Hacker News Firehose for iOS
Saturday morning project: Ask Claude Fable to create a custom app for browsing Hacker News by /newest
Claude was able to one-shot this given a spec and screenshots.
Source here: github.com/harrisonpage/firehose-ios
Reading model is simple:
- Open the app
- Scroll from newest to oldest
- Stop when bored
Content is ephemeral. There's value in the unfiltered firehose of submissions, most are low quality but occasional gems surface.
The app talks to one external service: the Algolia HN Search API (hn.algolia.com/api/v1)
PLATFORM
- SwiftUI, Swift concurrency (
async/await),@Observable - iPhone only, portrait only
- Frameworks:
SwiftUI,LinkPresentation,SafariServices
FEATURES
- Drop any headline where
urlis nil effectively removing Ask HN and text-only posts - Killfile support by word or hostname (currently hardcoded)
- Link previews formed with available Open Graph metadata on long-press
- Menu items: Add to Reading List, Share, Open in Safari
MOCKUP VS REALITY
Mockup generated with Claude Design then handled off to Claude Code:
Claude did a very good job of matching the design. Actual screenshot:
OUT OF SCOPE
Didn't bother with features I won't use:
- Comments
- Ask HN / text-only posts (no URL to read)
- Points not displayed, not stored, not used for anything
- Login, voting, posting, favoriting, any authenticated HN action
- iPad layout, Mac Catalyst, landscape orientation
- Persistent read state, sync, CloudKit, accounts
- Infinite history / archive / search
- Push notifications, background refresh, widgets
- A backend server of any kind
- Killfile editing UI, rule persistence, settings screen
- Deduplication of repeated URLs