I've analyzed dozens of successful Show HN launches for dev tools. Here's what separates front-page results from buried submissions — no fluff, just the mechanics that move the needle.
1. Timing Is the Whole Game
HN's ranking formula: upvotes / (age_in_hours + 2)^1.8
First 2 hours determine everything. Post at the wrong time and even a great product dies.
Post window: Tuesday–Thursday, 9:00–11:00 AM ET.
This catches peak East Coast traffic plus late EU readers. Never post Friday afternoon, Monday morning, or weekends.
Tuesday 9:00 AM ET is the target. Set a calendar event.
2. Your Title Has One Job
Hard constraints:
- Max 80 characters (HN enforces this — hard truncation, not a suggestion)
- Must start with
Show HN: - Format:
Show HN: [Product] – [specific use-case]
What works:
Show HN: Whoff Agents – self-hosted multi-agent Claude Code orchestration
- 72 chars ✅
- States the use-case, not marketing language
- No exclamation points, no ALL CAPS
What kills titles:
- Vague:
Show HN: My new AI tool❌ - Hype:
Show HN: The future of coding❌ - Marketing:
Show HN: Supercharge your workflow❌ - Too long (truncated = looks broken) ❌
Specific verbs win: "self-hosted", "tmux-based", "orchestration". Concrete audience wins: "for Claude Code users".
3. The Founder Comment — Write It By Hand
This is the most important thing in this post: do not use AI to write your founder comment.
HN readers are engineers. They detect AI prose and they downvote it — not because of politics, but because it signals you're not actually engaged with your own community.
Write 150–250 words. Use this structure:
I built [X] because [genuine personal pain point].
What it does: [2-3 sentences, plain English]
How it works: [1-2 technical sentences — HN rewards this]
What's free / what's paid: [direct, no upsell language]
Known limitations: [shows self-awareness — builds trust]
Would love feedback on [specific question].
Post this as your first comment immediately after submitting.
4. The Flag Triggers (Avoid These at All Costs)
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Asking network to upvote | Account ban |
| "Go vote for my post" in any channel | Flagged immediately |
| Reposting same URL | Auto-flagged |
| Landing page only, no working product | Community flags |
| AI-generated founder comment | Downvote spiral |
| Marketing language ("10x", "game-changer") | Community flags |
| Links in early comments | Flagged as spam |
| Fake praise from friends | Permaban risk |
What's safe:
- ✅ "Leave a genuine comment if you've used it"
- ✅ "Share your honest experience with [problem domain]"
- ❌ Never say "upvote" — not even in private DMs
5. The First 60 Minutes Are Critical
Before you post:
- Pre-write the founder comment
- Have 3–5 HN-active people ready to drop genuine comments in the first 30 min
- Product must be fully stable — HN will stress-test it
After you post:
- Paste founder comment as first reply
- Monitor every 10 minutes
- Reply to every comment, even short ones
- Engage criticism first — the audience watches how you handle it
Handling criticism:
- Find something to agree with: "You're right that X is a real concern"
- Add context: "We handle that by Y"
- Don't argue — you won't win the critic, but you win the audience
- Never be defensive about pricing
Handling "why not just use X":
- Acknowledge X exists
- State one concrete difference without disparaging X
- Offer to elaborate if they're curious
Hours 2–6: Keep replying. Engagement re-ignites algo ranking. If the post stalls, drop a substantive follow-up comment (new data, edge case, unexpected finding). Do not bump or repost.
6. What to Expect
| Outcome | Condition |
|---|---|
| Front page (top 30) | Strong product + 20+ votes in first 2hr |
| Show HN page only | Good product, less network seeding |
| Buried | Off-hours post OR flagged |
| Banned | Vote manipulation |
Front page Show HN for a dev tool = ~500–2,000 site visits in 24 hours. Not huge numbers, but extremely high-intent readers.
7. Post-Launch
- Screenshot your ranking and comment thread (proof for Product Hunt, newsletter, socials)
- Save top HN comments — they're gold for copy improvements and FAQ additions
- Follow up with anyone who left detailed feedback
- Do not repost — you get one shot per URL on HN
The Short Version
- Tuesday 9 AM ET
- Specific title under 80 chars
- Write the founder comment yourself
- Reply to everything in the first hour
- Never ask for upvotes
That's it. The rest is just having a product worth showing.
We're launching Whoff Agents — a multi-agent Claude Code orchestration system — on Show HN soon. This post is a public commitment to execute correctly.
