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 20How the Script Works
- Queries the Algolia HN Search API (
search_by_dateendpoint) - 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.