/** * Stack Overflow question reader. * * Hits the public Stack Exchange API: * GET /questions/{id}?site=stackoverflow&filter=withbody * GET /questions/{id}/answers?site=stackoverflow&filter=withbody * GET /questions/{id}/comments?site=stackoverflow&filter=withbody * GET /answers/{a1;a2;...}/comments?site=stackoverflow&filter=withbody * * Three calls are needed because comments under answers are not bundled in * the answers payload. We batch all answer-comment fetches into a single * semicolon-joined call. SO has its own quota (300/day for unauthenticated * IP), but a `read` consumes at most 4 quota units, or 5 when the accepted * answer is missing from the requested answer page and must be fetched by id. * * Output rows mirror `hackernews read` and `lobsters read`: * - first row is the question itself (`type=POST`) * - one row per top-level question comment (`type=Q-COMMENT`) * - per answer: an `ANSWER` row plus its `A-COMMENT` rows indented under it * - the accepted answer (if any) is surfaced first and tagged `accepted=true` */ import { cli, Strategy } from '@jackwener/opencli/registry'; import { ArgumentError, CommandExecutionError, EmptyResultError } from '@jackwener/opencli/errors'; const SE_API_BASE = 'https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3'; const SE_SITE = 'stackoverflow'; const SE_MAX_PAGE_SIZE = 100; async function fetchJson(url, label) { let res; try { res = await fetch(url); } catch (e) { const detail = e instanceof Error ? e.message : String(e); throw new CommandExecutionError( `Network failure fetching ${label}: ${detail}`, 'Check connectivity to api.stackexchange.com', ); } if (res.status === 404) { throw new EmptyResultError(label, `${label} not found`); } if (!res.ok) { throw new CommandExecutionError( `Stack Exchange API HTTP ${res.status} for ${label}`, 'Check the question id and quota (300/day per IP)', ); } let json; try { json = await res.json(); } catch (e) { const detail = e instanceof Error ? e.message : String(e); throw new CommandExecutionError( `Malformed JSON from Stack Exchange API for ${label}: ${detail}`, 'The API returned a non-JSON body — likely a transient outage', ); } if (json && json.error_id) { throw new CommandExecutionError( `Stack Exchange API error ${json.error_id} (${json.error_name}) for ${label}: ${json.error_message || ''}`, 'Common causes: invalid filter, throttled, or quota exhausted', ); } return json; } /** * CLI args may arrive as strings (`--limit 5` → `'5'`) when not coerced by the * arg type system. Coerce-then-validate so `Number.isInteger` actually catches * the bad cases, and reject NaN explicitly. */ function coerceInt(value) { if (value === undefined || value === null || value === '') return NaN; const n = typeof value === 'number' ? value : Number(value); return Number.isFinite(n) && Number.isInteger(n) ? n : NaN; } function requireMinInt(value, min, label) { const n = coerceInt(value); if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n < min) { throw new ArgumentError(`${label} must be an integer >= ${min}, got ${JSON.stringify(value)}`); } return n; } function requireBoundedInt(value, min, max, label) { const n = coerceInt(value); if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n < min || n > max) { throw new ArgumentError(`${label} must be an integer between ${min} and ${max}, got ${JSON.stringify(value)}`); } return n; } function byAcceptedThenScoreDesc(question, answers) { const acceptedAnswerId = question.accepted_answer_id; return answers .slice() .sort((a, b) => { const aAccepted = a.is_accepted || (acceptedAnswerId && a.answer_id === acceptedAnswerId); const bAccepted = b.is_accepted || (acceptedAnswerId && b.answer_id === acceptedAnswerId); if (aAccepted !== bAccepted) return aAccepted ? -1 : 1; return (b.score ?? 0) - (a.score ?? 0); }); } async function fetchMissingAcceptedAnswer(question, answers, label) { const acceptedAnswerId = question.accepted_answer_id; if (!acceptedAnswerId || answers.some((answer) => answer.answer_id === acceptedAnswerId)) { return answers; } const acceptedData = await fetchJson( `${SE_API_BASE}/answers/${acceptedAnswerId}?site=${SE_SITE}&filter=withbody`, `${label}/accepted-answer`, ); const accepted = (acceptedData.items || [])[0]; return accepted ? answers.concat(accepted) : answers; } async function fetchAnswerCommentsByAnswerId(answers, commentsLimit, label) { const answerCommentsByAnswerId = new Map(); if (answers.length === 0) return answerCommentsByAnswerId; const ids = answers.map((a) => a.answer_id).join(';'); const pageSize = Math.min(SE_MAX_PAGE_SIZE, answers.length * commentsLimit); const ansCommentsData = await fetchJson( `${SE_API_BASE}/answers/${ids}/comments?site=${SE_SITE}&filter=withbody&order=asc&sort=creation&pagesize=${pageSize}`, `${label}/answer-comments`, ); for (const c of ansCommentsData.items || []) { if (!c.post_id) continue; if (!answerCommentsByAnswerId.has(c.post_id)) { answerCommentsByAnswerId.set(c.post_id, []); } answerCommentsByAnswerId.get(c.post_id).push(c); } if (ansCommentsData.has_more) { const missingForSelectedAnswer = answers.some((answer) => { const comments = answerCommentsByAnswerId.get(answer.answer_id) || []; return comments.length < commentsLimit; }); if (missingForSelectedAnswer) { throw new CommandExecutionError( `Stack Exchange answer comments for ${label} exceed one API page`, 'Lower --answers-limit or --comments-limit; refusing to return a partial answer-comment set.', ); } } return answerCommentsByAnswerId; } const NAMED_ENTITIES = { amp: '&', lt: '<', gt: '>', quot: '"', apos: "'", nbsp: ' ', hellip: '…', mdash: '—', ndash: '–', laquo: '«', raquo: '»', copy: '©', reg: '®', trade: '™', euro: '€', pound: '£', yen: '¥', rsquo: '’', lsquo: '‘', rdquo: '”', ldquo: '“', }; /** Decode named/numeric HTML entities. Used on both body HTML and display names. */ function decodeEntities(text) { if (!text) return ''; return String(text) .replace(/([0-9a-fA-F]+);/g, (_, hex) => { const code = parseInt(hex, 16); return Number.isFinite(code) ? String.fromCodePoint(code) : ''; }) .replace(/(\d+);/g, (_, dec) => { const code = parseInt(dec, 10); return Number.isFinite(code) ? String.fromCodePoint(code) : ''; }) .replace(/&([a-zA-Z]+);/g, (match, name) => NAMED_ENTITIES[name] ?? match); } /** SO renders bodies as HTML — convert to plain text similar to HN/lobsters. */ function htmlToText(html) { if (!html) return ''; const stripped = String(html) .replace(/
]*>]*>([\s\S]*?)<\/code><\/pre>/gi, '\n$1\n')
.replace(/]*>(.*?)<\/code>/gi, '`$1`')
.replace(/]*>/gi, '\n\n')
.replace(/<\/p>/gi, '')
.replace(/
/gi, '\n')
.replace(/
]*>/gi, '\n- ')
.replace(/<\/li>/gi, '')
.replace(/]*href="([^"]*)"[^>]*>(.*?)<\/a>/gi, '$2 ($1)')
.replace(/<[^>]+>/g, '');
return decodeEntities(stripped)
.replace(/\n{3,}/g, '\n\n')
.trim();
}
function authorName(owner) {
return decodeEntities(owner?.display_name || '') || '[deleted]';
}
function truncate(text, maxLength) {
if (!text || text.length <= maxLength) return text || '';
return text.slice(0, maxLength) + ' ... [truncated]';
}
function indentLines(text, depth) {
if (depth === 0) return text;
const indent = ' '.repeat(depth);
const prefix = `${indent}> `;
return text.split('\n').map((line) => prefix + line).join('\n');
}
cli({
site: 'stackoverflow',
name: 'read',
access: 'read',
description: 'Read a Stack Overflow question with answers and comments',
domain: 'stackoverflow.com',
strategy: Strategy.PUBLIC,
browser: false,
args: [
{ name: 'id', required: true, positional: true, help: 'Stack Overflow question id (numeric, e.g. 79935770)' },
{ name: 'answers-limit', type: 'int', default: 10, help: 'Max answers to include (1-100; accepted answer always included first)' },
{ name: 'comments-limit', type: 'int', default: 5, help: 'Max comments per question/answer (1-100)' },
{ name: 'max-length', type: 'int', default: 4000, help: 'Max characters per body / answer / comment (min 100)' },
],
columns: ['type', 'author', 'score', 'accepted', 'text'],
func: async (args) => {
const id = String(args.id || '').trim();
if (!/^\d+$/.test(id)) {
throw new ArgumentError(`Invalid Stack Overflow question id: ${args.id}`, 'Pass a numeric id like 79935770');
}
const answersLimit = requireBoundedInt(args['answers-limit'] ?? 10, 1, SE_MAX_PAGE_SIZE, 'stackoverflow read --answers-limit');
const commentsLimit = requireBoundedInt(args['comments-limit'] ?? 5, 1, SE_MAX_PAGE_SIZE, 'stackoverflow read --comments-limit');
const maxLength = requireMinInt(args['max-length'] ?? 4000, 100, 'stackoverflow read --max-length');
const label = `stackoverflow/${id}`;
const qUrl = `${SE_API_BASE}/questions/${id}?site=${SE_SITE}&filter=withbody`;
const qData = await fetchJson(qUrl, label);
const question = (qData.items || [])[0];
if (!question) {
throw new EmptyResultError(label, 'Question not found');
}
// Fetch question comments and answers in parallel.
const [qCommentsData, answersData] = await Promise.all([
fetchJson(
`${SE_API_BASE}/questions/${id}/comments?site=${SE_SITE}&filter=withbody&order=asc&sort=creation&pagesize=${commentsLimit}`,
`${label}/comments`,
),
fetchJson(
`${SE_API_BASE}/questions/${id}/answers?site=${SE_SITE}&filter=withbody&order=desc&sort=votes&pagesize=${answersLimit}`,
`${label}/answers`,
),
]);
const allAnswers = await fetchMissingAcceptedAnswer(question, answersData.items || [], label);
// Surface accepted answer first, then by score order.
const orderedAnswers = byAcceptedThenScoreDesc(question, allAnswers).slice(0, answersLimit);
const answerCommentsByAnswerId = await fetchAnswerCommentsByAnswerId(orderedAnswers, commentsLimit, label);
const rows = [];
// POST row: question
const qBody = htmlToText(question.body || '');
const qTextParts = [
question.title || '',
qBody,
question.link || '',
].filter(Boolean);
rows.push({
type: 'POST',
author: authorName(question.owner),
score: question.score ?? 0,
accepted: '',
text: truncate(qTextParts.join('\n\n'), maxLength),
});
// Q-COMMENT rows
const qComments = (qCommentsData.items || []).slice(0, commentsLimit);
for (const c of qComments) {
const text = indentLines(htmlToText(c.body || ''), 1);
rows.push({
type: 'Q-COMMENT',
author: authorName(c.owner),
score: c.score ?? 0,
accepted: '',
text: truncate(text, maxLength),
});
}
// ANSWER + A-COMMENT rows
for (const ans of orderedAnswers) {
rows.push({
type: 'ANSWER',
author: authorName(ans.owner),
score: ans.score ?? 0,
accepted: ans.is_accepted ? 'true' : '',
text: truncate(htmlToText(ans.body || ''), maxLength),
});
const ansComments = (answerCommentsByAnswerId.get(ans.answer_id) || []).slice(0, commentsLimit);
for (const c of ansComments) {
const text = indentLines(htmlToText(c.body || ''), 1);
rows.push({
type: 'A-COMMENT',
author: authorName(c.owner),
score: c.score ?? 0,
accepted: '',
text: truncate(text, maxLength),
});
}
}
return rows;
},
});