# Hacker News Trends, Top Stories & Discussions Scraper (`pagerka/hacker-news-scraper`) Actor

Lightning-fast Hacker News scraper. Extract top stories, Show HN launches, Ask HN questions, upvote scores, comment counts, external URLs, and AI discussions without rate limits.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pagerka/hacker-news-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Stepan Pagerka](https://apify.com/pagerka) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer examples, AI, Business
- **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 Trends, Top Stories & Discussions Scraper

Lightning-fast Hacker News scraper and feed extractor. Captures front page stories, Show HN launches, Ask HN discussions, upvote scores, comment counts, external URLs, and AI debates with zero rate limit blocks.

***

### ⚡ Key Features

- **📰 All Sections Supported**: Front page top stories, Show HN product launches, Ask HN Q\&As, and Newest tech submissions.
- **🔍 Full-Text Keyword Search**: Query historical or live discussions on AI, LLMs, startups, crypto, frameworks, etc.
- **🔗 Direct Links & Discussions**: Extracts both original external URLs and official Y Combinator discussion thread links.
- **⚡ Super Fast HTTP Architecture**: Extracts 50–100 stories in under 0.8 seconds.
- **📊 Clean JSON/CSV Export**: Perfect for tech newsletters, RSS aggregators, market research, and automated AI summary pipelines.

***

### 📥 Input Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| `section` | Enum | `"front_page"` | Section (`"front_page"`, `"show_hn"`, `"ask_hn"`, `"newest"`, `"search"`). |
| `searchQuery` | String | `""` | Optional search keyword (e.g. `LLM`, `DeepSeek`, `Rust`). |
| `maxResults` | Integer | `50` | Maximum number of stories to extract. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Object | `{ "useApifyProxy": false }` | Optional proxy settings. |

***

### 📤 Sample Output (JSON)

```json
{
  "id": "41258901",
  "title": "Show HN: Antigravity – Autonomous Pair-Programming Agent",
  "url": "https://antigravity.google.com",
  "points": 348,
  "author": "techfounder",
  "commentsCount": 112,
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41258901",
  "section": "show_hn",
  "createdAt": "2026-08-16T18:00:00.000Z",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-17T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

***

### 🚀 Use Cases

- **Tech Industry Newsletters**: Curate top trending developer stories automatically for weekly newsletters.
- **AI Trend Detection**: Monitor the most upvoted open-source AI tools and papers in real-time.
- **Show HN Deal Flow**: Discover newly launched developer tools and indie hacker projects on day 1.

# Actor input Schema

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

Select Hacker News category.

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

Search keyword (e.g. 'LLM', 'Rust', 'Postgres', 'DeepSeek'). Used when section is 'search' or to filter stories.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Number of stories to extract.

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

Proxy settings (optional).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "section": "front_page",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Access extracted Hacker News top stories, Show HNs, upvote counts, comments, and external article URLs in JSON, CSV, or Excel format.

# 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 = {
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pagerka/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 = { "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False } }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pagerka/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 '{
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call pagerka/hacker-news-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,pagerka/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/VGhOPYTDGu5BkPjY4/builds/EV36cboQ1Q4dGLcrS/openapi.json