# Hacker News Top Stories & Discussions Extractor (`litezero/hacker-news-scraper`) Actor

Extract top stories, new submissions, Ask HN, and Show HN discussions with upvotes, author handles, timestamps, comments counts, and links using Firebase API.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/litezero/hacker-news-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [LiteZero](https://apify.com/litezero) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Social media, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.70 / 1,000 item scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 Top Stories & Discussions Extractor

Extract trending tech stories, developer discussions, Ask HN, Show HN, and Job posts from Hacker News with full engagement metrics, author karma, and clean comment links.

***

### 🥊 Why This Actor Beats the Competition

| Feature | Fragile HTML Table Scrapers | Raw Firebase Polling | **This Actor** |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **Speed** | 🐌 Slow table DOM parsing | ⚠️ Hundreds of individual HTTP requests | ⚡ **Batch parallelized streaming** |
| **Stability** | ❌ Breaks on layout changes | Prone to network drops | ✅ **Official Algolia & Firebase dual backends** |
| **Cost** | 💸 High compute hours | 💸 High request count | 💰 **$1.00 per 1,000 stories** (PPR) |
| **Data Enrichment** | ⚠️ Just title & URL | Raw IDs only | ✅ **Score, comments count, domain & author** |

***

### 🛠️ Step-by-Step: How to Use

#### Method 1: Apify Console

1. Select category in **Category** (`top`, `new`, `best`, `ask`, `show`).
2. Set **Max Items** limit (default: `50`).
3. Click **Start** to extract stories.

#### Method 2: Python SDK

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("litezero/hacker-news-scraper").call(run_input={
    "category": "top",
    "maxItems": 30
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"[{item['score']} pts] {item['title']} ({item['numComments']} comments)")
```

***

### 📥 Input Parameters

| Field | Type | Required | Default | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| `category` | String | No | `"top"` | Story category: `top`, `new`, `best`, `ask`, `show` |
| `maxItems` | Integer | No | `50` | Maximum stories to extract |

***

### 📤 Output Data Dictionary

| Field | Type | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| `id` | Integer | Hacker News item ID |
| `title` | String | Story title |
| `url` | String | Target article URL |
| `hnUrl` | String | Direct link to Hacker News discussion thread |
| `author` | String | Submitter's Hacker News handle |
| `score` | Integer | Community upvotes |
| `numComments` | Integer | Number of comments |
| `domain` | String | Source domain name |
| `createdAt` | String | ISO 8601 publication timestamp |
| `scrapedAt` | String | ISO 8601 scrape timestamp |

***

### 💡 Top Use Cases

- **Tech Trend Scouting:** Track emerging developer tools, AI breakthroughs, and YC startups.
- **Newsletter Curation:** Automated weekly digests of top Show HN projects.

# Actor input Schema

## `storyType` (type: `string`):

Story category: top, new, best, ask, or show.

## `maxStories` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of stories to fetch.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "storyType": "top",
  "maxStories": 30
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("litezero/hacker-news-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("litezero/hacker-news-scraper").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 litezero/hacker-news-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/ldo0CXA3Nl9tvfhtt/builds/TrX5gsZ8y98tFlKwF/openapi.json