# Hacker News Search & Export (stories, comments, Ask/Show HN) (`forbearing_guanaco/hacker-news-search-export`) Actor

Search all of Hacker News history via the official HN Search API. Filter by date and points; export thousands of stories or comments.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/forbearing_guanaco/hacker-news-search-export.md
- **Developed by:** [Nick Mory](https://apify.com/forbearing_guanaco) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## 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 Search & Export

Search the full history of Hacker News and export stories, comments, Ask HN or Show HN posts as JSON, CSV or Excel.
Uses the official HN Search API (hn.algolia.com) — no scraping, no proxies. Goes past the API's 1,000-result cap by splitting the date range automatically.

### Input

- **query** – keywords (empty = everything in the date range)
- **contentType** – stories, comments, askHn, showHn, all
- **minPoints** – only items with at least N points
- **dateFrom / dateTo** – YYYY-MM-DD
- **maxItems** – up to 50,000

### Output (one row per item, newest first)

id, type, title, author, points, numComments, createdAt, url, text, storyId, parentId, hnUrl

### Use cases

Market and trend research, brand or competitor mentions, "who is hiring"/launch tracking, datasets for NLP and AI.

Not affiliated with Y Combinator or Hacker News.

# Actor input Schema

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

Keywords to search. Leave empty to list everything in the date range.

## `contentType` (type: `string`):

Content type. Allowed values: stories, comments, askHn, showHn, all

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

Only items with at least this many points (stories).

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

From date (YYYY-MM-DD). Format YYYY-MM-DD.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

To date (YYYY-MM-DD). Format YYYY-MM-DD.

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

Max results.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "web scraping",
  "contentType": "stories",
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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": "web scraping"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("forbearing_guanaco/hacker-news-search-export").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": "web scraping" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("forbearing_guanaco/hacker-news-search-export").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": "web scraping"
}' |
apify call forbearing_guanaco/hacker-news-search-export --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,forbearing_guanaco/hacker-news-search-export"
        }
    }
}
```

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/vtyESe8WRHecQMz5Y/builds/gIIieW3cLNWGtQWyY/openapi.json