# Hacker News 'Who is Hiring?' Jobs Parser (`liora-tools/hn-who-is-hiring`) Actor

Every job post from the monthly Hacker News 'Ask HN: Who is hiring?' threads, parsed into company, roles, location, remote / onsite, visa, salary and tech keywords. Official HN/Algolia APIs; email addresses are redacted.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/liora-tools/hn-who-is-hiring.md
- **Developed by:** [Liora Blyth](https://apify.com/liora-tools) (community)
- **Categories:** Jobs
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.50 / 1,000 job post saveds

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?' Jobs Parser

Every job post from the monthly **Hacker News "Ask HN: Who is hiring?"** threads, parsed into structured fields: **company, roles, location, remote / onsite / hybrid, visa sponsorship, salary range, technologies** and links — plus the full post text.

Uses the official Hacker News Algolia API. Email addresses and phone numbers in posts are **redacted**; the hiring company's own links are kept so candidates can apply through official channels.

### Use cases

- Job seekers: filter hundreds of startup jobs by `rust`, `remote`, `Berlin`…
- Recruiters / founders: salary & tech-stack trends across months
- Job boards & newsletters: fresh startup jobs each month
- Market research: which technologies startups hire for

### Quick start

Press **Start** with the default input. It parses every post in the latest monthly *Ask HN: Who is hiring?* thread (usually 200-600 posts) in a few seconds.

Example input:

```json
{
  "months": 3,
  "keywords": ["python", "machine learning"],
  "remoteOnly": true,
  "locations": [],
  "includeFreelancer": false,
  "maxItems": 500,
  "maxCostUsd": 0.5
}
```

### Input

- **months** – how many monthly threads (1 = latest)
- **keywords**, **locations**, **remoteOnly**
- **includeFreelancer** – also parse "Freelancer? Seeking freelancer?" threads
- **maxItems**
- **maxCostUsd** – optional spend cap for this run

### Output (one item per job post)

```json
{
  "threadTitle": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2026)",
  "threadId": "49922569",
  "postId": "49922584",
  "postedAt": "2026-10-01T15:02:37.000Z",
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49922584",
  "company": "PrairieLearn (Remote US)",
  "headerLine": "PrairieLearn (Remote US) — Full-Stack Software Engineer — TypeScript / Postgres / React / AI",
  "roles": [
    "Full-Stack Software Engineer"
  ],
  "locationText": "TypeScript / Postgres / React / AI",
  "isRemote": true,
  "isOnsite": false,
  "isHybrid": false,
  "visaSponsorship": null,
  "salaryText": "$100k-$180k",
  "technologies": [
    "ai",
    "aws",
    "llm",
    "node",
    "postgres",
    "react",
    "typescript"
  ],
  "links": [
    "https://www.prairielearn.com",
    "https://github.com/PrairieLearn/PrairieLearn",
    "https://www.prairielearn.com/jobs-ashby?utm_source=YeEJ5MAKk..."
  ],
  "text": "PrairieLearn (Remote US) — Full-Stack Software Engineer — TypeScript / Postgres / React / AI\n\nPrairieLearn (https://www.prairielearn.com) is an open-source assessment platform used by universities across the US (Berkeley, Princeton, Michigan, Illinois, and others). We power mastery-based learning an…",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-22T04:08:59.118924+00:00"
}
```

### Pricing & cost control

- **Pay per result**: you are charged one `post` event per post saved to the dataset. The current price per post is shown on the Actor's **Pricing** tab; platform usage (compute) is included in that price.
- **Hard caps, so a run can never surprise you**:
  - `maxItems` stops after N job posts.
  - `maxCostUsd` (optional) stops cleanly once that many dollars have been charged in this run.
  - Apify's own **Maximum cost per run** (Run options) is also respected; the Actor stops cleanly and keeps everything saved so far.
- Results that fail (errors, blocked pages, empty inputs) are not charged.

### FAQ & limits

- **Where does the data come from?** The public Hacker News / Algolia API. No login is needed.
- **Parsing accuracy:** company, roles, location and salary are parsed from the free-text header line, which every poster writes differently. Always keep the `text` field for anything critical.
- **Comments that are replies or were deleted** are skipped.
- `months` goes back one monthly thread per month.

# Actor input Schema

## `months` (type: `integer`):

1 = only the latest 'Ask HN: Who is hiring?' thread.

## `includeFreelancer` (type: `boolean`):

Also include 'Freelancer? Seeking freelancer?' threads.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Keep posts containing ANY of these words, e.g. python, rust, 'machine learning'. Empty = all.

## `remoteOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only posts that mention remote work.

## `locations` (type: `array`):

Keep posts whose text mentions ANY of these places, e.g. London, Berlin, NYC.

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

Hard cap on job posts saved (you pay per saved post).

## `maxCostUsd` (type: `number`):

Optional. Stop cleanly once this much has been charged in this run (e.g. 0.50). Apify's own 'Maximum cost per run' run option is respected too; the lower one wins. Leave empty for no extra cap. You pay per job post saved.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "months": 1,
  "includeFreelancer": false,
  "keywords": [
    "python",
    "remote"
  ],
  "remoteOnly": false,
  "locations": [],
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Job posts saved by this run (one dataset item each).

# 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 = {
    "keywords": [
        "python",
        "remote"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("liora-tools/hn-who-is-hiring").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 = { "keywords": [
        "python",
        "remote",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("liora-tools/hn-who-is-hiring").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 '{
  "keywords": [
    "python",
    "remote"
  ]
}' |
apify call liora-tools/hn-who-is-hiring --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,liora-tools/hn-who-is-hiring"
        }
    }
}
```

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/Cb7EMMWgs4RM7b6O3/builds/nom6bhd4AV2W6oqdh/openapi.json