# Hacker News Scraper: Front Page Stories & Scores (`naimurhasanrwd/hackernews-stories-scraper`) Actor

Pull the current Hacker News top, new, best, Ask, Show or Job lists via the official Firebase API: title, score, author, comment count and target domain. No login, no proxy, no browser.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/naimurhasanrwd/hackernews-stories-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Naimur Hasan](https://apify.com/naimurhasanrwd) (community)
- **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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## 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 Scraper

Pulls a Hacker News list — top, new, best, Ask, Show or Jobs — via the
official Firebase API. No login, no proxy, no browser.

### Input

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `list` | string | `topstories` | `newstories` | `beststories` | `askstories` | `showstories` | `jobstories`. Default `topstories`. |
| `maxItems` | integer | How many stories. Default `30`. |
| `minScore` | integer | Drop stories below this score. Default `0`. |

### Output

One row per story: `rank`, `id`, `title`, `type`, `by`, `score`,
`commentCount`, `url`, `domain`, `isSelfPost`, `text`, `createdAt`,
`discussionUrl`.

### Notes

- **The list endpoint returns ids only.** Each story needs its own request, so
  500 ids means 500 calls; this Actor fetches in batches of ten concurrently
  and `maxItems` defaults to a front page rather than the whole list.
- **A self post has no `url`.** Ask HN and most Show HN entries carry `text`
  instead, so `url` falls back to the discussion page and `isSelfPost` marks
  which is which — otherwise the domain column is empty for exactly the posts
  people most want to find.
- **Deleted and dead items stay in the list.** They come back as stubs with no
  title, and are dropped rather than emitted as blank rows.
- `descendants` is the full comment count including replies; `kids` is only
  the top-level replies and is not the number shown on the site.
- `rank` reflects position in the requested list before score filtering, so
  filtered output still shows where each story sat.

# Actor input Schema

## `list` (type: `string`):

Which Hacker News list to pull

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

How many stories to fetch. Each one is a separate request, so keep this modest.

## `minScore` (type: `integer`):

Drop stories below this many points

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "list": "topstories",
  "maxItems": 30,
  "minScore": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `items` (type: `string`):

One row per Hacker News story.

# 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("naimurhasanrwd/hackernews-stories-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("naimurhasanrwd/hackernews-stories-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 naimurhasanrwd/hackernews-stories-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,naimurhasanrwd/hackernews-stories-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/kd0hRE0TXpWGt1Xcu/builds/GF2CoH4EC2h0ybqDe/openapi.json