# Viral Reddit & Hacker News Scraper – Shorts & Blog Story (`robinworld/viral-content-story-source`) Actor

Extracts top viral stories, high-upvote threads, and breaking tech discussions from Reddit and Hacker News for YouTube Shorts creators and bloggers.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/robinworld/viral-content-story-source.md
- **Developed by:** [Robin world](https://apify.com/robinworld) (community)
- **Categories:**
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

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?

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

## 🎬 Viral Content & Story Engine | Shorts & Blog Generator

> **The continuous content generation backend for AI bloggers, YouTube Shorts creators, TikTok accounts, and newsletter editors.**

Automatically scrapes verified **viral story hooks, AskReddit dilemmas, mind-blowing TIL facts, and high-engagement tech narratives** formatted directly for AI video/blog scripting.

***

### 💎 Why Creators & App Developers Need This Actor

Coming up with engaging topics daily leads to creator burnout. This Actor supplies an endless stream of validated, viral social narratives for just **$0.002 per story**.

- **🔥 Proven Engagement**: Sourced directly from top viral threads on Hacker News, r/AskReddit, r/todayilearned, and r/nosleep.
- **⚡ 60-Second Shorts Ready**: Each record includes an estimated reading duration, attention hook, and condensed synopsis.
- **📱 Automated Publishing Backend**: Connect via Apify API or Webhooks to feed your automated WordPress blog, Substack newsletter, or CapCut/HeyGen video workflow.
- **📊 Multi-Format Export**: Instant export to **JSON, CSV, or Excel**.

***

### 🚀 How to Use

1. **Viral Story Source**: Select `All Sources`, `Hacker News`, `AskReddit`, or `Today I Learned`.
2. **Minimum Score / Upvotes**: Filter by social proof threshold (e.g. `50` or `200`).
3. **Max Stories Limit**: Set count of records to extract.
4. **Click "Start"** to stream viral scripting ideas into your dataset.

***

### 📦 Output Data Sample

```json
{
  "story_id": "hn_41478920",
  "title": "I've factored the RSA keys of a Certificate Authority from the 90s",
  "source": "Hacker News",
  "content_text": "An intriguing retrospective on 90s cryptographic infrastructure and breaking legacy RSA keys...",
  "summary": "Viral trending tech discussion with 128 points and 26 comments on Hacker News.",
  "score": 128,
  "comments_count": 26,
  "source_url": "https://mcpherrin.ca/2026/09/07/rsa.html",
  "discussion_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41478920",
  "tags": [
    "Tech",
    "Security",
    "ViralHook"
  ],
  "estimated_reading_time_sec": 75,
  "extracted_at": "2026-09-08T03:35:00Z"
}
```

***

### 💰 Pricing: Pay-Per-Event

- **Price**: **$0.002** per extracted viral story record.
- Generate 1,000 viral video/blog topics for just **$2.00**.
- Pay only for actual stories extracted.

# Actor input Schema

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

Select platform and community to scrape for viral content materials

## `min_score` (type: `integer`):

Threshold of social proof required to qualify as viral

## `max_items` (type: `integer`):

Total count of content records to generate (charged $0.002 per story)

## `proxy_configuration` (type: `object`):

Apify proxy settings for rapid content retrieval

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "content_source": "all",
  "min_score": 50,
  "max_items": 50,
  "proxy_configuration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Top viral stories and short-form text script dataset items

# 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("robinworld/viral-content-story-source").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("robinworld/viral-content-story-source").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 robinworld/viral-content-story-source --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,robinworld/viral-content-story-source"
        }
    }
}

```

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/UTLCUGIhMqwfWCI12/builds/xpaW1yE7ZX3Y8ZmGm/openapi.json