> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.daoco.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Hacker News research and launches

> Search Hacker News from brand chat, decide honestly whether a launch belongs there, and hand off a pre-filled submission you post yourself.

daoco researches Hacker News and prepares response briefs. It does not write or edit text for HN, and it never submits, votes, or comments. Hacker News prohibits generated and AI-edited text, so you write every word that you post. No Hacker News account connection is needed.

Relevant results appear under **Social > Conversations**, alongside Reddit threads and follow-ups. See [Community conversations](/core-workflows/community-conversations).

## Search Hacker News

Ask in brand chat and daoco searches HN's public index for stories or comments, filtered by date, points, or author.

```text theme={null}
What has Hacker News said about self-hosted analytics in the last six months?
```

Useful things to ask for:

* **Reception of a competitor.** The top comment on their launch is usually the objection waiting for yours.
* **Whether a problem is considered solved.** If a well-loved open-source tool covers most of it, HN will name it, so you want to name it first.
* **Citations for AI search.** HN threads get quoted by AI answer engines, so they show up in [SEO and GEO](/core-workflows/seo-agent) work as a real source.
* **A duplicate check before you launch.** Ask daoco to search your exact URL and your bare domain. A URL submitted inside the last year or so is treated as a duplicate and goes nowhere.

## Decide whether to post at all

Ask daoco to load the **Hacker News Launch** skill before planning anything. Its first job is to talk you out of a launch that will not land, and a clear "do not post this" is a real answer.

```text theme={null}
Should we post our new pricing page to Hacker News? Load the HN launch skill first.
```

It will say no when there is nothing to try without a signup wall, when the product's value is the go-to-market rather than the thing, when the differentiation is a claim someone will benchmark in the thread, when nobody can sit in the thread for the next six hours, or when the URL was already submitted.

## Prepare your submission

When a launch makes sense, daoco gives you the evidence and constraints to write it yourself.

```text theme={null}
Prepare a Show HN brief for our open-source proxy at https://example.com/ferrite
```

The brief covers duplicate history, likely objections, title constraints, technical facts worth explaining, current limitations, pricing, and the questions you want the thread to answer. It does not contain copy to paste into HN.

## Post it yourself: the hand-off flow

<Steps>
  <Step title="Write the submission">
    Write the title, body, and any first comment yourself. Do not ask daoco to edit them.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open Hacker News">
    Give daoco your exact title and text if you want a hand-off. The **Hacker News** panel passes that copy through unchanged and opens the submit page with the title filled in. A title over 80 characters is rejected rather than trimmed, because shortening it is your edit to make. For a text post, copy your body from the panel into the form.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Submit from your account">
    Submit from your account. Write any comments yourself.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Mark as posted">
    Back in daoco, choose **Mark as posted** and paste the item link, for example `https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678`. daoco records the submission against your brand. Pasted the wrong link? Choose **Update link** on the posted submission.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Changed your mind before posting? Choose **Discard** on the panel. Nothing was submitted, and the hand-off closes.

## Current limits

* **No generated or AI-edited text.** daoco supplies research and response briefs, never copy to post on Hacker News.
* **No automated posting, voting, or commenting.** Every submission is a manual hand-off.
* **Never ask anyone to upvote.** Voting rings are detected and the penalty is a silent burial with no notification. Telling your team a post is live is fine; asking them to vote is how a launch dies.
* **Conversation monitoring is available.** Add the **Conversation Monitor** automation to check Reddit and Hacker News every two hours.
* **Post metrics are not tracked.** daoco records the item link you confirm, not the score or comment count.