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Check recent Hacker News activity for a Slack trend

Spot a topic in team chat, then get a quick view of recent Hacker News coverage.

Trigger

Channel Message Received

Triggered when a message is posted in a Slack channel (public, private, or multi-party IM). Does NOT match direct messages.

Action

Get Latest Hackernews Posts

Get the latest posts from hacker news based on optional filters. results can be limited using the size parameter.

Why this helps

Potential trends surface in conversation, but founders may not have time to repeat searches across sites to gauge momentum.

  • Use a Slack signal to start a targeted recent-post scan.
  • Get context on whether a topic is appearing in community discussion.
  • Save the team from each person searching independently.

Setup

Build it in a few focused steps.

  • 1Connect Slack and Hackernews to Notis once through the portal.
  • 2Create an automation in the portal or describe it to Notis conversationally.
  • 3Write one plain-language instruction to search recent Hacker News posts when Slack flags a trend and summarize relevant activity around the named topic.
  • 4Select Channel Message Received and set a channel for run reports.
  • 5Test with a real Slack message naming an emerging technology or market topic.

Questions about this workflow

What makes a useful Slack trigger message?

Name the trend clearly and ask for a Hacker News scan, so Notis has a topic to search recent posts for.

Does this establish that a trend is growing?

It summarizes relevant recent posts. Treat that as a research signal to review, rather than a definitive measurement of market adoption.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

Supported Triggers and Actions

Notis builds workflows that link Slack to Hackernews. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.

Slack triggers

Hackernews actions

Recurring trigger

Notis starts this workflow on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or during business hours.

TriggerScheduled

Get Hackernews Frontpage

Get the frontpage posts of hacker news.

ActionInstant

Webhook trigger

Notis starts this workflow when an external tool or custom backend sends an HTTP request.

TriggerInstant

Get Hackernews Item

Get a specific item from hacker news using its id. limits response size to prevent context overflow.

ActionInstant

New Channel Created Trigger

Triggered when a new channel is created in Slack.

TriggerInstant

Get Latest Hackernews Posts

Get the latest posts from hacker news based on optional filters. results can be limited using the size parameter.

ActionInstant

Channel Message Received

Triggered when a message is posted in a Slack channel (public, private, or multi-party IM). Does NOT match direct messages.

TriggerInstant

Get Hackernews Today Posts

Get today's posts from hacker news.

ActionInstant

Direct Message Received

Triggered when a new direct message (DM) is sent to a user in Slack. Catches all DMs across all DM channels.

TriggerInstant

Get Hackernews User

Get a specific user from hacker news using their username.

ActionInstant

Message Reaction Added

Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.

TriggerInstant

Search Hackernews Posts

Get relevant posts from hacker news based on a full-text query and optional filters. results can be limited using the size parameter.

ActionInstant

Message Reaction Removed

Triggered when a reaction is removed from a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.

TriggerInstant

Reaction Added Trigger

DEPRECATED: use `SLACK_MESSAGE_REACTION_ADDED` instead. Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack.

TriggerInstant

Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.

Slack and Hackernews, or any other combination from 1,000+ integrations.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

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