# HN AI Product Scout �� Show HN Scraper for AI Product Discovery (`yodeling/ph-ai-scout`) Actor

Track AI product launches from Hacker News Show HN. Auto-detects AI, SaaS, devtools. JSON CSV output for competitor tracking, VC deal flow, market research.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/yodeling/ph-ai-scout.md
- **Developed by:** [陈皓楠 陈](https://apify.com/yodeling) (community)
- **Categories:** AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 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

## HN AI Product Scout

**Daily AI product discovery from Hacker News Show HN.**

Stop manually scrolling Hacker News every morning. This Actor pulls the latest Show HN posts via the official HN API, detects which ones are AI/ML/devtools products, and outputs structured JSON + CSV — ready to pipe into Notion, Airtable, Slack, or your own database.

### Who This Is For

- **VCs & angel investors** — spot promising AI startups before they hit TechCrunch
- **Founders & indie hackers** — track competitors and find gaps in the market
- **Product managers** — weekly competitive landscape reports from the HN launch feed
- **Analysts & journalists** — data for AI industry trend pieces and market maps

### Why Hacker News Show HN

Show HN is where founders launch products to get feedback from one of the toughest technical audiences on the internet. Compared to Product Hunt:

- **Earlier-stage launches** — many products appear on HN weeks or months before hitting PH
- **Higher signal in comments** — HN discussions often include detailed technical deep-dives, not just "congrats on the launch"
- **No Cloudflare, no auth, no anti-bot** — HN has a clean, open API and HTML. This Actor runs fast and reliably
- **Founder-filtered** — Show HN requires the submitter to have built the thing themselves

### What You Get

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `name` | Product name (parsed from Show HN title) |
| `tagline` | One-line pitch extracted from the title |
| `description` | Post body text (first 1000 chars, HTML stripped) |
| `url` | Product website URL |
| `website` | External product URL from the post |
| `votesCount` | Number of upvotes |
| `commentsCount` | Discussion comment count |
| `topics` | Auto-detected tags (AI/ML, DevTools, SaaS, Fintech, etc.) |
| `isAI` | Auto-detected: is this an AI/ML or devtools product? |
| `launchDate` | Post timestamp (ISO format) |
| `hnUrl` | Direct link to the HN discussion thread |
| `by` | HN username of the submitter |

### Input Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `maxItems` | integer | 50 | Maximum number of products to extract (1–500) |
| `includeAIOnly` | boolean | true | Only include AI/ML/devtools products. Set to `false` to get all Show HN launches |
| `minVotes` | integer | 3 | Skip posts with fewer than this many upvotes (1–1000) |

### How to Use

1. **Set `maxItems`** — how many products do you want? Default is 50
2. **Choose AI-only or all** — toggle `includeAIOnly` to narrow or broaden results
3. **Set a vote threshold** — `minVotes: 5` filters out low-signal launches
4. **Run** — results in JSON dataset + CSV

### Pricing

This Actor is **pay-per-result**. Suggested pricing:

| Price per 1,000 results | For |
|--------------------------|-----|
| $0.10 – $0.50 | Standard — structured HN data, no external API costs |

Since this Actor uses only the free HN Firebase API (no paid third-party APIs), costs are minimal. You pay for the extraction and classification logic.

### Output Format

- **JSON** — each product is a separate item in the Apify Dataset, queryable and filterable in the Console
- **CSV** — available as `hn-ai-scout-results.csv` in the Key-Value Store
- **OUTPUT** — JSON summary with `totalProducts`, `aiProducts`, `avgVotes`, and `top5`

### Example Output

```json
{
  "name": "ClaudeDock",
  "tagline": "Manage Claude Projects from your menubar",
  "description": "A macOS app that sits in your menubar and lets you switch...",
  "url": "https://claudedock.com",
  "website": "https://claudedock.com",
  "votesCount": 847,
  "commentsCount": 143,
  "topics": ["AI / ML", "Developer Tools", "Productivity"],
  "isAI": true,
  "launchDate": "2026-06-23T14:30:00.000Z",
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41234567",
  "by": "janechen"
}
```

### FAQ

**Q: Is scraping Hacker News allowed?**
A: Yes. This Actor uses the official HN Firebase API (`hacker-news.firebaseio.com`), which is publicly available and rate-limit friendly. No HTML scraping is needed for the core data pipeline.

**Q: How fresh is the data?**
A: Real-time. Each run fetches live data from the HN API. Show HN stories cycle frequently — the `/showstories` endpoint returns the current crop of Show HN posts.

**Q: Can I schedule daily runs?**
A: Yes. Use Apify's built-in scheduler to run this Actor daily, and pipe results to your email, Slack, or Airtable via Apify integrations.

**Q: What counts as an "AI product"?**
A: The Actor uses keyword-based detection across 8 categories: AI/ML, Developer Tools, SaaS, Productivity, Design, Fintech, DevTools, and Data. A product is flagged as AI if it matches the AI/ML or Developer Tools patterns. You can set `includeAIOnly: false` to disable this filter and get all Show HN launches.

### Pro Tips

- **Daily morning run + Slack webhook** = automated "what launched on HN today" briefing
- **Filter by `isAI: true`** and sort by `votesCount` descending to find the day's hottest AI launches
- **Track `votesCount` over time** by saving daily runs — spot breakout products early by watching vote velocity
- **Set `minVotes: 10`** on Monday mornings to catch only the launches that gained traction over the weekend
- **Combine with Apify's Google Sheets integration** to build a searchable historical database of HN launches

# Actor input Schema

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of Show HN products to extract (1-500).

## `includeAIOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only include AI/ML/devtools products. Disable to get all Show HN launches.

## `minVotes` (type: `integer`):

Only include posts with at least this many upvotes (default 3).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeAIOnly": true,
  "minVotes": 3
}
```

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("yodeling/ph-ai-scout").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("yodeling/ph-ai-scout").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 '{}' |
apify call yodeling/ph-ai-scout --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/IlSdeWFbLNOgwehyb/builds/yzVHFgVtcpNpF5NoK/openapi.json