Hacker News Scraper

Search Hacker News using the free Algolia HN Search API. No Apify token or API key needed.

Quick Start

Only dependency: pip install requests.

bash
# Stories about AI content marketing in last week
python3 skills/hacker-news-scraper/scripts/search_hn.py \
  --query "AI content marketing" --days 7

# Show HN posts in last month (summary view)
python3 skills/hacker-news-scraper/scripts/search_hn.py \
  --query "" --tags show_hn --days 30 --output summary

# Comments mentioning a specific tool
python3 skills/hacker-news-scraper/scripts/search_hn.py \
  --query "LangChain" --tags comment --days 14 --max-results 20

How the Script Works

1. Queries the Algolia HN Search API (search_by_date endpoint)
2. Uses numericFilters=created_at_i>{unix_timestamp} for server-side date filtering
3. Paginates until max-results reached
4. Normalizes results to a consistent schema
5. Applies optional keyword filtering (client-side)
6. Sorts by points (descending) and outputs JSON or summary

CLI Reference

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --query | required | Search query | | --days | 7 | How many days back to search | | --tags | story | Item type: story, comment, ask_hn, show_hn | | --max-results | 50 | Max results to return | | --keywords | none | Additional filter keywords (comma-separated, OR logic) | | --output | json | Output format: json or summary |

Output Format

json
{
  "id": "12345678",
  "title": "Show HN: My new tool",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "author": "username",
  "points": 42,
  "num_comments": 15,
  "created_at": "2026-02-18T12:00:00.000Z",
  "hn_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678",
  "text": ""
}

Cost

Free. No API key, no rate limits (within reason), no Apify credits.