TL;DR
Get business pricing on tech for your team
- Business-only prices and quantity discounts
- Tax-exempt purchasing
- Multiple users, one account, clear invoices
A developer identified as karpathy says they built HackerTube, a YouTube-style site based on videos recommended in Hacker News comments. The project’s author reports a catalog of 6,454 videos drawn from 40,000 recommendation comments posted between 2007 and 2026; the figures and site features come from the author’s account.
A developer posting as karpathy has published HackerTube, a YouTube-style site that organizes videos recommended in Hacker News comments, offering an alternative catalog to YouTube’s usual recommendation feed. The author says the site draws on 6,454 videos identified from 40,000 comments posted between 2007 and 2026, grouped across 150 topics.
In a post dated October 31, 2026, the developer said the project began after they found YouTube’s recommendations unhelpful. They described asking an AI coding tool, which they identified as Opus 5.5, to help build a clone using videos recommended on Hacker News. That account is the author’s description of the development process, not an independently verified audit of the site or its data.
According to the post, the workflow collected Hacker News comments, filtered them, and used another model, identified as Sonnet, to help remove spam and lower-quality material. The resulting set, the author said, comprised 40,000 comments recommending YouTube videos and 6,454 distinct videos. The post says the recommendations span 150 topics and cover comments dating from 2007 through 2026.
The author describes HackerTube as using a YouTube-like interface, custom “For You” recommendations that require no user account, and browsing state kept in the local browser session. They also say it uses a frame from roughly the middle of a video rather than the creator-uploaded thumbnail, supports keyboard shortcuts, and lets visitors export the site’s data for use with their own AI agent. The source post does not give independent usage figures or describe a formal evaluation of the catalog.
A Different Route to Video Discovery
HackerTube’s stated premise is that community recommendations can serve as a different starting point for discovering online video than a platform’s personalized feed. Rather than relying on an individual viewing history, the project draws on links people shared in Hacker News discussions over many years. That makes the catalog a record of what members of that community chose to recommend, not a representative sample of YouTube or all viewers’ preferences.
The project also illustrates how an AI-assisted workflow can be used to assemble a small, specialized discovery product from an existing archive of public discussion. Its claimed no-account design and local-session state may appeal to people who want to browse without creating a profile, while exportable data allows others to reuse the collection. Those are features described by the developer; their performance, privacy properties, and usefulness have not been independently assessed in the supplied material.
For readers, the practical question is whether HackerTube offers a worthwhile catalog and a usable way to explore it. The available source establishes what its creator says was built, but not how often the recommendations lead to useful viewing, how the ranking works, or whether the site will remain available and maintained.
Products Worth Considering
Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen), Wireless Noise-Cancelling Over-Ear Headphones, Black
Logitech MX Keys S Wireless Keyboard, Graphite
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones with Spatial Audio, Black
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From Hacker News Comments to Catalog
Hacker News is a discussion site where users share links and comment on technology, science, business, and other subjects. A video recommendation in a comment is a user contribution, rather than an endorsement by the site itself. HackerTube’s source material describes using those comments as raw inputs and says automated filtering narrowed them to comments that recommended a YouTube video.
The author’s post places the project’s development over a short period: after deciding on Friday night that YouTube’s recommendations were not working for them, they said they built the site the next morning and finished in about two hours. The post credits AI tools with helping process comments and construct the site, and says it was deployed to a virtual private server under the HackerTube domain. No separate reporting or technical documentation was provided to verify the timeline or implementation details.
“Let’s write our own YouTube clone based on whatever videos have been recommended on Hacker News.”
— Karpathy, HackerTube’s author
Catalog Quality and Ranking Details
The supplied account does not explain the criteria used to identify a comment as a recommendation, how duplicate links or deleted videos were handled, or how the 150 topics were assigned. It also does not provide a breakdown by topic, publication date, video availability, or the number of recommendations per video. The reported totals should therefore be understood as figures from the developer, rather than independently confirmed measurements.
It is also unclear how HackerTube generates its “For You” suggestions without an account, what information it uses during a session, or whether any data is sent to the site’s server. The author says state stays in the local browser session, but the source provides no privacy policy, technical explanation, or independent security review. No information is provided about traffic, user feedback, long-term maintenance, or the terms governing reuse of the exported data.
Availability and Further Verification
The author’s October 31 post presents HackerTube as deployed and available at hackertube.org. The source does not announce a launch schedule, roadmap, or planned updates, so there is no stated next milestone beyond people being able to visit and browse the project.
Further clarity would depend on the site or its author publishing details about the collection and filtering process, recommendation logic, privacy practices, and ongoing upkeep. Until then, the catalog’s size and features remain the creator’s reported specifications, and the project’s reach and reception are not established by the available material.
Key Questions
What is HackerTube?
HackerTube is a YouTube-style site that its creator says organizes videos recommended in Hacker News comments.
How many videos does it include?
The creator reports a catalog of 6,454 videos, identified from 40,000 recommendation comments dated from 2007 to 2026 and grouped across 150 topics. Those figures have not been independently verified in the supplied source.
Does HackerTube require an account?
The author says its custom recommendations work without user accounts and that browsing state is kept in the local browser session. The source does not provide a technical explanation or independent privacy review.
How was the site made?
The author says AI tools helped filter Hacker News comments and build the site, which they said took about two hours. This is the developer’s account; no independent examination of the workflow was provided.
Source: karpathy.bearblog.dev
