# Hacker News Scraper — Stories & Comments (`ponderable_hydrometer/hackernews-scraper`) Actor

Search Hacker News stories & comments by keyword, author, points or date. Monitor keywords, domains & users. Free Algolia HN API, no key. For research, PR & alerts.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ponderable_hydrometer/hackernews-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Ponderable Hydrometer](https://apify.com/ponderable_hydrometer) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, SEO tools
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.50 / 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 Scraper — Stories & Comments

**Turn Hacker News search into a schedulable feed — monitor a brand, keyword, domain or user across stories and comments, with the full Algolia filter surface.** Keyless, sortable by relevance or recency, with points/comment thresholds and tag filters.

Perfect for brand and keyword monitoring, PR alerts, market research, and dev-community analysis.

### What you get

Per item (story or comment):

- **Core** — `id`, `type` (`story` / `comment` / `poll` / `job`), `title`, `url`, `author`, `points`, `numComments`
- **Text** — `storyText` (self/Ask HN posts), `commentText` (for comments)
- **Threading** — `parentId`, `storyId`, `tags` (`_tags` from Algolia)
- **Timing** — `createdAt` (ISO), `createdAtTimestamp` (Unix seconds)
- **Direct link** — `hnUrl` to the item on news.ycombinator.com

### Filters & modes

- **Keyword search** — `query` across titles, URLs and text.
- **By author** — pull a user's full history with `author`.
- **By type** — `tags` filter: `story`, `comment`, `poll`, `show_hn`, `ask_hn`, `front_page` (combinable).
- **Thresholds** — `minPoints`, `minComments`, `createdAfter` (Unix timestamp), plus raw `numericFilters` clauses.
- **Sort** — `relevance` (best match) or `date` (newest first).

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `query` | string | — | Keywords in titles, URLs and text |
| `tags` | array | — | `story`, `comment`, `poll`, `show_hn`, `ask_hn`, `front_page` |
| `author` | string | — | Only items by this HN username |
| `sortBy` | string | `relevance` | `relevance` or `date` |
| `minPoints` | integer | — | Minimum points |
| `minComments` | integer | — | Minimum comments |
| `createdAfter` | integer | — | Only items at/after this Unix timestamp |
| `numericFilters` | array | — | Raw Algolia numeric clauses, e.g. `["points<500"]` |
| `maxResults` | integer | `100` | Cap on items returned |

Provide at least one of `query`, `author`, `tags`, `minPoints` or `minComments`.

### Example input

```json
{
  "query": "your brand",
  "tags": ["story", "comment"],
  "sortBy": "date",
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

High-signal stories:

```json
{ "query": "AI agents", "tags": ["story"], "minPoints": 100, "maxResults": 50 }
```

### Example output (one story)

```json
{
  "id": "40001234",
  "type": "story",
  "title": "Show HN: I built an open-source alternative to X",
  "url": "https://example.com/project",
  "author": "pg",
  "points": 342,
  "numComments": 118,
  "storyText": null,
  "commentText": null,
  "parentId": null,
  "storyId": null,
  "tags": ["story", "show_hn", "author_pg", "story_40001234"],
  "createdAt": "2026-07-11T14:22:31.000Z",
  "createdAtTimestamp": 1783736551,
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40001234"
}
```

### Why this actor

- **Full filter surface** — tags + author + point/comment thresholds + raw numeric filters + relevance/date sort, not a thin one-off.
- **Both stories and comments** — track a conversation, not just headlines.
- **Schedulable feed** — run it hourly to watch a brand, keyword, domain, or a specific user.
- **Keyless & reliable** — public Algolia HN API with retry/backoff.

### Notes

- Data is the public Algolia Hacker News Search API — no key, no anti-bot.
- Not affiliated with or endorsed by Y Combinator or Hacker News.

### Pricing

Pay per result — **$1.50 per 1,000 results**, plus Apify's standard per-run start event ($0.00005 per GB of memory, so a fraction of a cent per run). No subscription.

### Related actors

- **GitHub Search Scraper** — repos, users and issues for dev research.
- **Stack Exchange Scraper** — Q\&A across Stack Overflow and sibling sites.
- **Reddit / social monitoring actors** — pair for broader brand tracking.

# Actor input Schema

## `query` (type: `string`):

Keywords to search in titles, URLs and text, e.g. "rust web framework", "openai".

## `tags` (type: `array`):

Restrict item types: story, comment, poll, show_hn, ask_hn, front_page. Combine e.g. \["story","show_hn"].

## `author` (type: `string`):

Only items by this HN username, e.g. "pg".

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

"relevance" (best match) or "date" (newest first).

## `minPoints` (type: `integer`):

Only items with at least this many points.

## `minComments` (type: `integer`):

Only items with at least this many comments.

## `createdAfter` (type: `integer`):

Only items created at/after this Unix timestamp (seconds).

## `numericFilters` (type: `array`):

Raw Algolia numeric filter clauses, e.g. \["points<500"]. Combined with the fields above.

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

Cap on number of items returned.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "show hn",
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All rows produced by this run, as JSON.

# 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 = {
    "query": "show hn"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ponderable_hydrometer/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 = { "query": "show hn" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ponderable_hydrometer/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 '{
  "query": "show hn"
}' |
apify call ponderable_hydrometer/hackernews-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ponderable_hydrometer/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/JnaHNREso3A13Uaei/builds/ZRr5Wr8P1pXRykRK9/openapi.json