You can access the Hacker News Ask HN Snapshot programmatically from your own applications by using the Apify API. You can also choose the language preference from below. To use the Apify API, you’ll need an Apify account and your API token, found in API & Integrations in Apify Console.

Python

JavaScript

CLI

OpenAPI

HTTP

MCP

1import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
2
3// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
4// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
5const client = new ApifyClient({
6    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
7});
8
9// Prepare Actor input
10const input = {
11    "searchKeywords": [
12        "source-backed signal",
13        "buyer fit"
14    ],
15    "taskIntent": "buyer-ready-product-run",
16    "sourceMode": "startUrls",
17    "outputMode": "buyer-ready-records",
18    "startUrls": [
19        {
20            "url": "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?tags=ask_hn&hitsPerPage=20"
21        }
22    ],
23    "requestTimeoutSecs": 30,
24    "maxRequestRetries": 2,
25    "sinceLastRun": false,
26    "deltaMode": false,
27    "maxItems": 8
28};
29
30// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
31const run = await client.actor("zentrafoundry/reddit-pain-point-buyer-intent-miner").call(input);
32
33// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
34console.log('Results from dataset');
35console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
36const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
37items.forEach((item) => {
38    console.dir(item);
39});
40
41// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

Ask HN titles — not Reddit intent API in JavaScript

The Apify API client for JavaScript is the official library that allows you to use Hacker News Ask HN Snapshot API in JavaScript or TypeScript, providing convenience functions and automatic retries on errors.

Install the apify-client

$npm install apify-client

Other API clients include:

Hacker News Ask HN Snapshot API in Python

Hacker News Ask HN Snapshot API through CLI

Hacker News Ask HN Snapshot OpenAPI definition

Hacker News Ask HN Snapshot API

Hacker News Ask HN Jobs Scraper | JSON

trisert/hackernews-ask-hn-jobs

Scrape "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" job threads from Hacker News into structured JSON. Pay per result.

Nicola Destro

Hacker News Scraper Pro — Stories, Jobs, Show HN, Ask HN

diverse_venture/hackernews-scraper

Comprehensive Hacker News scraper. Get top/new/best stories, Ask HN, Show HN, Who's Hiring jobs, comments, and search results. Uses the official HN Firebase API + Algolia search — no auth required. Export JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Chak Man Fung

Hacker News Show HN Snapshot

zentrafoundry/public-data-product-launch-sprint

HN Algolia Show HN stories (title + URL). Not a launch plan for your data product. $0.01 / story.

Zentra

Hacker News Search Scraper (Free)

fit_melon/hacker-news-search-scraper

Search Hacker News stories, comments, Ask HN & Show HN by keyword. Filter by points, sort by date or relevance, full HN archive. Clean JSON output via the official Algolia HN API. 100% free — no API key needed.

D N

Hacker News Scraper - Stories, Jobs, Ask HN & Show HN

lentic_clockss/hacker-news-scraper

Export fresh Hacker News stories, comments, jobs, Ask HN, Show HN, and polls into structured datasets for research, hiring signals, and monitoring.

kane liu

Hacker News Scraper - Stories, Points, Comments & Ask HN

feedforge/hacker-news-scraper

Scrape Hacker News stories, Show HN, Ask HN and jobs. Titles, points, authors, comment counts and URLs as JSON or CSV.

Dominik

Hacker News Scraper

nogards95/hacker-news-scraper

Scrape Hacker News stories, comments, jobs, Ask HN, and Show HN using Algolia Search API and HN Firebase API. Supports full-text search, date/points filters, and live feeds.

Nogards

5.0

Hacker News Scraper — Stories, Comments, Ask/Show HN

hipersoft/hacker-news-scraper

Scrape Hacker News stories, comments, Ask HN, Show HN, jobs and polls by keyword, points, comments and date range. Sort by relevance or newest. Title, URL, author, points, comment count, text and HN link. Fast clean HTTP via the HN Algolia API, no setup.