# Hacker News User Profiles & Karma Scraper (`litezero/hackernews-user-profile-scraper`) Actor

Extract Hacker News public profiles, karma points, account age, bio descriptions, and submitted story lists for dev talent sourcing and founder research.

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

## Pricing

from $0.84 / 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 User Profiles & Karma Scraper

Extract public Hacker News developer profiles, karma reputation points, account creation dates, bios, and recent submitted stories directly via the official Y Combinator Firebase API.

Engineered for tech recruiters, devtool developer advocates, open-source maintainers, and venture capital talent scouts.

***

### 🥊 Why This Actor Beats the Competition

| Feature | 👤 This Actor (`litezero`) | 🐢 HTML Parsing Puppeteer Scrapers | 🔒 Algolia API Search |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Speed** | ⚡ **< 0.5s per profile** | 🐌 5–10 seconds per page | ⏳ Only searches items, not user records |
| **Pricing** | 💰 **$1.20 / 1,000 profiles** (Free Platform Usage) | 💸 Heavy compute bill ($5–$15/run) | 💳 Requires API keys & credits |
| **Data Enrichment** | 📦 Karma + Bio + Submission Count + Recent Stories | ⚠️ Fragile HTML table selectors | ❌ Incomplete user stats |
| **Anti-Bot Resiliency** | 🛡️ Official YC Firebase gateway, 0% blocks | 🚫 Cloudflare / IP bans | 🔑 Strict rate limit blocks |
| **Setup Friction** | 🚀 **Zero API keys required** | 🛠️ Headless Chrome setup | 📝 Complex app registration |

***

### 🛠️ Step-by-Step: How to Use

#### Method 1: Apify Web Console (No-Code)

1. Enter a list of Hacker News usernames (e.g. `pg`, `dang`, `sama`, `swyx`, `patio11`).
2. Toggle whether to fetch recent submitted stories.
3. Click **Start** and export results to JSON, CSV, or Excel.

#### Method 2: Python SDK

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run_input = {
    "usernames": ["pg", "dang", "sama", "swyx"],
    "includeRecentSubmissions": True,
    "maxSubmissions": 5
}

run = client.actor("litezero/hackernews-user-profile-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"@{item['username']}: Karma {item['karma']} | {item['total_submissions_count']} submissions")
```

#### Method 3: Node.js SDK

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('litezero/hackernews-user-profile-scraper').call({
    usernames: ['swyx', 'patio11'],
    includeRecentSubmissions: true
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(`Retrieved ${items.length} HN profiles.`);
```

#### Method 4: REST API / cURL

```bash
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/litezero~hackernews-user-profile-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"usernames": ["sama", "pg"], "includeRecentSubmissions": true}'
```

***

### 📥 Input Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|:---:|:---:|:---:|---|
| `usernames` | `array` | **Yes** | `["pg", "dang", "sama", "swyx"]` | List of HN handles (strings or full profile URLs). |
| `includeRecentSubmissions` | `boolean` | No | `true` | Fetch title, URL, and score for top recent posts. |
| `maxSubmissions` | `integer`| No | `5` | Maximum recent submissions to fetch per user (1–15). |

***

### 📤 Output Data Dictionary & Sample JSON

```json
{
  "username": "pg",
  "karma": 164280,
  "created_timestamp": 1171823387,
  "created_date_iso": "2007-02-18T18:29:47.000Z",
  "account_age_years": 19.6,
  "about": "Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator.",
  "total_submissions_count": 6842,
  "recent_submissions": [
    {
      "id": 41284920,
      "type": "story",
      "title": "How to Do Great Work",
      "url": "https://paulgraham.com/greatwork.html",
      "score": 1245,
      "time_iso": "2024-08-18T14:20:00.000Z",
      "comments_count": 482
    }
  ],
  "profile_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pg",
  "scraped_at": "2026-10-04T06:00:00.000Z"
}
```

***

### 💡 Top Commercial Use Cases

1. **Tech Recruiting & Dev Sourcing:** Identify top technical contributors, prolific writers, and senior startup engineers by HN karma and comment history.
2. **Influencer & Founder Outreach:** Find contact info, personal blogs, and project links left in user bios for high-signal developer relations.
3. **Developer Credibility Scoring:** Build reputation verification scoring into developer job platforms and Web3 contributor networks.

# Actor input Schema

## `usernames` (type: `array`):

List of Hacker News usernames to analyze.

## `includeRecentSubmissions` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch title, score, and URL for the user's top recent submissions.

## `maxSubmissions` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of recent submissions to fetch per user (1 to 15).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "usernames": [
    "pg",
    "dang",
    "sama",
    "swyx"
  ],
  "includeRecentSubmissions": true,
  "maxSubmissions": 5
}
```

# 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 = {
    "usernames": [
        "pg",
        "dang",
        "sama",
        "swyx"
    ],
    "includeRecentSubmissions": true,
    "maxSubmissions": 5
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("litezero/hackernews-user-profile-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 = {
    "usernames": [
        "pg",
        "dang",
        "sama",
        "swyx",
    ],
    "includeRecentSubmissions": True,
    "maxSubmissions": 5,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("litezero/hackernews-user-profile-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 '{
  "usernames": [
    "pg",
    "dang",
    "sama",
    "swyx"
  ],
  "includeRecentSubmissions": true,
  "maxSubmissions": 5
}' |
apify call litezero/hackernews-user-profile-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,litezero/hackernews-user-profile-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/5pgn5OR7fWrjgFiZa/builds/JyLejGvAbULV1MeBZ/openapi.json