Clone Hacker News end to end with long agent sessions
A developer spent about four months of near-daily work, with agent handoff notes in the repo, building sharc, a mostly exact clone of Hacker News running at news.ycombinator.lol.
Source
sillysaurusx on Hacker News · 2026-10-07 · Project link
Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-16.
What they did
A developer spent about four months of near-daily work, with agent handoff notes in the repo, building sharc, a mostly exact clone of Hacker News running at news.ycombinator.lol.
Result (as claimed)
Live site and open source code; 16 points on Show HN.
Tools they used
Cost: Claude Code: free plan, paid from $17/mo. Checked 2026-10-14.
Set it up
Write a one-page brief
Describe the app in plain words: who it is for, the 3 core screens or actions, and what "done" looks like.
Start the project with your agent
Open Claude Code and paste the brief. Ask it to propose a stack and a file plan before writing code.
Build one slice at a time
Ship the smallest working flow first, run it, then add features one by one. Commit after each working step.
Test it like a user
Click through on desktop and phone. Ask the agent to add basic tests and fix anything that breaks.
Check security and ship
Keep keys in environment variables, check auth and database rules, then deploy and share the link.
Copy the full setup prompt
Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code. Goal: Clone Hacker News end to end with long agent sessions What the original author did: A developer spent about four months of near-daily work, with agent handoff notes in the repo, building sharc, a mostly exact clone of Hacker News running at news.ycombinator.lol. Reported result (as claimed by the author): Live site and open source code; 16 points on Show HN. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996495 Tools they used: Claude Code Category: Vibe coding & apps Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Codex. Goal: Clone Hacker News end to end with long agent sessions What the original author did: A developer spent about four months of near-daily work, with agent handoff notes in the repo, building sharc, a mostly exact clone of Hacker News running at news.ycombinator.lol. Reported result (as claimed by the author): Live site and open source code; 16 points on Show HN. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996495 Tools they used: Claude Code Category: Vibe coding & apps Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Grok Bot. Goal: Clone Hacker News end to end with long agent sessions What the original author did: A developer spent about four months of near-daily work, with agent handoff notes in the repo, building sharc, a mostly exact clone of Hacker News running at news.ycombinator.lol. Reported result (as claimed by the author): Live site and open source code; 16 points on Show HN. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49996495 Tools they used: Claude Code Category: Vibe coding & apps Please: 1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like). 2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure. 3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data. 4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.
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