Hacker News Thread Fetcher

📰 Fetch Hacker News thread data using the official Firebase API - no authentication required! Perfect for tech news monitoring and community insights.

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📺 What It Extracts

• Thread Metadata: ID, title, author, score, URL, submission time
• Comment Data: All comments with author, text, score, and timestamps
• Thread Structure: Parent-child relationships between comments
• Statistics: Total comment count and thread metadata

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🚀 Key Features

Feature	Description
🔥 Firebase API	Uses official Hacker News Firebase API
🔓 No Authentication	Zero friction - no API keys required
📊 Complete Threads	Fetches all comments and nested replies
⚡ Fast Performance	Direct API access for quick data retrieval
🔄 Flexible Input	Accepts item ID or thread URL
📈 Structured Output	Clean JSON format with thread hierarchy

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📥 Input

Required (One of)

• itemId (integer): Hacker News item ID
  • Example: 12345678
• threadUrl (string): Hacker News thread URL
  • Example: "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678"

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📤 Output

Returns comprehensive thread data:

Thread Metadata

{
  "item": {
    "id": 12345678,
    "title": "Thread Title",
    "author": "username",
    "score": 150,
    "url": "https://example.com/article",
    "time": 1704067200,
    "timeDate": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
    "descendants": 45,
    "type": "story"
  }
}

Comments Array

{
  "comments": [
    {
      "id": 12345679,
      "author": "commenter",
      "text": "Comment text...",
      "score": 10,
      "time": 1704067300,
      "timeDate": "2024-01-01T00:01:40.000Z",
      "parent": 12345678,
      "kids": [12345680]
    }
  ],
  "totalComments": 45
}

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💡 Use Cases

• ✅ Tech News Monitoring - Track trending topics and discussions
• ✅ Community Insights - Analyze comment sentiment and engagement
• ✅ Content Research - Find relevant discussions and insights
• ✅ Trend Analysis - Monitor popular topics over time
• ✅ Social Listening - Track discussions about specific topics
• ✅ Data Analysis - Collect data for research and analytics

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⚙️ Technical Details

• API Source: Official Hacker News Firebase API
• No Authentication: Public API - no keys required
• Data Format: JSON responses from Firebase
• Error Handling: Validates item IDs and handles missing threads
• Performance: Fast API-based extraction without browser overhead

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📝 Example Usage

Using Item ID

{
  "itemId": 12345678
}

Using Thread URL

{
  "threadUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678"
}

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⚠️ Important Notes

• Uses Hacker News Firebase API - no authentication needed!
• Item IDs can be found in the URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678
• Threads with deleted comments will show null for deleted comment fields
• The API is rate-limited but generally very permissive