# Hacker News Idea & Pain Point Finder (`bohard/hacker-news-idea-finder`) Actor

Search Hacker News for posts where people complain about problems and ask for tools. Find validated pain points, startup ideas and market-research signals.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bohard/hacker-news-idea-finder.md
- **Developed by:** [Bohdan Shtelmakh](https://apify.com/bohard) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage

## 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 Idea & Pain Point Finder

Find **validated startup ideas and customer pain points** on Hacker News in seconds. Give it a topic — get back the posts and comments where real people complain, get frustrated, and ask "is there a tool that…".

Perfect for **indie hackers, SaaS founders, marketers and product teams** doing market research and idea validation.

### What it does

For each topic you provide, the actor:

1. Searches Hacker News (stories, Ask HN, Show HN and/or comments) via the official HN Algolia API.
2. Scans each item's title and text for **pain signals** — frustration, complaints, and requests for tools/alternatives.
3. Scores every item by how many pain signals it contains and returns the strongest ones, with a direct HN link.

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `queries` | array | — | Topics / keywords to search. Required. |
| `tags` | array | \["story"] | Content types: story, ask\_hn, show\_hn, comment. |
| `maxItemsPerQuery` | integer | 100 | Items to scan per query. |
| `sort` | string | relevance | relevance or new. |
| `time` | string | all | all / year / month / week / day. |
| `minPoints` | integer | 0 | Minimum HN points (0 = no filter). |
| `minPainScore` | integer | 1 | Minimum number of pain signals to include an item. |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "queries": ["project management", "time tracking"],
  "tags": ["story", "ask_hn"],
  "maxItemsPerQuery": 100,
  "sort": "relevance",
  "time": "year",
  "minPoints": 5,
  "minPainScore": 1
}
```

### Output

Each dataset item:

```json
{
  "query": "project management",
  "painScore": 3,
  "matchedSignals": ["frustration", "has a problem with something", "looking for a tool"],
  "type": "Ask HN",
  "title": "Ask HN: Why is project management software so frustrating?",
  "snippet": "I've tried everything and I'm looking for a tool that just works…",
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678",
  "externalUrl": null,
  "author": "someuser",
  "points": 142,
  "numComments": 87,
  "createdAt": "2026-01-12T08:30:00.000Z"
}
```

Sort by `painScore` to find the strongest, most actionable complaints.

### Notes & limits

- Uses the public Hacker News (Algolia) search API — no login or API key required.
- Pain detection is heuristic (pattern-based), tuned for precision over recall.
- Great companion to building products: validate that a problem is real before you code it.

# Actor input Schema

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

Topics or keywords to search Hacker News for (e.g. "project management", "invoicing", "note taking"). The actor finds posts where people express frustration or ask for tools around these topics.

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

Which Hacker News content to search: stories, Ask HN, Show HN, or comments.

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

How many Hacker News items to fetch and analyse per query. Higher = more results but slower.

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

Relevance ranks by best match; Newest returns the most recent first.

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

Only include items created within this window.

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

Only include items with at least this many points (0 = no filter).

## `minPainScore` (type: `integer`):

Only return items with at least this many pain signals (1 = any signal, higher = stronger complaints only).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "project management"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "story"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerQuery": 100,
  "sort": "relevance",
  "time": "all",
  "minPoints": 0,
  "minPainScore": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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": [
        "project management"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bohard/hacker-news-idea-finder").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": ["project management"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("bohard/hacker-news-idea-finder").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": [
    "project management"
  ]
}' |
apify call bohard/hacker-news-idea-finder --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/VT1IBgXaQipzIcxO9/builds/yLKth4TlowheXk3T8/openapi.json