# Hacker News Scraper (Stories, Comments, Ask HN, Show HN) (`pagecraft/hacker-news-scraper`) Actor

Search Hacker News stories, comments, Ask HN and Show HN by keyword, author, points and date, beyond the usual 1,000-result limit. Clean JSON, no login, fast.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pagecraft/hacker-news-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Pagecraft Tools](https://apify.com/pagecraft) (community)
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.35 / 1,000 result 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 Scraper: Stories, Comments, Ask HN and Show HN

Search **Hacker News** by keyword, type, author, points and date, and get clean, structured stories and comments. Unlike most tools, newest-first searches keep going **past the usual 1,000-result limit**.

### What it does

- Searches stories, comments, Ask HN, Show HN, polls, jobs or the current front page.
- Filters by **minimum points**, **minimum comments**, **date range** and **author**.
- Sorts by newest first or by relevance.
- Returns clean text: HTML and entities in comments are converted to plain text, and links are kept.
- Adds the Hacker News link and the linked site's domain to every story.

### Who it's for

- **Founders and marketers** tracking mentions of their product or competitors.
- **Developer relations and recruiters** finding active people and discussions.
- **Researchers and AI pipelines** collecting tech discussion data over time.

### Input

| Field | What to enter |
| --- | --- |
| Search terms | Keywords, one per line (empty = newest or top items) |
| Type | Stories, comments, Ask HN, Show HN, polls, jobs, front page |
| Sort by | Newest first or most relevant |
| Maximum results per search | Up to 50,000 |
| Minimum points / comments | Optional thresholds |
| From / to date | Optional date range |
| Author | Optional username |

```json
{ "searchTerms": ["postgres", "sqlite"], "type": "story", "minPoints": 100, "dateFrom": "2026-01-01" }
```

### Output

```json
{
  "search": "postgres", "id": "45678901", "type": "story",
  "title": "Postgres 19 released", "url": "https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/", "domain": "postgresql.org",
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45678901",
  "author": "someone", "points": 512, "comments": 203, "createdAt": "2026-09-25T14:03:00Z",
  "text": null, "isAskHn": false, "isShowHn": false
}
```

Comments include `text`, `storyId`, `parentId` and the parent story's title.

### Pricing

| Event | When it is charged | Price per 1,000 (Free / Bronze / Silver / Gold plan) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Search run | Each request for up to 1,000 results (most searches need one), once per started 1 MB, including searches with no results. | $1 on every plan |
| Result scraped | Each story or comment returned in the dataset. | $0.50 / $0.45 / $0.40 / $0.35 |

Example: 5 searches returning 1,000 results each on the Free plan costs 5 × $0.001 + 5,000 × $0.0005 = $2.51.

### Notes and limits

- Data comes from the public Hacker News search API (by Algolia), which is usually up to date within minutes.
- Sorting by relevance stops at about 1,000 results per search; use newest first for more.
- Points and comment counts are as they stand when the run happens.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Keywords, one per line. Leave empty to get the newest or top items of the chosen type.

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

What to search.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

Newest first can go past 1,000 results; most relevant stops at about 1,000.

## `maxResultsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many results for each search term.

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

Only items with at least this many points.

## `minComments` (type: `integer`):

Only stories with at least this many comments.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

Only items posted on or after this date.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

Only items posted on or before this date.

## `author` (type: `string`):

Only items by this Hacker News username.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Apify datacenter proxies or your own proxies. Residential proxies are not supported.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "apify"
  ],
  "type": "story",
  "sort": "date",
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 20,
  "minPoints": 0,
  "minComments": 0
}
```

# 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 = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "apify"
    ],
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pagecraft/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 = {
    "searchTerms": ["apify"],
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 20,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pagecraft/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 '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "apify"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 20
}' |
apify call pagecraft/hacker-news-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,pagecraft/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/Tl9kPMYqKiWg641ep/builds/3Uo3nXz1gi04ZuXv2/openapi.json