# Hackernews Scraper (`skystone_labs/hackernews-scraper`) Actor

Extract stories, comments, and user data from Hacker News. Get titles, URLs, scores, comment counts, authors, and timestamps. Perfect for tech trend analysis, content research, and developer community insights.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/skystone\_labs/hackernews-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Skystone](https://apify.com/skystone_labs) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, News, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 item scrapeds

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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

Extract stories, comments, and discussion data from [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com). Pay only for successfully scraped items ($1 per 1,000 items).

### Features

- **Fast extraction** - Optimized for speed with lightweight page parsing
- **Story data** - Titles, links, scores, authors, comment counts
- **Comment extraction** - Optional full comment thread scraping
- **Type detection** - Identifies stories, Ask HN, Show HN, and jobs
- **Pagination** - Automatically follows "More" links for deeper scraping

### Use Cases

- Tech trend analysis and monitoring
- Content research for newsletters
- Developer community sentiment analysis
- Startup and launch tracking
- Academic research on tech communities

### Input Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `startUrls` | array | - | HN URLs to scrape (front page, new, ask, show, jobs) |
| `maxResults` | integer | 100 | Maximum items to scrape (0 = unlimited) |
| `extractComments` | boolean | false | Extract comment threads from stories |
| `useCamoufox` | boolean | false | Enable anti-detect browser (not needed for HN) |

### Output Schema

```json
{
  "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345",
  "title": "Show HN: My new open source project",
  "link": "https://github.com/example/project",
  "score": 234,
  "author": "pg",
  "commentCount": 89,
  "age": "3 hours ago",
  "rank": 1,
  "type": "show",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}
```

### Pricing

**$0.001 per successfully scraped item** ($1 per 1,000 items)

No charges for failed requests.

### Example Usage

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/"},
    {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/newest"}
  ],
  "maxResults": 200,
  "extractComments": false
}
```

### Limitations

- HN may rate-limit very aggressive scraping
- Comment extraction increases scraping time significantly
- Very old stories may have limited data

### Support

For issues or feature requests, please contact SkyStone Labs support.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Hacker News URLs to scrape (front page, new, ask, show, jobs, or item pages)

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of items to scrape (0 = unlimited)

## `extractComments` (type: `boolean`):

Also extract comments from story pages

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

Proxy settings (rarely needed for HN)

## `useCamoufox` (type: `boolean`):

Enable anti-detect browser (not needed for HN)

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/newest"
    }
  ],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "extractComments": false,
  "useCamoufox": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Link to dataset

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/"
        },
        {
            "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/newest"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("skystone_labs/hackernews-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 = { "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/" },
        { "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/newest" },
    ] }

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

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/newest"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call skystone_labs/hackernews-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,skystone_labs/hackernews-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/H4oXKgLgRynvTl1Zg/builds/mcKxS4lLnm46VEtXw/openapi.json