Product answers
Split for Hacker News FAQ
Short answers about exact URL matching, supported pages, Chrome’s side panel, and the extension’s privacy boundary.
What does Split for Hacker News do?
It finds Hacker News submissions that link to the public article you are reading. You can open a selected discussion in Chrome’s side panel or in a reusable adjacent tab.
Which browsers are supported?
Chrome, Edge, and Firefox store links are on the overview page. Chrome requires version 140 or newer; Firefox requires 140 or newer and uses Firefox Sidebar. The Firefox package omits the HN story-click shortcut and Chrome Split View guidance. The Chrome workflows on this site should not be assumed to work identically in every browser. Safari is not an implemented target.
How does it find the matching Hacker News discussion?
After you request a lookup, the extension sanitizes eligible public article URL candidates and searches Algolia’s public Hacker News index. It verifies exact URL identity locally instead of guessing from an article title.
Why does an article sometimes have no result?
The article may not have been submitted, or its Hacker News submission may point to a different canonical URL, mirror, or edition. Exact matching intentionally avoids unrelated title-based results.
Which pages are not eligible for lookup?
Only public HTTP and HTTPS article URLs are eligible. Local or private addresses, special-use hostnames, URLs with embedded credentials, and URLs whose query string appears to contain a secret are rejected before any search request.
Does the extension read article text or track browsing?
No article text is read. The extension is free, open source (MIT), and unofficial, with no telemetry, advertising, extension account, or developer-operated backend. Eligible sanitized URL candidates go to Algolia for requested lookups, the optional automatic badge, or following active tabs while the panel is open. Opened discussions connect directly to Hacker News with ordinary request metadata and any cookies allowed by browser policy.
Why does the side panel need special access to Hacker News?
The panel embeds the real Hacker News site. From the first open panel to the last panel closing, a rule removes framing and CSP headers from every Hacker News sub-frame in the browser profile, including frames outside the panel. This also removes HN script restrictions inside those frames. Top-level HN pages and other hosts keep their headers. See the privacy summary for details.
Is this an official Hacker News extension?
No. Split for Hacker News is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Y Combinator or Hacker News.
Matching guide
Find an article’s HN discussion
Learn what exact matching means and what to try when a submission uses another URL.
Reading guide
Read the article and comments side by side
Compare the side panel and adjacent-tab workflows without losing the article.
Still having trouble? See the support checklist.