# Hacker News Scraper (`rupom888/hackernews-scraper`) Actor

Scrape stories, jobs, comments, and polls from Hacker News using the official HN Firebase API. Get top/new/best/ask/show stories with comments, search by keyword via Algolia HN Search API. Reliable and no rate limiting.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/rupom888/hackernews-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Syed Rupom](https://apify.com/rupom888) (community)
- **Categories:** News, SEO tools
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 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

Extract stories, comments, and job postings from Hacker News. Scrape the front page, new stories, Ask HN, Show HN, or search by keyword. Priced at **$0.50 per 1,000 results**.

### What it scrapes

- Story title, URL, score (points), author, and post date
- Comment count and direct HN link
- Top-level comments per story (optional)
- Job postings from the HN jobs section
- Ask HN and Show HN posts

### Sample output

```json
{
  "story_id": 40987654,
  "title": "Show HN: I built a scraper that actually works",
  "url": "https://example.com/my-project",
  "hn_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40987654",
  "score": 342,
  "author": "pg",
  "author_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pg",
  "comment_count": 128,
  "posted_at": "2024-01-15T14:32:00Z",
  "type": "show",
  "comments": [
    {
      "comment_id": 40987700,
      "author": "tptacek",
      "text": "This is impressive work...",
      "posted_at": "2024-01-15T14:45:00Z"
    }
  ]
}
```

### Input

```json
{
  "scrapeType": "top",
  "resultsWanted": 30,
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerStory": 10,
  "minScore": 100
}
```

#### Keyword search

```json
{
  "scrapeType": "search",
  "searchQuery": "machine learning startup",
  "resultsWanted": 50
}
```

### Input fields

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `scrapeType` | string | `top` | `top`, `new`, `best`, `ask`, `show`, `jobs`, `search` |
| `searchQuery` | string | — | Keyword to search (search mode only) |
| `resultsWanted` | integer | 30 | Number of stories to return (up to 500) |
| `includeComments` | boolean | false | Fetch top-level comments for each story |
| `maxCommentsPerStory` | integer | 10 | Max comments per story (up to 50) |
| `minScore` | integer | 0 | Minimum story score filter |

### Scrape types

| `scrapeType` | What it returns |
|---|---|
| `top` | Current front page stories |
| `new` | Newest submissions |
| `best` | All-time highest scored |
| `ask` | Ask HN posts |
| `show` | Show HN posts |
| `jobs` | HN job postings |
| `search` | Stories matching a keyword |

### Use cases

- Tech trend monitoring: track emerging topics on HN
- Startup research: find Show HN launches in a category
- Job hunting: monitor HN monthly "Who is hiring?" threads
- AI/LLM training data: collect high-quality discussions with scores as quality signal

### Pricing

**$0.50 per 1,000 results** — HN is public, no API key needed.

# Actor input Schema

## `scrapeType` (type: `string`):

What to scrape from Hacker News.

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Keyword to search for. Only used in search mode.

## `resultsWanted` (type: `integer`):

Number of stories to return.

## `includeComments` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch top-level comments for each story (slower).

## `maxCommentsPerStory` (type: `integer`):

Maximum top-level comments to include per story.

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

Only return stories with at least this many points. Set 0 for no filter.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "scrapeType": "top",
  "searchQuery": "machine learning startup",
  "resultsWanted": 30,
  "includeComments": false,
  "maxCommentsPerStory": 10,
  "minScore": 0
}
```

# 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("rupom888/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("rupom888/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 rupom888/hackernews-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,rupom888/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/vQQ6f9BGZdVHtAQLo/builds/00HlQxuoez8ccsBlf/openapi.json