# Hacker News Search Scraper (`alleserojje/hacker-news-search-scraper`) Actor

Search Hacker News (stories, comments, jobs, Ask/Show HN) by keyword, date and popularity. Clean JSON with permalinks. Pay only per record.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/alleserojje/hacker-news-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Pedro Resende](https://apify.com/alleserojje) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Jobs, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 record scrapeds

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Hacker News Search Scraper

**Hacker News Search Scraper** searches Hacker News — stories, comments, jobs, Ask HN, Show HN and polls — by keyword, date range and popularity, and returns clean structured JSON with a stable `news.ycombinator.com` permalink for every record. Pay only per record.

### What this Hacker News scraper does

- **Full-text search** across Hacker News via the official HN Search API.
- Filter by **item type** (stories, comments, jobs, Ask/Show HN, polls, front page).
- Filter by **minimum points**, **minimum comments** and **date range**.
- Sort by **relevance** or **newest first**.
- Returns author, points, comment count, URL, text, ISO timestamp and the HN permalink.
- No proxy, no anti-bot, no rental — it just works.

### Input

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `queries` | List of search terms. Empty → page the newest/most-relevant of the chosen type. |
| `tags` | Item type: story, comment, show\_hn, ask\_hn, poll, job, front\_page. |
| `sortBy` | `relevance` or `date` (newest first). |
| `minPoints` / `minComments` | Popularity thresholds. |
| `createdAfter` / `createdBefore` | ISO date bounds (optional). |
| `maxItems` | Cap on total records (0 = no limit). |

### Output

Each dataset item:

```json
{
  "query": "show hn",
  "objectID": "12345678",
  "type": "story",
  "title": "Show HN: My side project",
  "author": "pg",
  "points": 274,
  "numComments": 88,
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "text": null,
  "createdAt": "2026-08-11T12:00:00.000Z",
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-12T05:20:00.000Z"
}
```

### Pricing

**Pay per event:** `$0.0005` per record. Billed per record as it is delivered, so an aborted run only pays for what it returned. No monthly rental.

### Common uses

- Track a company, product or keyword across Hacker News over time.
- Scrape **"Who is hiring?"** / job posts into a structured hiring dataset.
- Feed HN discussion into a **RAG / LLM** pipeline or a trend dashboard.

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Keywords/phrases to search Hacker News for. Leave empty to page the newest/most-relevant items of the chosen type.

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

Which Hacker News item type to search.

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

Relevance (default HN ranking) or newest first.

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

Only return items with at least this many points.

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

Only return items with at least this many comments.

## `createdAfter` (type: `string`):

Only items created on/after this date (ISO, e.g. 2026-01-01). Optional.

## `createdBefore` (type: `string`):

Only items created on/before this date (ISO). Optional.

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

Stop after this many records across all queries. 0 = no limit.

## `proxy` (type: `object`):

Not required — the HN Search API is open. Datacenter proxy is available if you want it.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "rust",
    "yc application"
  ],
  "tags": "story",
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "minPoints": 0,
  "minComments": 0,
  "createdAfter": "",
  "createdBefore": "",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# 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 = {
    "queries": [
        "show hn"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("alleserojje/hacker-news-search-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 = { "queries": ["show hn"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("alleserojje/hacker-news-search-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 '{
  "queries": [
    "show hn"
  ]
}' |
apify call alleserojje/hacker-news-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,alleserojje/hacker-news-search-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/unzlIBUCRBrGq7NvM/builds/NBIL6VctAyvVYqm4X/openapi.json