# Hacker News Discussion Monitor (Unofficial) (`sociable_scissors/hn-discussion-monitor`) Actor

Search Hacker News stories, comments, polls, and jobs through the public Algolia API. Filter by query, content type, author, points, date, and incremental history; return normalized discussion signals in a dataset.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/sociable_scissors/hn-discussion-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [刁下课 土](https://apify.com/sociable_scissors) (community)
- **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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## 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 Discussion Monitor (Unofficial)

Search and monitor public Hacker News developer discussions through the Hacker News Algolia API. The Actor supports stories, comments, polls, and jobs, with point, author, numeric, and date filters.

### Inputs

- `query`: words or phrases to search (default: `developer tools`).
- `searchMode`: `date` uses `search_by_date`; `relevance` uses `search`.
- `tags`: any of `story`, `comment`, `poll`, `job`.
- `author`, `numericFilters`, `minPoints`, `fromDate`, `toDate`, `maxItems`.
- `emitOnlyNew`: when enabled, records whose Algolia `objectID` appeared in an earlier run are omitted.

Each dataset row is a structured public hit signal with title, URL, author, score, comment count, timestamps, type, and source text when supplied by Algolia. No linked pages or personal contact information are collected.

### Pricing

The configured pay-per-event price is **$0.005 USD per discussion hit delivered**. API requests, duplicate hits, and filtered hits are not charged.

This is an independent, unofficial integration and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hacker News or Y Combinator.

### Local development

```bash
npm install
npm run build
npm test
```

# Actor input Schema

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

Words or phrases to find in Hacker News stories and comments.

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

Date order uses Algolia search_by_date; relevance uses search.

## `tags` (type: `array`):

Limit results to story, comment, poll, or job records.

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

Exact Hacker News username, without an @ prefix.

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

Optional Algolia filters, for example points>=10,story_text_length>100.

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

Convenience filter appended to numericFilters as points>=N.

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

Optional ISO-8601 timestamp; includes records created at or after this time.

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

Optional ISO-8601 timestamp; includes records created at or before this time.

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

Maximum records returned and billed for this run.

## `emitOnlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

Suppress objectIDs already emitted by earlier runs of this Actor.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "developer tools",
  "searchMode": "date",
  "tags": [
    "story",
    "comment"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "emitOnlyNew": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Stories, comments, polls, and jobs matching the search input.

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

Search and billing summary for this run.

# 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("sociable_scissors/hn-discussion-monitor").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("sociable_scissors/hn-discussion-monitor").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 sociable_scissors/hn-discussion-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,sociable_scissors/hn-discussion-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

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/Vl9kh1hgLYrmsPcSP/builds/Mn7rVjnY9RMmwgZOI/openapi.json