# Hacker News Web Scraper (`slate_spool/hacker-news-web-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) for stories, comments, and user profiles. Returns structured data including title, URL, score, author, timestamp, comment count, and full comment trees. Perfect for trend analysis, tech market research, and content monitoring.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/slate\_spool/hacker-news-web-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Wes Shields](https://apify.com/slate_spool) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Social media, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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

## Hacker News Web Scraper

Scrape Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) for stories, comments, and user profiles. Returns structured data including title, URL, score, author, timestamp, comment count, and full comment trees. Perfect for trend analysis, tech market research, and content monitoring.

### Features

- Front page stories with scores and metadata
- Full comment tree extraction with nesting
- User profile scraping (karma, submissions)
- Search by keyword across stories
- "Ask HN" and "Show HN" filtering
- Canonical URLs for every record
- Structured JSON output

### Use Cases

- Tech trend and sentiment analysis
- Startup and product launch monitoring
- Content marketing intelligence
- AI/ML training data collection
- Competitive intelligence for tech companies

### FAQ

**Q: Is this scraping public data?**
A: Yes — Hacker News is a fully public site. This actor respects rate limits and robots.txt.

**Q: Can I get historical data?**
A: The actor fetches current data. For historical HN data, consider pairing with the official HN Firebase API.

**Q: How many stories per run?**
A: Configurable — default is the front page (30 stories). Can paginate through multiple pages.

# Actor input Schema

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

Public Hacker News listing page.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Hard page and source-request scope. HN requires 30 seconds between content pages.

## `maxRecords` (type: `integer`):

Hard output and metering cap.

## `maxRequests` (type: `integer`):

Hard request cap including robots.txt and retries.

## `maxRunSeconds` (type: `integer`):

Hard wall-clock cost cap.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries for HTTP 429 and 5xx responses; still count against maxRequests.

## `failOnEmpty` (type: `boolean`):

Emit a structured failed run rather than silently succeeding with zero stories.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "listing": "newest",
  "maxPages": 1,
  "maxRecords": 30,
  "maxRequests": 8,
  "maxRunSeconds": 120,
  "maxRetries": 2,
  "failOnEmpty": true
}
```

# 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("slate_spool/hacker-news-web-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 = {}

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

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,slate_spool/hacker-news-web-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/ysHRannU39zx6g6SJ/builds/73k8bOnrHvLy7QqNW/openapi.json