# Hacker News Scraper (`cloud9_ai/hackernews-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Hacker News stories, comments, and user profiles via official Firebase API. Get top, new, best, ask, show stories with scores, comments, and author data.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/cloud9_ai/hackernews-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [cloud9](https://apify.com/cloud9_ai) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Marketing
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 5 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Hacker News Story Scraper

Extract tech stories, jobs, and discussions from Hacker News using the official Firebase API. Get top/best/new stories, Ask HN, Show HN, and job postings with full metadata.

### Features

- **Official API-based** - Zero blocking, 100% reliability (uses `hacker-news.firebaseio.com`)
- **6 story types** - Top, Best, New, Ask HN, Show HN, Jobs
- **Score filtering** - Filter by minimum upvotes
- **Keyword search** - Search in titles (case-insensitive)
- **Full metadata** - Title, URL, score, author, comments, timestamp, HN link

### Use Cases

- **Tech trend monitoring** - Track trending technologies and discussions
- **Startup/product research** - Discover new products and startup launches
- **Competitive intelligence** - Monitor competitor mentions and discussions
- **Content curation** - Find quality content for newsletters/social media
- **Recruitment** - Browse job postings from tech companies
- **Market research** - Analyze what the tech community is interested in

### Input Parameters

| Field | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|-------|------|----------|---------|-------------|
| `storyType` | string | Yes | `"top"` | Type of stories: `top`, `best`, `new`, `ask`, `show`, `job` |
| `maxResults` | number | No | `50` | Maximum stories to extract (1-500) |
| `minScore` | number | No | - | Only include stories with this many upvotes or more |
| `keyword` | string | No | - | Only include stories with this keyword in title |

#### Story Types

- **Top Stories** - Currently trending stories
- **Best Stories** - Best stories based on HN algorithm
- **New Stories** - Most recently submitted stories
- **Ask HN** - Questions and discussions
- **Show HN** - Project/product showcases
- **Jobs** - Job postings

### Output Format

Each story includes:

```json
{
  "id": 39631123,
  "title": "Show HN: I built a tool to analyze Hacker News trends",
  "url": "https://example.com/hn-analyzer",
  "score": 342,
  "author": "techfounder",
  "commentCount": 87,
  "postedAt": "2024-02-12T10:30:00.000Z",
  "type": "story",
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39631123",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-02-12T15:45:00.000Z"
}
```

#### Field Descriptions

- **id** - Unique HN story ID
- **title** - Story title
- **url** - External URL (null for Ask HN/text posts)
- **score** - Number of upvotes
- **author** - HN username of submitter
- **commentCount** - Number of comments/discussions
- **postedAt** - Submission timestamp (ISO 8601)
- **type** - Story type (story, job, poll, etc.)
- **hnUrl** - Direct link to HN discussion page
- **scrapedAt** - Timestamp when data was extracted

### Example Usage

#### Top 30 AI-related stories with minimum 50 upvotes

```json
{
  "storyType": "top",
  "maxResults": 30,
  "minScore": 50,
  "keyword": "AI"
}
```

#### Recent Show HN projects

```json
{
  "storyType": "show",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "minScore": 10
}
```

#### Job postings from YC companies

```json
{
  "storyType": "job",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "keyword": "YC"
}
```

#### Best Ask HN questions

```json
{
  "storyType": "ask",
  "maxResults": 25,
  "minScore": 100
}
```

### Pricing

Approximately **$2.50 per 1,000 stories** (based on compute units)

#### Cost Estimation

| Stories | Approx. Cost | Duration |
|---------|--------------|----------|
| 50 | $0.12 | ~30 seconds |
| 100 | $0.25 | ~1 minute |
| 500 | $1.25 | ~5 minutes |

*Costs include API calls and rate limiting (0.5s between requests)*

### Tips & Best Practices

#### Filtering Strategy

If you need 50 stories with specific filters (minScore/keyword):

- Set `maxResults` higher (100-150) to account for filtered items
- The actor fetches up to 2x maxResults to ensure enough matches

#### Story Type Selection

- **Top** - Most balanced view of current trending content
- **Best** - Highest quality stories (better signal-to-noise)
- **New** - Real-time monitoring, catch stories early
- **Ask** - Community discussions, Q\&A, career advice
- **Show** - New product launches, side projects
- **Job** - Tech job opportunities, mostly from startups

#### Rate Limiting

- Actor respects HN API with 0.5s delay between requests
- 50 stories = ~30 seconds
- 500 stories = ~5 minutes
- No risk of being blocked (official API)

#### Data Freshness

- Stories are fetched in real-time from HN API
- Top/Best/New lists update frequently (every few minutes)
- Job postings update less frequently

#### Keyword Matching

- Case-insensitive search
- Matches anywhere in title
- Examples: "AI", "LLM", "YC", "startup", "open source"
- For multiple keywords, run separate actors and merge results

### Technical Details

#### API Endpoints Used

- Story IDs: `https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/{type}stories.json`
- Story details: `https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/{id}.json`

#### Rate Limiting

- 0.5 second delay between story detail requests
- Public API, no authentication required
- No IP blocking or rate limits

#### Error Handling

- Continues on individual story fetch failures
- Logs warnings for failed requests
- Returns all successfully fetched stories

#### Data Quality

- All data comes directly from HN official API
- No web scraping, no parsing errors
- 100% reliability and accuracy

### Common Use Cases

#### 1. Startup Trend Analysis

Track what startups are launching and getting traction:

```json
{
  "storyType": "show",
  "maxResults": 200,
  "minScore": 20
}
```

#### 2. AI/ML News Monitoring

Stay updated on AI developments:

```json
{
  "storyType": "best",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "keyword": "AI"
}
```

#### 3. Job Board Scraping

Build a job aggregator:

```json
{
  "storyType": "job",
  "maxResults": 500
}
```

#### 4. Content Curation

Find high-quality content for newsletters:

```json
{
  "storyType": "best",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "minScore": 100
}
```

### Limitations

- Maximum 500 stories per run (API limitation)
- Keyword search is simple substring match (not full-text search)
- Rate limited to ~120 stories/minute (to respect HN API)
- No access to comment content (only comment counts)

### Support

For issues or feature requests, please contact the actor maintainer.

### License

This actor is provided as-is for use on the Apify platform.

# Actor input Schema

## `storyType` (type: `string`):

Type of stories to scrape

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of stories to extract (1-500)

## `minScore` (type: `integer`):

Only include stories with this many upvotes or more

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Only include stories with this keyword in the title (case-insensitive)

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "storyType": "top",
  "maxResults": 50
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("cloud9_ai/hackernews-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("cloud9_ai/hackernews-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call cloud9_ai/hackernews-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,cloud9_ai/hackernews-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/Js3t8Md2ZBP6Dr6W1/builds/8sRrQ5oOHIUfplqRV/openapi.json