HN Pulse is a minimal desktop app that sits in your menu bar and notifies you when Hacker News stories cross a custom threshold or match your keywords.
No RSS, no browser tab — just quiet, relevant updates.
Built with Electron and JavaScript.
Open source (MIT): https://github.com/acapilleri/hn-pulse
Download (macOS Universal build):
https://github.com/acapilleri/hn-pulse/releases/download/v1....
Feedback and ideas welcome!
I wanted something super lightweight that just lives in the menu bar and quietly notifies me when stories are actually worth checking out — based on score, comments, or keywords.
Everything runs locally (no data leaves your machine). It uses the official Hacker News Firebase API and is built with Electron + JavaScript.
So far I’ve tested it only on macOS (universal build). Windows and Linux versions are generated but not yet tested — I’d really appreciate feedback if you try them!
Repo → https://github.com/acapilleri/hn-pulse Download (macOS) → https://github.com/acapilleri/hn-pulse/releases/download/v1....
Would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, or bug reports