Understanding Item IDs

Every piece of content on Hacker News—whether it's a story, comment, poll, or job posting—has a unique numeric identifier called an item ID. These IDs are assigned sequentially as content is created and serve as permanent references to specific items. When you know the exact ID of an item you want to retrieve, you can query it directly for fast, precise access.

Why Query by ID

Querying items by their specific IDs is useful in several scenarios. You might have bookmarked a particularly insightful discussion and want to revisit it, need to follow up on a story you referenced earlier, or want to track how a specific comment thread evolves over time. Item IDs also appear in Hacker News URLs, making it easy to extract them from links you've encountered elsewhere.

Additionally, when you retrieve lists of stories or comments, the server returns item IDs as part of the data. You can then use these IDs to fetch complete details about specific items that interest you, enabling a two-step workflow: first browse summaries, then dive deep into particular items.

How to Query Specific Items

To retrieve a specific item, you simply request it by its ID through natural language. For example, you might ask your AI assistant: "Get me Hacker News item 39847362" or "Show me the details for item ID 39847362."

The server will return comprehensive information about that item, including:

• For stories: title, URL, author, score, submission time, number of comments, and the list of comment IDs
• For comments: the comment text, author, timestamp, score, parent item ID, and any child comment IDs
• For other item types: relevant metadata specific to polls, jobs, or other content types

Working with Retrieved Data

Once you've retrieved an item, you can use the information it contains to navigate further. Story items include lists of their top-level comment IDs, which you can then query individually to explore the discussion. Comments contain parent and child IDs, allowing you to traverse entire conversation threads by moving up or down the comment hierarchy.

This ID-based approach gives you complete control over your exploration of Hacker News content, letting you construct precise queries that retrieve exactly what you need without sifting through unrelated information.

Finding Item IDs

If you're browsing Hacker News on the web, item IDs appear in the URL. A story at news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39847362 has the ID 39847362. When you use the server to retrieve story lists or comments, the response always includes item IDs, making it easy to note interesting items for later detailed retrieval.