# Repair broken Hacker News scraper selectors automatically

**Use case:** 

Given a target JSON schema and selectors that no longer match, synthesizes durable CSS selectors for Hacker News story titles, links and points, proves them against the live page, and returns the extracted items. Use your own URL, schema and broken selectors.

## Input

```json
{
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com",
  "targetSchema": {
    "type": "array",
    "items": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": [
        "title",
        "link"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "title": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "link": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "points": {
          "type": "integer"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "previousBrokenSelectors": {
    "title": ".storylink"
  }
}
```

## Output

```json
{
  "agent": {
    "label": "Agent",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "priceUsd": {
    "label": "Price (USD)",
    "format": "number"
  },
  "data": {
    "label": "Result",
    "format": "object"
  },
  "_provenance": {
    "label": "Provenance",
    "format": "object"
  }
}
```

## How it works

### 1. Sign up on Apify or log in

The Self-Healing Scraper & DOM-to-JSON Compiler Actor is ready to run with the inputs already set for "Repair broken Hacker News scraper selectors automatically". [Sign up or log in](https://console.apify.com/create-task-from-example/o91Ot8sTFh1C5lguw) and you'll land in Apify Console with a copy of this exact task.

### 2. Start the "Repair broken Hacker News scraper selectors automatically" task

The Self-Healing Scraper & DOM-to-JSON Compiler Actor will start running based on the input automatically. You can also change all the input fields, like url, target schema, and more, to match your specific use case.

### 3. Receive the "Repair broken Hacker News scraper selectors automatically" output

Monitor the progress in real time. You will be notified as soon as your dataset is complete and ready for review. Each result includes data such as agent, price (usd), result, and more.

### 4. Integrate into your workflow

The final output is delivered in JSON, CSV, or Excel format, ready to be plugged into your workflow. You can also [run the "Repair broken Hacker News scraper selectors automatically" task via API](https://apify.com/davidcondrey/wl-heal-scraper.md).

## FAQ

### Does the selector repair task run JavaScript on the page?

No. It works on the server-rendered HTML with Cheerio, so pages that need a browser are out of scope.

### What does the selector repair task return?

New CSS selectors per field, proof that they match the live page, the extracted data in your schema, and a ready-to-run TypeScript Cheerio extractor.

## About this Actor

This example demonstrates how to use [Self-Healing Scraper & DOM-to-JSON Compiler](https://apify.com/davidcondrey/wl-heal-scraper.md) with a specific input configuration. Visit the [Actor detail page](https://apify.com/davidcondrey/wl-heal-scraper.md) to learn more, explore other use cases, and run it yourself.


## How to integrate an Actor?

This Task's input is already configured above. Use it as-is rather than inventing a new one.

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 full API examples (JavaScript, Python, CLI, MCP, OpenAPI), see this Task's Actor page: https://apify.com/davidcondrey/wl-heal-scraper.md

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`).