# Hacker News Show HN AI Launch Tracker (`agentdataco/hn-show-hn-ai-launches`) Actor

Daily feed of Show HN posts about AI tools, agents, LLMs and MCP — powered by the official Algolia Hacker News Search API.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/agentdataco/hn-show-hn-ai-launches.md
- **Developed by:** [Agent Data Co](https://apify.com/agentdataco) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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 Show HN AI Launch Tracker — New AI Tools Feed

Daily feed of Show HN posts about AI tools, agents, LLMs and MCP — powered by the official Algolia Hacker News Search API.

### What does HN Show HN AI Launches do?

This Actor pulls Show HN stories matching AI / LLM / agent / MCP keywords from the Algolia HN Search API, returning title, URL, points, comments as structured dataset rows. Schedule it hourly or daily to never miss a launch. Strict whole-word matching removes fuzzy false positives; usernames are excluded by default.

### Why use it?

- Official Algolia HN API — free, no key, no scraping
- Filter by date, points and custom query
- Ideal input for newsletters, directories and competitor intel agents
- Fail-loudly empty-result guard

### Data source

Algolia HN Search API `https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date` (public, undocumented-but-stable HN community API).

### Input

- **keywords**: Keywords (merged, de-duplicated)
- **query**: Optional single query override
- **tags**: HN tags (default show_hn)
- **postedAfter**: YYYY-MM-DD
- **minPoints**: Minimum score
- **maxItems**: Cap

Example input:

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "AI",
    "agent",
    "MCP"
  ],
  "postedAfter": "2026-10-01",
  "minPoints": 5,
  "maxItems": 50
}
```

### Output

Each dataset item looks like this:

```json
{
  "title": "Show HN: An AI agent that books meetings",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "hn_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1",
  "points": 42,
  "num_comments": 18
}
```

Export as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or pull via the Apify API, webhooks, Make, Zapier, n8n or the Apify MCP server.

### How much does it cost?

Pay per event: **$0.001 per run** + **$0.0015 per result** (≈ $1.50 per 1,000 results). You are never charged for results on a failed run: if no data is found, the run fails loudly with an explanation instead of returning an empty "success".

### Use cases

- AI newsletter curators
- Directory operators sourcing new tools
- VCs tracking AI launches
- Agents that auto-summarize new Show HN AI posts

### Scheduling & monitoring

Schedule it daily or weekly in Apify Console and connect a webhook/Slack/email integration to get new items automatically.

### FAQ

**Is this legal?** It uses the public Algolia HN Search API. Story content is public HN data.. No personal data is collected.

**Something broke?** Open an issue on the Issues tab; the actor is tested daily.

***

Built and maintained by **Agent Data Co** — reliable AI-ecosystem data for agents and analysts.

### Need history and trends? Use the Agent Data Co API

This Actor gives you a fresh snapshot each run. [Agent Data Co](https://agentdataco.com) runs the same collection every day and keeps an **append-only archive**, so you can get **daily history per entity, 1d/7d/30d top movers and change events** without scheduling runs or storing results yourself:

- REST: `GET https://agentdataco.com/api/v1/show-hn-ai` and `/api/v1/show-hn-ai/history?entity=...` ([docs](https://agentdataco.com/docs))
- MCP for AI agents: `https://agentdataco.com/mcp` (Streamable HTTP; free sample tools work without a key)
- Free sample, no key: https://agentdataco.com/api/v1/sample?name=show-hn-ai
- Public trend pages: https://agentdataco.com/trends
- Plans: Starter $19/mo (latest data + 30-day history), Pro $49/mo (full archive, trends, priority watchlist): https://agentdataco.com/#pricing

# Actor input Schema

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

One search per keyword; results merged & de-duplicated.

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

Optional: one Algolia query; overrides keywords.

## `tags` (type: `string`):

Comma-separated Algolia HN tags. Default: show_hn

## `postedAfter` (type: `string`):

Only stories created on/after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Empty = last ~1000 matching hits.

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

Minimum points.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Max results.

## `allowEmpty` (type: `boolean`):

Allow empty results (tests).

## `perKeywordLimit` (type: `integer`):

Max hits per keyword.

## `strictMatch` (type: `boolean`):

Drop Algolia fuzzy/typo matches; keyword must appear as a whole word in title, URL or text.

## `includeAuthor` (type: `boolean`):

Off by default (data minimisation).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "AI",
    "LLM",
    "GPT",
    "MCP",
    "agent",
    "agents",
    "Claude",
    "chatbot",
    "RAG",
    "machine learning"
  ],
  "tags": "show_hn",
  "minPoints": 0,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "allowEmpty": false,
  "perKeywordLimit": 100,
  "strictMatch": true,
  "includeAuthor": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Dataset items produced by this run (one item per charged result).

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Count of results, duration and whether the charge limit was hit.

# 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("agentdataco/hn-show-hn-ai-launches").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("agentdataco/hn-show-hn-ai-launches").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 agentdataco/hn-show-hn-ai-launches --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,agentdataco/hn-show-hn-ai-launches"
        }
    }
}
```

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/zIsZ7RMiWdBMWLHuy/builds/gWegIcA7r0NaR6mgQ/openapi.json