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wtf is hn-time-capsule?

karpathy/hn-time-capsule — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-17 · repo last pushed 2025-12-10

★ 649PythonAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5QuietSetup · moderate

TL;DR

hn-time-capsule pulls a Hacker News front page from exactly ten years ago and uses AI to grade which commenters' predictions turned out right or hilariously wrong, producing an HTML report.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Fetch old HN page
      AI grades comments
      Outputs HTML report
    Tech stack
      Python script
      OpenAI GPT model
      Local file output
    Use cases
      Grade old predictions
      Find prescient voices
      Explore tech history
    Tradeoffs
      Costs API money
      Vibe coded quickly
      Runs in stages

Code map

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Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Generate a report grading how accurate Hacker News commenters' predictions were exactly ten years ago

REASON 2

Discover which voices reliably predicted trends in mobile, cloud, or crypto a decade before they happened

REASON 3

Run the tool on a specific historical date to explore tech discourse and hindsight together

REASON 4

Test the pipeline cheaply on a handful of articles before running a full-cost analysis

What's in the stack?

PythonOpenAI API

How it stacks up

karpathy/hn-time-capsulesophomoresty/gemini-web2apibakrianoo/mini-rag
Stars649645639
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Last pushed2025-12-10——
MaintenanceQuiet——
Setup difficultymoderateeasymoderate
Complexity2/52/53/5
Audiencegeneraldeveloperpm founder

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires an OpenAI API key, running the full analysis on many articles costs real money.

License terms are not described in the explanation, check the repository directly before use.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
Run this project for a Hacker News front page from exactly ten years ago and show me the top graded predictions.
Prompt 2
Show me how to limit this tool to just a few articles so I can test it cheaply before running the full analysis.
Prompt 3
Explain how the AI grading prompt in this repo compares historical comments to what actually happened.
Prompt 4
Help me swap the OpenAI model used in this repo for a cheaper option to reduce API costs.
Prompt 5
Walk me through the folder structure this repo creates so I can find the raw data, prompts, and final grades for a given date.

Frequently asked questions

wtf is hn-time-capsule?

hn-time-capsule pulls a Hacker News front page from exactly ten years ago and uses AI to grade which commenters' predictions turned out right or hilariously wrong, producing an HTML report.

What language is hn-time-capsule written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, OpenAI API.

Is hn-time-capsule actively maintained?

Quiet — no commits in 6-12 months (last push 2025-12-10).

What license does hn-time-capsule use?

License terms are not described in the explanation, check the repository directly before use.

How hard is hn-time-capsule to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is hn-time-capsule for?

Mainly general.

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