# Hacker News Scraper - Stories, Items & Users (`justfeel/hackernews-scraper`) Actor Extract Hacker News stories (top/new/best/ask/show/job), specific items, or user profiles via the official Firebase API. Clean JSON, no API key. - **URL**: https://apify.com/justfeel/hackernews-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Yusuf](https://apify.com/justfeel) (community) - **Categories:** News, Developer tools - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $0.70 / 1,000 items This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. 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. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use 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 Scraper — Stories, Items & Users Extract **Hacker News** stories, items, and user profiles as clean JSON — via the official public Firebase API. No API key, no blocking. ### What you get per story/item ```json { "id": 48966190, "type": "story", "by": "lebovic", "title": "Qwen 3.8 Max Preview", "url": "https://www.qwencloud.com/pricing/token-plan", "score": 96, "time": 1784451451, "descendants": 40, "kids": [48967360, 48967344, 48966879] } ```` ### Three modes | Mode | What it does | |---|---| | **Stories** | Top, New, Best, Ask HN, Show HN, or Jobs list, up to 500 items | | **Items** | Specific item IDs (stories, comments, polls, jobs) | | **User** | User profiles by username (karma, about, submitted item IDs) | Optionally set `includeComments: true` to attach each story's top-level comments (one level deep, capped by `maxCommentsPerItem`) — kept shallow on purpose so a single run stays fast and bounded. ### Why this scraper - ✅ **Official API** — Hacker News' own public Firebase backend, not scraped HTML - ✅ **No API key, no rate-limit walls** - ✅ **Reliable** — no headless browser to break - ✅ **Fast** — concurrent fetching for large lists - ✅ **Structured JSON** — ready for dashboards, alerts, or LLM/RAG pipelines ### Use cases - **Tech trend monitoring**: track what's trending in tech/startups daily - **Research & datasets**: build corpora of discussions for NLP/LLM work - **Community analytics**: user activity and karma tracking - **Alerts**: watch Show HN / Ask HN for keywords ### Input example ```json { "mode": "stories", "listType": "top", "maxItems": 50, "includeComments": true, "maxCommentsPerItem": 10 } ``` ### FAQ **Is this legal?** Reads Hacker News' publicly available Firebase API — no login, no private data. **Why no full comment trees?** Comment trees can be arbitrarily deep and expensive to walk. `includeComments` fetches one level of top-level replies per story; use `items` mode with a comment's own ID to walk deeper manually. # Actor input Schema ## `mode` (type: `string`): What to scrape: a story list, specific items by ID, or user profiles. ## `listType` (type: `string`): Which Hacker News list to fetch (stories mode only). ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Max number of stories to fetch (stories mode only). HN lists return up to 500 IDs. ## `itemIds` (type: `array`): Specific Hacker News item IDs to fetch (items mode). ## `usernames` (type: `array`): Hacker News usernames to fetch profiles for (user mode). ## `includeComments` (type: `boolean`): For stories/items, also fetch each item's top-level comments (one level deep, not the full thread). ## `maxCommentsPerItem` (type: `integer`): Cap on top-level comments fetched per story when 'Include top-level comments' is on. ## Actor input object example ```json { "mode": "stories", "listType": "top", "maxItems": 50, "includeComments": false, "maxCommentsPerItem": 10 } ``` # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = {}; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("justfeel/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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = {} # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("justfeel/hackernews-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).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 justfeel/hackernews-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=justfeel/hackernews-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Hacker News Scraper - Stories, Items & Users", "description": "Extract Hacker News stories (top/new/best/ask/show/job), specific items, or user profiles via the official Firebase API. Clean JSON, no API key.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "ODmXJuZJmBvhBKQmO" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/justfeel~hackernews-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-justfeel-hackernews-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/justfeel~hackernews-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-justfeel-hackernews-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/justfeel~hackernews-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-justfeel-hackernews-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "mode" ], "properties": { "mode": { "title": "Mode", "enum": [ "stories", "items", "user" ], "type": "string", "description": "What to scrape: a story list, specific items by ID, or user profiles.", "default": "stories" }, "listType": { "title": "Story list type", "enum": [ "top", "new", "best", "ask", "show", "job" ], "type": "string", "description": "Which Hacker News list to fetch (stories mode only).", "default": "top" }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max items", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 500, "type": "integer", "description": "Max number of stories to fetch (stories mode only). HN lists return up to 500 IDs.", "default": 50 }, "itemIds": { "title": "Item IDs", "type": "array", "description": "Specific Hacker News item IDs to fetch (items mode).", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "usernames": { "title": "Usernames", "type": "array", "description": "Hacker News usernames to fetch profiles for (user mode).", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "includeComments": { "title": "Include top-level comments", "type": "boolean", "description": "For stories/items, also fetch each item's top-level comments (one level deep, not the full thread).", "default": false }, "maxCommentsPerItem": { "title": "Max comments per item", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 100, "type": "integer", "description": "Cap on top-level comments fetched per story when 'Include top-level comments' is on.", "default": 10 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```