# Hacker News Scraper (`bgfc97/hacker-news-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Hacker News stories, comments, Show/Ask HN and front page via the official Algolia HN Search API — title, URL, points, comment count, author, text, dates — by keyword or author. Reliable, no key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bgfc97/hacker-news-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Bruno](https://apify.com/bgfc97) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 item scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

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 Scraper 🟠

Search and export **Hacker News** — stories, comments, Show/Ask HN, polls, and the front page — via the official Algolia HN Search API. Title, URL, points, comment count, author, text, and dates, in one clean feed.

Great for tech/startup trend tracking, brand and product monitoring, developer sentiment, and feeding AI agents with tech-news signal.

### What it does

- Search by **keyword**, filter by **type** (story, comment, Show HN, Ask HN, poll, front page).
- Filter by **author** and **minimum points**.
- Sort by relevance or newest; auto-paginates.

### Input

```json
{
  "queries": ["AI agents"],
  "type": "story",
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "minPoints": 50,
  "maxItemsPerQuery": 100
}
```

### Output (one row per item)

```json
{
  "type": "story",
  "object_id": "40000000",
  "title": "Show HN: I built an AI agent framework",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "author": "someuser",
  "points": 412,
  "num_comments": 133,
  "created_at": "2026-07-14T...",
  "hn_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40000000"
}
```

### Notes

- Uses the official, free Algolia HN Search API — stable and reliable.
- No key and (usually) no proxy needed.
- Run on a schedule to keep a live feed of any keyword or author.

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Keywords to search Hacker News.

## `authors` (type: `array`):

Optional HN usernames to restrict results to.

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

What to fetch.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Relevance or newest first.

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

Only keep items with at least this many points.

## `maxItemsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many items per query.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel requests.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. The Algolia HN API is generous, so proxy is usually not needed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "AI agents"
  ],
  "authors": [],
  "type": "story",
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "minPoints": 0,
  "maxItemsPerQuery": 100,
  "maxConcurrency": 4,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# 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 = {
    "queries": [
        "AI agents"
    ],
    "authors": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bgfc97/hacker-news-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 = {
    "queries": ["AI agents"],
    "authors": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("bgfc97/hacker-news-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "AI agents"
  ],
  "authors": [],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call bgfc97/hacker-news-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=bgfc97/hacker-news-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/CFLDiXYLU3opcecYa/builds/tsCaWVlywuAPSheLu/openapi.json