# Hacker News "Who is Hiring" Leads: Companies, Roles, Emails (`leadgenguy/hn-hiring-leads`) Actor
Turn the monthly Hacker News "Who is hiring?" threads into structured leads: company, roles, location, remote, salary, contact email, website. Official HN data, no login. $1 per 1,000.
- **URL**: https://apify.com/leadgenguy/hn-hiring-leads.md
- **Developed by:** [Mokssh jaiin](https://apify.com/leadgenguy) (community)
- **Categories:** Jobs, Lead generation
- **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 "Who is Hiring" Leads: Companies, Roles, Emails — $1 per 1,000
Every month the Hacker News "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" thread collects hundreds of job posts from tech companies, startups and funded teams. This Actor turns each post into a **structured lead**: company, roles, locations, remote or on-site, salary when stated, **contact emails**, company website, application links, the full text and a link to the post.
Companies posting there are **actively hiring and decision-makers often post themselves**, so the emails are usually the founder or hiring manager. Great for recruiters, dev-tool and SaaS sales, freelancers and agencies.
### Why use it
- **Fresh and relevant:** the newest thread is read directly from the official Hacker News search API.
- **Structured:** the messy "Company | Role | Location | Remote" headers are split into fields.
- **Filters:** keywords (python, rust, ML, seed...), location, remote only, only posts with an email.
- **Cheap:** $1 per 1,000 posts.
### Pricing
| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Job post | $1 per 1,000 ($0.001 each) |
| Actor start | $0.00005 |
Free Apify accounts are limited to **25 posts per run**.
### Input
```json
{ "months": 3, "keywords": ["python", "machine learning"], "remoteOnly": true, "requireEmail": true, "maxItems": 500 }
```
### Output
```json
{
"company": "GovStar",
"headline": "GovStar | Senior Full Stack Python Developer | Remote | Full-time",
"roles": ["Senior Full Stack Python Developer"], "locations": [], "remote": true, "salary": null,
"employmentType": "full-time", "emails": ["jobs@govstar.us"], "website": "https://govstar.us",
"applyLinks": [], "text": "Full post text...", "postedAt": "2026-10-02T14:11:03Z",
"postUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1234567", "thread": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2026)"
}
```
### Honest limits
- Posts are free text written by people, so parsing is best-effort: some posts have no clear company name or roles. The full `text` is always included.
- Only top-level posts of each thread are read, not replies.
- The data covers tech and startup hiring, not the whole job market.
### Feedback and reviews
Found a bug, or a post that parsed badly? Open an issue on this Actor's **Issues** tab with the post link and it will be looked at quickly. If this Actor saved you time, a short and honest review helps other people find it. Thank you!
### Legal
Posts are public on news.ycombinator.com and read through the public HN Algolia search API. Emails posted for recruiting are meant to be contacted about the job: use them for that, and follow GDPR, CAN-SPAM and similar rules.
# Actor input Schema
## `months` (type: `integer`):
1 = the latest thread, 3 = the last three months, and so on.
## `keywords` (type: `array`):
Keep only posts mentioning any of these words, e.g. python, rust, machine learning, seed.
## `locations` (type: `array`):
Matched against the first lines of the post, e.g. london, berlin, new york.
## `remoteOnly` (type: `boolean`):
Keep only posts that say remote.
## `requireEmail` (type: `boolean`):
Keep only posts that list an email address.
## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):
A monthly thread has about 400 posts. Free Apify plans: 25 per run.
## Actor input object example
```json
{
"months": 1,
"remoteOnly": false,
"requireEmail": false,
"maxItems": 100
}
```
# Actor output Schema
## `jobs` (type: `string`):
All scraped jobs as a dataset.
# 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("leadgenguy/hn-hiring-leads").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("leadgenguy/hn-hiring-leads").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 leadgenguy/hn-hiring-leads --silent --output-dataset
```
## MCP server setup
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"apify": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,leadgenguy/hn-hiring-leads"
}
}
}
```
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 ` 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/1u5LVHE8cVJaKBPmH/builds/xrhAwsdvc3uoe0rTG/openapi.json