# Hacker News Scraper — Top Stories, Comments, Jobs & More (`thriftykiwi/hacker-news-scraper`) Actor

Extract data from Hacker News via the official Firebase API. Get top stories, newest posts, best articles, Ask HN, Show HN, job listings, or specific items/comments. No authentication required — uses the public HN API.

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

## Pricing

$5.00 / 1,000 result items

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 Scraper — Top Stories, Comments, Jobs & More

⚡ **Zero authentication required** — extracts public Hacker News data via the official Firebase API. No proxies, no cookies, no rate limits.

### Quick Start

1. Pick a **mode**: Top, New, Best, Ask HN, Show HN, Jobs, or a specific Item.
2. Set your **limit** and optional **startIndex** for pagination.
3. Click **Start** and get structured JSON in seconds.

#### Example: Get the top 10 front-page stories

```json
{
  "mode": "top",
  "limit": 10
}
```

#### Example: Get the 5 newest stories

```json
{
  "mode": "new",
  "limit": 5
}
```

#### Example: Ask HN posts (page 2)

```json
{
  "mode": "ask",
  "limit": 20,
  "startIndex": 20
}
```

#### Example: Fetch a specific item with its comments

```json
{
  "mode": "item",
  "itemId": 8863
}
```

### Features

- **7 scraping modes**: Top Stories, New, Best, Ask HN, Show HN, Jobs, Individual Items
- **No auth needed** — all data is public via HN's official Firebase API
- **No proxy required** — direct API access, fast and reliable
- **Pagination** — use `startIndex` to fetch pages of results
- **Parallel fetching** — items are fetched concurrently in batched chunks
- **Structured JSON** — clean, consistent output with all key fields
- **Item mode** — fetch any HN item by ID, including comments

### Output Fields

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `id` | integer | HN item ID |
| `type` | string | Item type: story, comment, job, poll, pollopt |
| `by` | string | Username of the author |
| `title` | string | Story title (stories only) |
| `url` | string | Story URL (stories only) |
| `text` | string | Body text (Ask HN, comments) |
| `score` | integer | Upvote count |
| `descendants` | integer | Number of comments |
| `time` | integer | Unix timestamp of submission |
| `parent` | integer | Parent item ID (comments only) |
| `kids` | array | IDs of child comments |
| `deleted` | boolean | Whether the item was deleted |
| `dead` | boolean | Whether the item is dead/flagged |

### How It Works

This Actor uses Hacker News's official [Firebase API](https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/):

1. **List modes** (top/new/best/ask/show/job): Fetches the list of story IDs from the API, then fetches each item in parallel batches of 50.
2. **Item mode**: Fetches a single item by its numeric ID — useful for getting comments or details on a specific story.

### Use Cases

- **Trend monitoring** — Track the top stories and rising topics on HN
- **Competitive research** — Monitor Show HN launches and startup discussions
- **Job market analysis** — Scrape job postings from HN's "Who is Hiring" threads
- **Content curation** — Find popular articles for newsletters or social media
- **Academic research** — Study online community dynamics and content voting patterns
- **Comment analysis** — Extract comment threads for sentiment or topic analysis

### Why This Scraper?

Hacker News is one of the most influential tech communities with millions of monthly readers. The official Firebase API is fast and free, but scraping it manually requires pagination logic and concurrent fetching. This scraper:

- Uses the **fast public API** — no browser or HTML parsing needed
- **No API key required** — the Firebase API is completely open
- **Clean defaults** — click "Start" with the default inputs and get real results
- **All 7 modes in one Actor** — no need to switch between different scrapers
- **Built-in pagination** — fetch hundreds of items with simple `startIndex` controls

### Pricing

This Actor uses **Pay-Per-Event** pricing. You only pay for results returned, not for pagination or API overhead.

### About the Publisher

Built by [Thrifty Kiwi](https://apify.com/thriftykiwi), an Apify Creator publishing high-quality, zero-hassle data extraction tools.

# Actor input Schema

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

Which Hacker News list to scrape.

## `limit` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of items to return (1–500). Lower values return faster.

## `startIndex` (type: `integer`):

Zero-based index to start from. Use for pagination — set to 30 to get the second page of 30 items.

## `itemId` (type: `integer`):

Specific HN item ID to fetch (only used in 'item' mode). Useful for getting comments on a story.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "top",
  "limit": 30,
  "startIndex": 0,
  "itemId": 8863
}
```

# 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 = {
    "mode": "top",
    "limit": 30,
    "startIndex": 0,
    "itemId": 8863
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("thriftykiwi/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 = {
    "mode": "top",
    "limit": 30,
    "startIndex": 0,
    "itemId": 8863,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("thriftykiwi/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 '{
  "mode": "top",
  "limit": 30,
  "startIndex": 0,
  "itemId": 8863
}' |
apify call thriftykiwi/hacker-news-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/V7FX8T1iUyaZwXdSl/builds/TdpN8xDfrCu5UR2Ra/openapi.json