Integrating OpenCode Terminal with Hacker News Data via CData CLI

OpenCode is an open source AI coding agent from Anomaly that brings AI assistance directly to your terminal, desktop, or IDE without storing any of your code or context data. It supports over 75 LLM providers, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, and local models, and can run multiple agent sessions in parallel on the same project, each with its own context. Its support for integrations, AGENTS.md configuration files, and a TypeScript/JavaScript plugin system makes it well-suited for structured, tool-driven workflows, making it a natural fit for connecting to external data sources through CData CLI. By describing your data goals in plain language, OpenCode can handle the full setup process from driver configuration and license activation to connection creation and query execution, without manual intervention at each step.

This article details step-by-step directions for how to connect Hacker News data to OpenCode Terminal through CData CLI.

Prerequisites

1. OpenCode Terminal installed
2. CData CLI installed
3. Access to Hacker News

Step 1: Download the skill (one-time setup)

Always use CData CLI with the official skill.

1. The official CData CLI Skill is available on GitHub and installs through npx skills in the terminal:

   npx skills add CDataSoftware/cli-skills

2. Follow the prompts in the terminal to install for OpenCode.

Step 2: Set up the project directory

Create a project directory to contain all project files.

1. Navigate to directory within the terminal and start a session with the opencode command:

Step 3: Establish the driver and connection

Describe what you want to accomplish in this session with the CLI and Hacker News data.

I would like to build a command line app that connects to Hacker News and checks for updates from TopStories. Make sure to include data from important columns like and .

This prompt automatically loads the skill and kicks off the following process. You can always manually prompt the agent for each of the following steps.

1. Driver setup: OpenCode checks for an existing CData Hacker News driver, or searches and downloads a new one:

• cdatacli drivers list

• cdatacli drivers search Hacker News

• 
  cdatacli drivers download --artifact-id <artifact-id>

2. Activation: Activate the Hacker News driver with a single command for a trial or full license:

•  cdatacli drivers activate Hacker News --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --trial

• cdatacli drivers activate Hacker News --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --key "<product-key>"
  

3. Establish the connection: Check for existing Hacker News connections or create a new one:

• cdatacli connection list

• cdatacli drivers activate Hacker News --name "<name>" --email "<email>" --trial
  

4. Create a Hacker News skill (if applicable): CData provides driver instructions for popular sources. You can use these to generate a source-specific skill file that guides the agent through best practices for the driver.
• Run the following command and save the output to your skills directory, either at the project level or globally. (Note: If you receive a "No instructions available for Hacker News" message, no driver instructions exist for this source. You can continue using the main driver skill.)

  cdatacli drivers skill Hacker News > ~/skills/cdata-Hacker News/SKILL.md

Step 4: Query Hacker News data

With the CData driver fully configured, your agent can now execute queries and write code against live Hacker News data:

cdatacli query sql --connection <my_Hacker News_connection> --sql <SELECT * FROM table>

Query Hacker News data directly from your terminal with CData CLI

OpenCode and CData CLI together give your AI coding agent a direct path to live Hacker News data without custom middleware, scheduled syncs, or manual setup at each step. Describe your goal, and the agent handles driver configuration, connection setup, and query execution from start to finish in the terminal.

Download the free CData CLI and start a free, 30-day trial of the CData API Driver for JDBC today.