front-page stories. Summarize the 5 most interesting ones: title plus one line on why it matters. Plain text.",
      "input": "{{1.body}}"
    },
    {
      "action": "email",
      "to": "you@example.com",
      "subject": "Hacker News digest",
      "body": "{{3.text}}"
    }
  ]
}

Three ways to run it

1No code — Dashboard

Hit “Use this skill” — the builder opens with every step prefilled. Edit the placeholder URLs, press run. Done.

2API — one request

curl

curl -X POST https://api.ottersnap.com/v1/workflows \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer otter_live_YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Hacker News digest","trigger":{"type":"cron","everyMinutes":720},"steps":[{"action":"fetch","url":"https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?tags=front_page&hitsPerPage=15"},{"action":"ai","prompt":"These are Hacker News front-page stories. Summarize the 5 most interesting ones: title plus one line on why it matters. Plain text.","input":"{{1.body}}"},{"action":"email","to":"you@example.com","subject":"Hacker News digest","body":"{{3.text}}"}]}'

3AI agent — via MCP

Glint ships an official MCP server. Paste this prompt into Claude, Cursor or Codex and it creates the skill for you:

agent prompt

Using the ottersnap-mcp server (npm: ottersnap-mcp), create a Glint workflow with this exact definition:

{
  "name": "Hacker News digest",
  "trigger": {
    "type": "cron",
    "everyMinutes": 720
  },
  "steps": [
    {
      "action": "fetch",
      "url": "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?tags=front_page&hitsPerPage=15"
    },
    {
      "action": "ai",
      "prompt": "These are Hacker News front-page stories. Summarize the 5 most interesting ones: title plus one line on why it matters. Plain text.",
      "input": "{{1.body}}"
    },
    {
      "action": "email",
      "to": "you@example.com",
      "subject": "Hacker News digest",
      "body": "{{3.text}}"
    }
  ]
}

Then confirm it was created and tell me how to run it once manually.

Step by step

fetchSTEP

https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?tags=front_page&hitsPerPage=15

aiAI

These are Hacker News front-page stories. Summarize the 5 most interesting ones: title plus one line on why it matters. Plain text.

accepts {{1.…}} from the previous step

emailSEND

you@example.com · Hacker News digest

accepts {{2.…}} from the previous step

EVERY RUN = 1 CREDIT · FAILED STEPS STOP THE CHAIN · RESULTS FEED FORWARD WITH TEMPLATES

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