# Hacker News Deep Scraper (`fluxcurulin/hn-scraper`) Actor

Extract Hacker News stories, points, authors, comment counts, and links with full metadata. Track tech trends, monitor startup discussions, and export structured data for market intelligence and competitive analysis.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/fluxcurulin/hn-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Josh Pinkerton](https://apify.com/fluxcurulin) (community)
- **Categories:** AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$10.00 / 1,000 per extracted 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 Deep Scraper

Extract stories, points, authors, comment counts, and timestamps from Hacker News with full metadata. Track tech trends, monitor competitor mentions, or export structured HN data for analysis.

### Why use this scraper?

- Export HN front-page and paginated stories as structured JSON
- Track technology trends over time by re-running on a schedule
- Monitor mentions of specific companies, products, or keywords
- Feed downstream research pipelines and data warehouses

### How to use

1. Open the Hacker News Deep Scraper in Apify Console
2. Enter one or more start URLs (default: `https://news.ycombinator.com`)
3. Set `maxPages` for how many paginated pages to crawl
4. Click Run and watch the Output tab populate in real time

### Input

| Field | Type | Description | Default |
|-------|------|-------------|---------|
| `startUrls` | array | HN pages or sections to scrape | `https://news.ycombinator.com` |
| `maxPages` | integer | Max paginated pages to follow | `10` |

### Output

```json
{
  "type": "story",
  "title": "Show HN: My new project",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "score": "142",
  "author": "joshua",
  "num_comments": "56",
  "created": "2 hours ago",
  "page": 1,
  "source": "https://news.ycombinator.com",
  "scraped_at": "2026-07-05T17:00:00.000Z"
}
```

You can download the dataset in JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML from the Apify Console.

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: **$0.01 per extracted result**. A typical front-page crawl costs less than $0.20.

### Tips

- Start with `maxPages: 3` to validate selectors before scaling
- Combine with the Apify Scheduler to run hourly for trend tracking
- Use the `title` and `url` fields as keys for deduplication across runs

### FAQ

**Is it okay to scrape Hacker News?**
HN is generally scraper-friendly, but respect rate limits and do not hammer the site with concurrent requests.

**Where does the data go?**
Results are stored in an Apify dataset you can export or connect to Make/Zapier/Google Sheets.

# Actor input Schema

## `start_urls` (type: `array`):

No description

## `max_pages` (type: `integer`):

No description

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "start_urls": [
    {
      "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com"
    }
  ],
  "max_pages": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {
    "start_urls": [
        {
            "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("fluxcurulin/hn-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 = { "start_urls": [{ "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com" }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("fluxcurulin/hn-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 '{
  "start_urls": [
    {
      "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call fluxcurulin/hn-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/NVl29tGSW5es1N7WC/builds/Iypg7RgIaddLqMeHe/openapi.json