# Hacker News Scraper – Search Stories & Comments, No False Hits (`projectace01/hackernews-search`) Actor

Search Hacker News stories, comments, Ask HN, Show HN and jobs by keyword and date range, with points and comment filters. Removes Algolia's fuzzy false positives, so you only get items that really mention your keyword. No login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/projectace01/hackernews-search.md
- **Developed by:** [Project Ace](https://apify.com/projectace01) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.50 / 1,000 items

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 Search – Stories & Comments, Precise Matches

Search all of Hacker News since 2006 by keyword and date range: stories, comments, Ask HN, Show HN, jobs and polls.

### Why this Actor

- **Precise results.** The public HN search (Algolia) is fuzzy: it also matches typo variants and usernames. Example: comments since 1 Oct 2026 for `rust` – Algolia reports 11,133 hits, but only 1,715 actually mention Rust; for `deno` it is 443 of 4,822. This Actor keeps only items where every keyword appears at the start of a word in the title, text or URL. Clean keywords like `postgres` lose almost nothing (582 of 608).
- **No 1,000-result cap.** Algolia stops at 1,000 hits per query; the Actor walks back through time to get as many as you ask for.
- **Filters**: date range, minimum points, minimum comments.
- **Privacy by default**: usernames only if you switch them on.

### Output

```json
{ "id": "50038623", "type": "story", "title": "PSPi 6 – Raspberry Pi in a PSP",
  "url": "https://github.com/othermod/PSPi-Version-6", "text": "", "points": 135, "numComments": 14,
  "createdAt": "2026-10-11T00:45:49Z", "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50038623" }
```

### Use cases

Brand and competitor monitoring, launch tracking (Show HN), developer sentiment research, hiring trends from "Who is hiring" threads, dataset building.

Not affiliated with Y Combinator or Algolia. Content belongs to its authors; use it in line with applicable law.

# Actor input Schema

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

Search term, e.g. postgres or "vector database". Leave empty to get everything in the date range.

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

What to search.

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

YYYY-MM-DD

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

YYYY-MM-DD

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

Only stories with at least this many points.

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

Only stories with at least this many comments.

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

Stop after this many results (newest first).

## `includeAuthor` (type: `boolean`):

Off by default for privacy.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "raspberry pi",
  "type": "story",
  "minPoints": 0,
  "minComments": 0,
  "maxItems": 500,
  "includeAuthor": false
}
```

# 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 = {
    "query": "raspberry pi"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("projectace01/hackernews-search").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 = { "query": "raspberry pi" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("projectace01/hackernews-search").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 '{
  "query": "raspberry pi"
}' |
apify call projectace01/hackernews-search --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,projectace01/hackernews-search"
        }
    }
}
```

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/sTYesXb8i6eHEmbyH/builds/PKBEvjRO6C29MOaUJ/openapi.json