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A developer has launched HackerTube, a YouTube-style site populated with videos recommended in Hacker News comments. The creator says it draws on 40,000 comments and includes 6,454 videos across 150 topics; details such as audience size and how recommendations perform are not provided.
Developer Andrej Karpathy says he has launched HackerTube, a YouTube-style video discovery site assembled from recommendations in Hacker News comments. The site’s collection contains 6,454 videos across 150 topics, based on his account, offering a community-curated alternative to YouTube’s usual recommendation feed.
In a post dated October 31, 2026, Karpathy said the project began after he found YouTube’s recommendations unhelpful. He described its thumbnails as exaggerated and said it repeatedly surfaced familiar topics. Those comments are his assessment of his own experience, not an independent evaluation of YouTube’s recommendation system.
Karpathy said the site was built by collecting Hacker News comments, filtering them for references to recommended videos, and using an AI-assisted workflow to remove spam. He reported that this process narrowed the material to 40,000 comments recommending a YouTube video, spanning 2007 to 2026. The comments yielded the 6,454-video catalog and 150 topic groupings.
The resulting site uses a YouTube-like interface, according to Karpathy. He described features including custom recommendations without user accounts, browser-session storage for state, keyboard shortcuts and an option to export the site’s data. He also said it uses a video’s “50% thumbnail” rather than the thumbnail uploaded for it. The post does not explain how that image is selected or how the recommendation logic ranks videos.
A Different Route to Video Discovery
HackerTube’s central idea is to make recommendations in public discussion threads searchable as a video library. Instead of relying on an individual viewing history or account, the site draws from links shared by Hacker News commenters over many years. That gives readers another way to find videos that people in a technology-focused online community chose to recommend.
The project also illustrates how a small, specialized collection can be turned into a browsable service with help from AI coding tools. Karpathy said he delegated much of the implementation and deployment to Claude Code. His account is a description of one project, however, not evidence that comparable work will take the same time or require the same level of human involvement in other cases.
For viewers, the practical value will depend on whether the catalog’s topics and recommendations suit their interests. Hacker News commenters are a particular community, so their choices should not be treated as a representative sample of video preferences generally. The site is best understood as a distinct curation source, not a demonstrated replacement for YouTube or a proven improvement in recommendation quality.
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From HN Comments to Video Catalog
Hacker News is a discussion forum where users share links and comment on technology and other subjects. Karpathy’s project uses those discussions as its source material: rather than asking viewers to build a new watch history, it searches for comments that recommend YouTube videos. The reported collection covers nearly two decades, from 2007 through 2026.
In his account, Karpathy credited Claude Code, using Opus 5.5 and Sonnet in a workflow, with handling much of the data processing and site construction. He said his own tasks included creating a Google Cloud API key to retrieve YouTube video metadata, starting a virtual private server and buying the domain. He then gave the system the server’s IP address and asked it to update, deploy, secure and optimize the code.
Karpathy characterized the overall effort as taking about two hours. That timing is his estimate for this particular build, as described in his post. The project’s source, filtering choices and development process have not been independently reviewed in the material available here.
How the Recommendations Are Built
The available description does not provide an independent audit of the 40,000-comment dataset, the filtering process or the resulting list of 6,454 videos. It is not clear how the system handles duplicate links, deleted or unavailable videos, ambiguous recommendations, or comments that mention a video without endorsing it. The creator says spam was removed but does not give a measured error rate or explain the criteria in detail.
Karpathy does not report traffic, user numbers, audience feedback or comparisons with YouTube’s recommendations. The exact ranking method behind HackerTube’s “ForYou” suggestions is also not described. It remains unclear how the site will be maintained, whether its collection will be updated regularly, and what safeguards or data policies apply beyond the creator’s statement that it does not use user accounts and stores state in the browser session.
Site Use and Future Updates
Karpathy’s post describes HackerTube as a deployed site and says its data can be exported for people who want to create their own version. He did not announce a schedule for updates, a plan to add videos or topics, or a next development milestone. Those details may become clearer through later changes to the site or statements from its creator.
Readers interested in the project can assess its usefulness by trying the available catalog and checking how topics, videos and recommendations are presented. Until more information is published, the reported collection size and build process should be treated as the creator’s account, while the site’s reach and the quality of its recommendations remain unreported.
Key Questions
What is HackerTube?
HackerTube is a YouTube-style video discovery site that Karpathy says is built around videos recommended in Hacker News comments.
How many videos does it include?
Karpathy reports a collection of 6,454 videos across 150 topics, drawn from recommendations spanning 2007 to 2026.
Does HackerTube require an account?
Karpathy says its recommendations work without user accounts and that state is stored in the local browser session. The post does not provide a fuller account of the site’s data practices.
How was the site made?
Karpathy says Claude Code handled much of the comment filtering, site creation and deployment. He reports that he created a Google Cloud API key, set up a server and bought the domain, and estimated the project took about two hours.
Has HackerTube been shown to recommend better videos than YouTube?
No comparison or user study is included in the source material. Karpathy said YouTube’s recommendations did not suit him, but the quality of HackerTube’s recommendations has not been independently measured.
Source: karpathy.bearblog.dev
