Product Hunt Search & Monitoring

Search for products, track launches, and monitor Product Hunt activity via the GraphQL V2 API.

When to Use

User asks about a product's Product Hunt launch or performance
User wants to find trending products in a category
User wants to monitor Product Hunt for competitors or similar products
User asks "what launched on Product Hunt today/this week"
User wants to research a product's reception on PH

Requirements

API Token Required. The Product Hunt API requires authentication — but it's free and takes ~2 minutes to set up.

Getting a Token

Go to API Dashboard
Create an application (any name/URL works)
Use the Developer Token at the bottom of your app's page (no OAuth flow needed for read-only access)
Store the token in an environment variable: PH_API_TOKEN

If no token is available, fall back to using web_search with site:producthunt.com queries.

Key Limitation: No Text Search

The Product Hunt API does not support free-text search on posts. You can browse by topic, date, or get a specific post by slug — but you cannot search "AI writing tool" and get matching products.

To find a product by name, use web_search first:

web_search: site:producthunt.com/posts "product name"

Then use the slug from the result to query the API for full details (votes, comments, makers, etc.).

API Overview

Endpoint: https://api.producthunt.com/v2/api/graphql
Method: POST
Auth: Authorization: Bearer {token}
Format: GraphQL
Rate Limit: ~900 requests per 15 minutes, complexity limit of 1000 per query

How to Query

Use exec with curl to make GraphQL requests:

curl -s -X POST https://api.producthunt.com/v2/api/graphql \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PH_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "YOUR_GRAPHQL_QUERY"}'

Common Queries

Today's Top Posts

query {
  posts(order: VOTES, first: 10) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
        tagline
        votesCount
        commentsCount
        url
        website
        createdAt
        makers {
          name
          username
        }
        topics {
          edges {
            node {
              name
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Browse Posts by Topic

query {
  posts(order: VOTES, first: 10, topic: "developer-tools") {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
        tagline
        votesCount
        url
        website
      }
    }
  }
}

Remember: This browses a topic — it's not a text search. To find a specific product by name, use web_search with site:producthunt.com/posts "product name", then look up the post by slug via the API.

Get a Specific Post

query {
  post(slug: "chatgpt") {
    id
    name
    tagline
    description
    votesCount
    commentsCount
    reviewsCount
    reviewsRating
    url
    website
    createdAt
    featuredAt
    makers {
      name
      username
      headline
    }
    topics {
      edges {
        node {
          name
          slug
        }
      }
    }
    comments(first: 5) {
      edges {
        node {
          body
          votesCount
          createdAt
          user {
            name
            username
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Get Posts by Topic

query {
  topic(slug: "artificial-intelligence") {
    name
    postsCount
    posts(first: 10, order: VOTES) {
      edges {
        node {
          name
          tagline
          votesCount
          url
          createdAt
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Get Posts for a Specific Date

query {
  posts(postedAfter: "2024-01-15T00:00:00Z", postedBefore: "2024-01-16T00:00:00Z", order: VOTES, first: 10) {
    edges {
      node {
        name
        tagline
        votesCount
        url
      }
    }
  }
}

Look Up a User

query {
  user(username: "rrhoover") {
    name
    username
    headline
    followersCount
    followingCount
    madePosts(first: 5) {
      edges {
        node {
          name
          tagline
          votesCount
          url
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Topics (Common Slugs)

artificial-intelligence, developer-tools, design-tools
productivity, marketing, saas, fintech
no-code, open-source, social-media
web-app, iphone, android, mac, chrome-extensions

For a full list, query:

query { topics(first: 50, order: FOLLOWERS_COUNT) { edges { node { name slug followersCount } } } }

Constructing Product Hunt Links

Product page: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/{slug}
User profile: https://www.producthunt.com/@{username}
Topic page: https://www.producthunt.com/topics/{slug}

Fallback: No API Token

If no PH_API_TOKEN is available:

Use web_search with queries like:
- site:producthunt.com/posts "product name"
- site:producthunt.com "topic" launched
Use web_fetch on specific Product Hunt URLs to get basic info
Inform the user that richer data (vote counts, comments, maker info) requires an API token

Output Format

### Product Hunt Results

1. **Product Name** — Tagline
   🔼 votes · 💬 comments · ⭐ rating
   By @maker_username
   Topics: AI, Developer Tools
   🔗 product_url
   🏠 website_url
   📅 launched_date

2. ...

Error Handling

401 Unauthorized: Token is invalid or expired. Check PH_API_TOKEN.
429 Rate Limited: Wait 15 minutes for rate limit reset.
Complexity limit exceeded: Reduce the number of fields or nested queries. Remove comments, topics, or makers sub-queries.
Post not found: The slug may be wrong. Try searching with web_search first to confirm the exact slug.
No results for topic: Check the topic slug — use the topics query to find valid slugs.

Examples

Example 1: "What launched on Product Hunt today?"

Query today's posts sorted by votes, present top 10.

Example 2: "How did Linear do on Product Hunt?"

Search: web_search "site:producthunt.com/posts linear"
Get the slug from results
Query: post(slug: "linear-5") with full details

Example 3: "Show me top AI tools on Product Hunt this month"

Query posts by topic artificial-intelligence with date filters
Sort by votes, present top results

Data Source

Product Hunt API V2 — GraphQL API, requires free developer token.