HackerTube: Karpathy had Claude build his own YouTube from Hacker News
Reel 50 · explainer · November 3, 2026
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HackerTube is a weekend hack by Andrej Karpathy, posted on Oct 31, 2026. It's free and needs no login: hackertube.org. The numbers and quotes below are from his post on X, his blog and the site's data page.
The explainer · 6 parts
- 01
A YouTube picked by Hacker News, not by the algorithm
In Karpathy's words: "I was annoyed with YouTube's recommendations so I had Claude filter down 43M comments over 20 years of HN to 6,454 videos that keep being recommended."
Every video on the site is there because people on Hacker News kept recommending it in their comments. Run the filter on six real rows from the data.
43,000,000Hacker News comments, 20 years“Simple answer: The math says so”“I thought this video had a good example.”“this bears watching again...”“His Ted talk is a good starting point.”“Here's a good video that gives a run down”“I found these videos quite entertaining”Six real rows from HackerTube's data: a Hacker News comment that recommends a video, and the video. Karpathy had Claude filter 43M comments over 20 years down to the 6,454 videos people keep recommending. - 02
No login, and your history stays in your browser
There's no account. What you watch is remembered by your own browser, not by a server, and the recommendations still work.
hackertube.org · no sign-inHistory · in this browserEmpty. Tap a video on the left.
Accounts on the server: noneIn Karpathy's words: “Excellent recs without any logins (state is kept in local browser session).” Clear your browser and the history is gone. - 03
Thumbnails from the middle of the video
YouTube shows the picture the uploader chose, often tested to get the most clicks. HackerTube shows a frame from the middle of the video instead, so you see what the video actually looks like.
Karpathy: the thumbnail is “a representative frame from middle of the video instead of the super duper A/B test hyper-optimized user uploads.” Drawn here; no real video is shown. - 04
About two hours with Opus 5.5, three things by hand
Karpathy says it took about two hours with Opus 5.5. The only manual work was in the browser: an API key from Google Cloud (for YouTube's video metadata), a VPS to serve it, and the domain name.
Then he gave Claude the server and told it to update, secure, harden, deploy and optimize the code.
~0:00hours, with Opus 5.5- ClaudeBuild the site and the comment pipeline
- by handCreate an API key in the Google Cloud UI (YouTube metadata)
- by handBoot a VPS box for serving
- by handBuy the domain name
- ClaudeUpdate, secure, harden, deploy and optimize
by hand: 3 · Claude: everything elseFrom Karpathy's post. The three manual steps were browser work he did in tandem; then he gave Claude the server's IP and told it to “update, secure, harden, deploy and optimize the code, and it did the whole thing.” The order of the rows is approximate. - 05
Within two days, people copied it
HackerTube went to #1 on Hacker News. The next day HackerBooks did the same for books mentioned on HN, and on Nov 2 came Wikihack (Wikipedia articles) and HackerHack (HN posts).
1785 points by roanshPoints as shown on the HN front pages of Oct 31, Nov 1 and Nov 2, 2026 (captured Nov 3). HackerHack copies HackerBooks, the copy of HackerTube. - 06
Build your own from the data
The data behind the site is one free zip on hackertube.org/data: 6,454 videos and 39,834 labeled Hacker News comments, exported on Oct 31, 2026.
Karpathy's suggestion: point your Claude at it and ask for your own version. DATA.md in the zip starts with a section for AI agents.
▼ hackertube-data.zip 17.8 MBDATA.md
Starts with "For AI agents: start here". Explains the files. License: ODC-By v1.0.your ClaudeWaiting for the zip.The seven files in the zip on hackertube.org/data: “Everything behind HackerTube, free to reuse. Give it to your AI agent and build your own.” Only DATA.md, the videos and the comments are described here; the rest is explained in DATA.md.
Good to know
- DATA.md says each comment was read by Claude Sonnet 5.5, and the whole pipeline was built and coordinated by Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code, prompted by @karpathy. The data is under the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) v1.0.
- Sources: Karpathy on X, Nov 1, 2026 · his blog post · hackertube.org/data · the HN thread · the HN front pages of Oct 31 to Nov 2
- An explainer by @copilot_shogo. Not affiliated with Karpathy or HackerTube.
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