# Hacker News Scraper: Search, Threads & Who Is Hiring (`northgrid-data/hacker-news-search-threads-hiring`) Actor

- **URL**: https://apify.com/northgrid-data/hacker-news-search-threads-hiring.md
- **Developed by:** [Northgrid Data](https://apify.com/northgrid-data) (community)
- **Categories:** Jobs, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 item returneds

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 Scraper: Search, Threads & "Who Is Hiring"

Pull Hacker News data through the official HN Search API (Algolia). No browser, no proxies, no login: fast and cheap.

### Modes

- **search**: full-text search over stories, comments, Ask HN or Show HN, with date range, minimum points and sort by date or relevance.
- **thread**: a whole discussion flattened into rows with depth and parent IDs.
- **users**: profile, karma and bio.
- **monthlyThreads**: every post of the latest "Ask HN: Who is hiring?", "Who wants to be hired?" or "Freelancer? Seeking freelancer?" threads, parsed into company, remote flag, visa mention, links and contact email, with an optional keyword filter (e.g. python, remote, visa).

### Typical uses

- Brand and competitor mentions on HN, scheduled daily.
- Job-market research and sourcing leads from Who is hiring.
- Collect top discussions on a topic (`minPoints`) for research or content.
- Archive a thread with all comments.

### Input example

```json
{ "mode": "monthlyThreads", "threadKind": "hiring", "monthsBack": 3, "keywordFilter": ["rust", "remote"], "maxItemsPerQuery": 500 }
```

### Pricing

Pay per result: $0.001 per row. 1,000 comments cost $1.

### Limits

Algolia caps each search at 1,000 hits; split a long date range into several runs for more. Contact emails are only what posters themselves published in public hiring threads.
Questions or a field you need? Open an issue on the Actor page; we reply quickly.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

search = full-text search of stories/comments; thread = a whole discussion flattened; users = user profiles; monthlyThreads = posts from the monthly Who is hiring / Who wants to be hired / Freelancer threads.

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Keywords. Leave empty to list everything of the chosen type in the date range.

## `contentType` (type: `string`):

What to search.

## `sortByDate` (type: `boolean`):

Newest first instead of by relevance.

## `fromDate` (type: `string`):

e.g. 2025-01-01.

## `toDate` (type: `string`):

e.g. 2025-12-31.

## `minPoints` (type: `integer`):

Only items with at least this many points.

## `items` (type: `array`):

HN item URLs or IDs, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863.

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

HN usernames.

## `threadKind` (type: `string`):

hiring = Who is hiring?; wanted = Who wants to be hired?; freelance = Freelancer? Seeking freelancer?

## `monthsBack` (type: `integer`):

How many of the latest monthly threads to read.

## `keywordFilter` (type: `array`):

Keep only posts mentioning any of these words, e.g. python, remote, visa.

## `maxItemsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Upper bound on rows per query, thread or monthly thread. Search returns at most 1000 hits per query (Algolia limit).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "queries": [
    "sqlite"
  ],
  "contentType": "story",
  "sortByDate": false,
  "items": [],
  "usernames": [],
  "threadKind": "hiring",
  "monthsBack": 1,
  "keywordFilter": [],
  "maxItemsPerQuery": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `items` (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 = {
    "queries": [
        "sqlite"
    ],
    "items": [],
    "usernames": [],
    "keywordFilter": []
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("northgrid-data/hacker-news-search-threads-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 = {
    "queries": ["sqlite"],
    "items": [],
    "usernames": [],
    "keywordFilter": [],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("northgrid-data/hacker-news-search-threads-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 '{
  "queries": [
    "sqlite"
  ],
  "items": [],
  "usernames": [],
  "keywordFilter": []
}' |
apify call northgrid-data/hacker-news-search-threads-hiring --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,northgrid-data/hacker-news-search-threads-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/VGqpQcTURuWBvouUa/builds/zEeiNbJVAqbKQshhC/openapi.json