The core concepts are in the Arc source code (which I can read, with effort, even though I'm not a programmer, because it is well commented) but as another repl

The core concepts are in the Arc source code (which I can read, with effort, even though I'm not a programmer, because it is well commented) but as another reply has already correctly pointed out, some of the current implementation on Hacker News includes "secret sauce" algorithms that don't appear to have any public documentation. The ongoing effort here http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html is "making a conscious effort to resist decline," so that participants "don't post or upvote crap links, and don't be rude or dumb in comment threads."