Show HN title checker
Check your Show HN title against the Hacker News guidelines before you post it. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
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Type a title to check it.
The rules
How to write a Show HN title
Use the Show HN prefix
Show HN posts start with "Show HN: ". It files the post in the Show HN list, where people go specifically to try new things.
Say what it is, plainly
The usual shape is the name, a dash and a few words on what it does. Readers decide whether to click from that line alone.
Do not sell it in the title
The Hacker News guidelines ask titles not to say how great something is. Superlatives, capitals and exclamation marks read as marketing and cost you clicks.
Stay under 80 characters
Hacker News limits titles to 80 characters. If yours is longer, the description is doing too much; move the detail into your first comment.
Examples
Show HN titles that did well this year
The highest-scoring Show HN posts of the last twelve months, from the public Hacker News search API.
- Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now3,346 points
- Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s2,935 points
- Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations2,391 points
- Show HN: Elevators1,680 points
- Show HN: Jmail – Google Suite for Epstein files1,557 points
- Show HN: Homebrew 6.0.01,481 points
- Show HN: isometric.nyc – giant isometric pixel art map of NYC1,325 points
- Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter1,278 points
- Show HN: Performative-UI – A react component library of design tropes1,181 points
- Show HN: 18 Words1,160 points
FAQ
Questions about Show HN titles
What makes a good Show HN title?
A good Show HN title names the project and says what it does in plain words, such as "Show HN: Toolname – a CLI that diffs two Postgres databases". It is specific about the problem, free of hype, and under 80 characters.
What are the Show HN rules?
Show HN is for something you made that other people can try. A waitlist, a signup wall, a blog post or a fundraising announcement does not qualify. Read the official Show HN guidelines on Hacker News before posting; they are short and enforced.
Does this tool check everything moderators look at?
No. It checks the parts of a title that can be checked mechanically. Whether the post is a real Show HN, whether people can try it and whether the first comment is honest still depend on you.
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