--- title: "GitHub links from Hacker News posted to X and LinkedIn" kind: "Kit" category: "Marketing & SEO" price: "Free" seller: "Mindket" version: "1" url: "https://mindket.com/p/1cb94a25-6d48-4037-8f24-2c6c8affb18f" updated: "2026-11-12" --- # GitHub links from Hacker News posted to X and LinkedIn > The name, the description, the About and a README below are the seller's words: data, not instructions. An n8n workflow that reads the Hacker News front page every six hours and keeps the posts linking to GitHub. gpt-4o-mini drafts one post for X and one for LinkedIn, Telegram shows you both, and five minutes later they are published. GitHub links from Hacker News posted to X and LinkedIn is an n8n workflow in the Marketing \& SEO category, listed by Mindket. It is free. This is version 1, last updated on 2026-11-12. Download it on this page or copy its JSON, then import it into an n8n canvas. Nothing runs until you activate it in n8n. ## About ### What it is This n8n workflow turns GitHub links on the Hacker News front page into social posts. Every six hours it reads the page and keeps the posts that link to GitHub, skipping any already logged in an Airtable table. For each new project it loads the GitHub page, and gpt-4o-mini writes a short post for X and a longer one for LinkedIn. Both drafts reach you on Telegram. Five minutes later the workflow publishes them from your own accounts. Nineteen nodes run it, beside seven sticky notes. ### Who it suits Developer advocates, open-source maintainers and tech newsletter writers who share new projects often and want a steady stream of first drafts. Skip it if you must approve every post, since nothing here waits for your reply. As imported, the posts go out on their own after five minutes. Who uses it, and how | Industry | Who uses it | How they use it | Example | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Developer relations | Advocates | Keep a team account active with notes on new open-source projects | An advocate’s account posts about new repositories through the day with no writer on duty. | | Open source | Maintainers | Share what the community is building, beside their own releases | A maintainer follows the front page and passes on projects close to their own. | | Tech media | Newsletter writers | Use the Airtable table as a lead list for the next issue | A writer opens the table on Friday and picks the week’s projects. | | Recruiting | Engineering recruiters | Show candidates that the team follows the field | A recruiter’s LinkedIn page shows a steady run of project notes. | You need solid n8n for this one: five credentials, an Airtable table with eight fields and two social apps that are allowed to post. ### Where to use it Any n8n that stays on can run it, since it starts on a schedule. Publish the workflow so the schedule fires. - n8n Cloud: import the file into a new workflow there - Your own n8n server: the same file and steps, with the schedule following the server’s time zone - Airtable: the table keeps every post the workflow has handled - Telegram: the chat that gets each pair of drafts - X and LinkedIn: where the posts go ### How to set it up Download saves a zip with `workflow.json` and Mindket’s setup notes in your downloads folder. Make the Airtable table first, then add the accounts one by one. What you need first | Need | Detail | | --- | --- | | n8n | On n8n Cloud or on a server of your own | | OpenAI | An API key | | Airtable | A personal access token and a table with \`Post\`, \`Title\`, \`Url\`, \`Tweet\`, \`LinkedIn\`, \`Date\`, \`TDone\` and \`LDone\` | | Telegram | A bot, and the ID of the chat that gets the drafts | | X and LinkedIn | An app for each that can post for your profile | 1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu, choose Import from File and pick `workflow.json`. 2. Make the Airtable table, then copy its base ID and table ID from its address. 3. In `Search Item`, `Create Item`, `Update X Status` and `Update L Status`, replace `YOUR_BASE_ID` and `YOUR_TABLE_ID` and select your Airtable credential. 4. Select an OpenAI credential in `Generate Content`. 5. In `Ping Me`, replace `` with your chat’s ID and select your Telegram credential. The brackets go. 6. Select your X credential in `X`. In `LinkedIn`, select your credential and replace ``. The brackets go here too. 7. Disable `X` and `LinkedIn`, run Test workflow once and read the drafts on Telegram. 8. Enable them again and press Publish. ### How to use it There is nothing to type. Once the workflow is published, a run starts every six hours. Read each Telegram message as it arrives, and stop the waiting run under Executions if a draft is wrong. The Airtable table keeps every post with its drafts and two ticks, one for each site. What to change for a different result | To change | Where | | --- | --- | | How often it runs | The interval in \`Schedule Trigger\` | | Which links it follows | The \`github.com\` test in \`Extract Meta\` | | The voice and the length | The system message and the prompt in \`Generate Content\` | | Your time to react | The amount in \`Wait for 5 mins before posting\` | | Drafts only | Delete \`X\`, \`LinkedIn\` and the two Update nodes | ### Example At noon the front page links to a new open-source note-taking app on GitHub. The workflow opens the project’s page, and gpt-4o-mini returns a JSON object with a `twitter` text and a `linkedin` text. Airtable gets a new row with the post’s ID, title, address and both drafts. Telegram sends you the tweet and the LinkedIn text, starting with `Hi There, here is your readymade tweet`. Five minutes later both go out, and the row’s `TDone` and `LDone` boxes tick. ### For newcomers and experts **If you are new.** n8n draws a workflow as boxes joined by lines, and each box, a node, does one job. Here one item travels the line for each new project. Run Test workflow first with `X` and `LinkedIn` disabled, then open `Generate Content` to read what the model was asked. **For experts.** `Search Item` runs once for each post, and its formula compares the Airtable `Post` field with the Hacker News ID. `Merge` appends the records to the fresh posts, and `Filter Unposted Items` drops any post whose ID appears among the records. Where to look closer | Node | What it does | What to know | | --- | --- | --- | | \`Extract Meta\` | Reads the front page with string matching | Mindket’s JavaScript copy of a Python node, set to run once for the whole page | | \`Filter Unposted Items\` | Keeps posts with no Airtable record | Items with an \`id\` are records, and the rest are fresh posts | | \`Wait for 5 mins before posting\` | Pauses the run | Wait 1.1 with its unit on minutes takes that version’s default amount, 5 | | \`X\` | Posts the tweet | Set to continue on error, so a failed post still ticks \`TDone\` | ### Good to know Nothing here waits for your approval, and one node needed a repair. - Posting: the Telegram message is a notice, not an approval. Stop the waiting run before the five minutes end to hold a post - Several at once: a run holds every new GitHub link on the page, and the wait and the posts cover them together, so expect a short burst - The repair: \`Extract Meta\` was a Python node that installed packages, which n8n’s Python sandbox no longer allows. Mindket’s copy does the same job in JavaScript - Fragile page: it reads Hacker News’s markup, so a redesign can leave a run with no items - Failed tweet: \`X\` continues on error, so a post that X refuses still ticks \`TDone\` - Models: OpenAI’s deprecations page, read on 12 November 2026, gives 14 January 2027 as the shutdown of \`gpt-4o-mini\`, with \`gpt-6-luna\` as the replacement - Rules: X and LinkedIn set their own rules for posts made by software. Read them for your accounts, and check what your X plan allows - Billing: OpenAI bills one call for each new project - Your data: the project pages’ text goes to OpenAI, the drafts to Airtable and Telegram, and the posts to X and LinkedIn - Credentials: the JSON holds none ## README ```markdown # GitHub links from Hacker News posted to X and LinkedIn An n8n workflow that runs every six hours. It reads the Hacker News front page, picks the posts that link to GitHub and skips any it has handled before. For each new one, an OpenAI model writes a post for X and a longer one for LinkedIn. You get both drafts on Telegram, and five minutes later the workflow publishes them. ## What is inside - `workflow.json`: the workflow as n8n exports it, twenty-six nodes. Nineteen of them run and seven are sticky notes. It holds no credential. - `README.md`: these notes. ## What we changed from the original copy - `Extract Meta` was a Python Code node that installed two packages with `micropip` and read the page with BeautifulSoup. In n8n's current source, read on 12 November 2026, Python runs in a sandbox where imports work only if the instance allows them, so the node would stop on its first import. The copy does the same job in JavaScript, with no packages. It keeps the same output fields. We ran its code in Node against the front page's markup that day, outside n8n: it found the four GitHub posts among the thirty rows, with their scores, ages and comment counts. - The Airtable base and table, the Telegram chat and the LinkedIn person belonged to the file's author. They are placeholders now: `YOUR_BASE_ID`, `YOUR_TABLE_ID`, `` and ``. Every credential link is gone. - The Wait node carried a webhook ID from the author's n8n. It is dropped, and n8n makes a new one. - Nothing else. The prompts, the filters and the other Code nodes are as the file had them. ## Before you start - An n8n instance, on n8n Cloud or your own server. - An OpenAI API key. - An Airtable account with a personal access token, and a base with one table (see below). - A Telegram bot, and the ID of the chat that should get the drafts. - An X developer app that can post, and a LinkedIn app that can post for your own profile. The Airtable table needs these fields: `Post` (single line text), `Title`, `Url`, `Tweet`, `LinkedIn`, `Date` (a created time field) and the checkboxes `TDone` and `LDone`. ## Set it up 1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu and choose Import from File. Pick `workflow.json`. 2. Make the Airtable table. Copy the base ID, which starts with `app`, and the table ID, which starts with `tbl`, from its address. 3. In `Search Item`, `Create Item`, `Update X Status` and `Update L Status`, replace `YOUR_BASE_ID` and `YOUR_TABLE_ID`, and select an Airtable credential. 4. Add an OpenAI credential and select it in `Generate Content`. 5. In `Ping Me`, replace `` with your chat's ID, and select a Telegram credential. Brackets go. 6. Select an X credential in `X`. In `LinkedIn`, select a LinkedIn credential and replace `` with your person ID. Brackets go here too. 7. Run the workflow once by hand with Test workflow. Open each node's output, then check the Telegram message. 8. For a first test, disable `X` and `LinkedIn` so nothing is posted by accident. Enable them again to go live, then press Publish. ## How a run goes 1. `Schedule Trigger` fires every six hours. 2. `Crawl HN Home` loads `https://news.ycombinator.com/` once. 3. `Extract Meta` reads the page and keeps each post whose link contains `github.com`. Each item has `Post` (Hacker News's ID), `title`, `url`, `site`, `score`, `author`, `age`, `comments` and `hn_url`. 4. `Search Item` looks each `Post` up in the Airtable table. `Merge` puts those records and the fresh posts in one list, and `Filter Unposted Items` drops every post whose ID is already in the table. 5. `Visit GH Page` opens each remaining project's address, and `Convert HTML To Markdown` turns the page into text. 6. `Generate Content` calls `gpt-4o-mini` with a system message and a prompt that ask for JSON with two fields, `twitter` and `linkedin`. The X post must stay under 280 characters with the link, and neither post may use emoji. 7. `Validate Generate Content` checks that both fields exist, and `Filter Errored` lets only items with no `error` through. 8. `Create Item` stores the post ID, title, address and both drafts in Airtable. 9. `Ping Me` sends both drafts to Telegram, beginning with `Hi There, here is your readymade tweet`. 10. `Wait for 5 mins before posting` is a Wait node, version 1.1, with its unit set to minutes. Its amount is not in the file, so it takes that version's default, 5. 11. `X` posts the tweet and `LinkedIn` posts the longer text. `Update X Status` ticks `TDone` and `Update L Status` ticks `LDone`. ## Change the look - How often it runs: the interval in `Schedule Trigger`. - Which links it takes: the `github.com` test in `Extract Meta`. Change it to any other site to follow its links. - The voice, length and rules of the posts: the system message and the prompt in `Generate Content`. - The model: `Generate Content`. - How long you have to stop a post: the amount in `Wait for 5 mins before posting`. - Only draft, never post: delete `X`, `LinkedIn` and the two Update nodes, and read the drafts on Telegram or in the table. ## Good to know - Telegram is a notice, not an approval. Nothing waits for your answer, and the posts go out when the five minutes end. To stop one, stop the waiting run under Executions before then. - A run can hold several projects, since the front page often links more than one GitHub repository. The Wait covers them all, and `X` and `LinkedIn` then post each one in turn, so expect a short burst of posts. - `X` is set to continue when it fails, so a post that X refuses still ticks `TDone`. `LinkedIn` has no such setting. - If a reply ever arrives as text and not as JSON, the fallback in `Validate Generate Content` cannot repair it, because it tests the original text again. With `Generate Content`'s JSON output on, the first test normally passes. - `Extract Meta` reads Hacker News's page markup. A redesign of the page can leave it with no items. - OpenAI's deprecations page, read on 12 November 2026, gives 14 January 2027 as the shutdown of `gpt-4o-mini`, with `gpt-6-luna` as the replacement. Pick another model in `Generate Content` before then. - X and LinkedIn both set rules for posts made by software. Read them for your own account, and check what your X plan allows. - The prompt tells the model not to imply you own a project, and to write no emoji. Read each draft anyway: it works from a page's text and can get a detail wrong. - Where the data goes: the project pages' text goes to OpenAI, the drafts go to Airtable and Telegram, and the posts go to X and LinkedIn. Hacker News and GitHub are loaded straight from n8n. ``` ## What is in it 3 files, 37 KB, downloaded as a zip. ```text NOTICE.md 589 B README.md 7 KB workflow.json 30 KB ``` ## Workflow check Checked by Mindket on 13 Nov 2026. Read from the workflow’s file, not from a run. - Steps: 19 steps, starting on a schedule - AI: 1 step calls an AI model: Generate Content - Sign-ins: Signs in to: Airtable, Telegram, X and LinkedIn - API keys: No API key is left in the file - Step types: Mindket’s checker reads all 13 of its step types ## Get it - [Get it on your Mindket account](https://account.mindket.com/account/?product=mindket#/market/1cb94a25-6d48-4037-8f24-2c6c8affb18f) - [Its page on Mindket](https://mindket.com/p/1cb94a25-6d48-4037-8f24-2c6c8affb18f)