HN Summary

See what a Hacker News link says before you click. Short or long summaries, free and private on your computer.

See what a Hacker News link says before you open it. HN Summary adds (+) and (++) next to each story. Click one, and a summary opens under the story. Summaries are free and private on most new computers with Chrome. You do not need an account, a key, or a server. HOW TO USE 1. Install HN Summary. A welcome page opens. 2. Click "Download now" one time. Chrome gets its on-device AI model. Or, if your computer cannot run it: select OpenRouter and click "Connect OpenRouter". Log in and allow access. 3. Open Hacker News and click (+) or (++) next to a story. WHAT YOU GET • (+) gives a short summary of 2 or 3 sentences. • (++) gives one sentence of overview, then the main points as a list. • The summary opens under the story. You stay on the page. • Click (-) or (--) to close the summary. • For "Ask HN" and other text posts, you get a summary of the discussion. • Each summary is kept on your computer. When you open it again, it shows immediately. WHY IT ASKS TO READ ALL SITES When you install it, Chrome says that the extension can "read and change all your data on all websites". The extension needs this because a story can link to any website. It uses this permission only when you click (+) or (++). Then it downloads that one page, without your cookies. It changes only the Hacker News pages, to add the buttons and the summaries. It does not read or change the other pages that you visit. It does not open links to local network addresses. WHAT YOU NEED For the free on-device AI: Chrome 138 or newer on Windows 10 or 11, macOS 13 or newer, Linux, or a Chromebook Plus. You also need 22 GB of free disk space, and a GPU with more than 4 GB of memory (or 16 GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores). It does not work on phones. If your computer cannot do this, use OpenRouter. OPENROUTER (OPTIONAL) OpenRouter gives you many AI models. The summaries are often better. You pay OpenRouter for what you use. • Click "Connect OpenRouter", log in, and allow access. You do not copy a key. The extension gets its own key, named "HN Summary". You can see or delete it at https://openrouter.ai/settings/keys • Or paste a key from https://openrouter.ai/keys • Then select a model from the list. PRIVACY • No analytics or tracking. No server. We do not sell data. • With on-device summaries (the default), the article text stays on your computer. • OpenRouter is optional. If you select it, the article text and your OpenRouter key go only to OpenRouter. • The extension keeps your settings, your OpenRouter key and your past summaries on your computer only. • The source code is public: https://github.com/gianluca-venturini/digestivo • Privacy policy: https://github.com/gianluca-venturini/digestivo/blob/main/PRIVACY.md HN Summary is not affiliated with Y Combinator or Hacker News. Gemini is a trademark of Google LLC. Other names are trademarks of their owners.