# Hacker News Keyword Tracker — New Mentions & Discussions (`m_ctim/hacker-news-keyword-tracker`) Actor

Track new Hacker News stories and comments mentioning a keyword — your product, your competitor, or a topic. Get the title, points, comment count, author, and link the moment it's posted. For founders and marketers watching for mentions, and researchers tracking a topic's discussion.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/m\_ctim/hacker-news-keyword-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Timothy Kelvin](https://apify.com/m_ctim) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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 Keyword Tracker — New Mentions & Discussions

Track new Hacker News stories and comments mentioning a keyword — your
product, a competitor, or a topic. Get the title, points, comment count,
author, and link the moment it's posted, without refreshing HN's search
by hand.

Built for founders and marketers watching for mentions of their product,
and researchers or investors tracking how a topic is being discussed.

### Input

```json
{
  "keywords": ["apify", "web scraping"],
  "includeComments": true,
  "daysBack": 14,
  "maxResultsPerKeyword": 20
}
```

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `keywords` | array of strings | Search terms. One search is billed per keyword. |
| `includeComments` | boolean | Also match comments, not just submitted stories. Default `true`. |
| `daysBack` | number | Only return posts/comments from within this many days of today. Default `14`, max `90`. |
| `maxResultsPerKeyword` | number | Max matches to return per keyword, most recent first. Default `20`, max `100`. |

### Output

One record per match:

```json
{
  "keyword": "apify",
  "type": "story",
  "objectID": "49119659",
  "title": "YouTube Shorts Scraper and MCP Connector",
  "author": "techforce_actor",
  "points": 2,
  "numComments": 0,
  "createdAt": "2026-07-31T06:23:39Z",
  "externalUrl": "https://apify.com/techforce.global/youtube-shorts-scraper",
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49119659"
}
```

A keyword with no matches in the requested window returns no items but
is still billed once for the search.

### How it works

Direct calls to the official [Algolia Hacker News Search
API](https://hn.algolia.com/api) (`hn.algolia.com`), the same search
index that powers HN's own search page. No proxy, no key, no scraping.

### Pricing note

Billed per **keyword searched**, not per mention returned — one charge
per keyword whether it matches 0 or 100 posts/comments.

### Related products

- [GitHub Release Tracker](https://github.com/timmKal01/github-release-tracker) — new versions of repos you depend on, a different kind of "watch this thing" tracker

# Actor input Schema

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

Search terms (e.g. your product name, a competitor, a topic). One search is billed per keyword.

## `includeComments` (type: `boolean`):

Also match comments, not just submitted stories.

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

Only return posts/comments from within this many days of today.

## `maxResultsPerKeyword` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of matches to return per keyword, most recent first.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "ai"
  ],
  "includeComments": true,
  "daysBack": 14,
  "maxResultsPerKeyword": 20
}
```

# 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 = {
    "keywords": [
        "ai"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("m_ctim/hacker-news-keyword-tracker").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": ["ai"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("m_ctim/hacker-news-keyword-tracker").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": [
    "ai"
  ]
}' |
apify call m_ctim/hacker-news-keyword-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/GaXtkscFMRkG4VSMm/builds/NHBE5mbe7ajbhGxzv/openapi.json