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.

# 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

Queries the Algolia HN Search API (search_by_date endpoint)
Uses numericFilters=created_at_i>{unix_timestamp} for server-side date filtering
Paginates until max-results reached
Normalizes results to a consistent schema
Applies optional keyword filtering (client-side)
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

{
  "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.