Hacker News Search API
Scrape Hacker News Search data with one API call. Searches Hacker News stories, comments, and front-page items via the Algolia HN API. Defaults to story-only results sorted by relevance. The HN Algolia index only exposes `created_at_i` for numeric filtering, so use `numericFilters` for date windows (e.g. `created_at_i>1700000000`). Results come back in the unified Post shape under `data.items[]`, NOT as raw Algolia hits: each item is `{ post: { id, url, content, author, engagement, flags, published_at }, computed }`. `post.url` is the Hacker News discussion permalink; the submitted article link is at `post.content.media_urls`; `post.engagement.likes` is the HN points score and `post.engagement.comments` is `num_comments`.
Last updated September 2026Maintained by the SocialCrawl team
Returns Hacker News stories matching a query, each with title, link, author, points, comment count, and post time. Tags can widen it to comments.
Use it to find discussions by keyword, then pass a story id to the story endpoint for its details or its comments.
Searching 67 platforms in parallel
What can you do with the Search API?
The Search endpoint gives you structured Hacker News data with computed fields in a single request. No scraping infrastructure to build or maintain.
Example Request
curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/hackernews/search?query=claude+code&label=sponsored&relevance=filter"import requests
response = requests.get(
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/hackernews/search",
params={
'query': 'claude code',
'label': 'sponsored',
'relevance': 'filter',
},
headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
data = response.json()const response = await fetch(
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/hackernews/search?query=claude+code&label=sponsored&relevance=filter",
{
headers: { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" },
},
);
const data = await response.json();Parameters worth sending
label=sponsoredMarks each post that is paid or sponsored, at no extra credits; intent and niche are free too.relevance=filterDrops rows that are not about your query, at no extra credits; relevance=score keeps them and adds a score.
Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| query | Yes | Free-text search term. |
| tags | No | Algolia tag filter: comma-separated. Common values: "story", "comment", "poll", "show_hn", "ask_hn", "front_page", "author_<username>". Defaults to "story". |
| numericFilters | No | Algolia numeric filter expression on `created_at_i` (the only filterable numeric attribute): e.g. "created_at_i>1700000000". Combine with commas for AND. No filter is applied by default. |
| hitsPerPage | No | Hits per page (1-1000). Defaults to 30. |
| page | No | 0-indexed page number for pagination. |
| relevance | No | Optional. Without this param every row already carries computed.relevance against your query, free ({ p, sense, depth, spam }: is this row about what your query means, or a different thing that shares its words?), and nothing is dropped or reordered. score asks for it explicitly and waits for every row; filter also drops the rows that are not about your query, and lists their ids in data.relevance.dropped_ids. Your query is the topic; nothing to configure. A row that could not be judged is never dropped and carries relevance: null. Pagination is unchanged, so a filtered page can hold fewer rows. Free with your query as the topic; with relevant_to it adds 1 credit per started 25 newly judged rows (rows already judged for the same topic are free, and so is a cached page). (score | filter) |
| relevance_threshold | No | Optional, only with relevance. The probability (0 to 1) a row must reach to be kept by relevance=filter. Default 0.5. Lower keeps more rows, higher keeps fewer. |
| relevant_to | No | Optional, only with relevance. Up to 200 characters describing what you mean, used as the topic instead of the query. Use it when the query is ambiguous, for example query=cleopatra with relevant_to=Cleopatra, the IGT slot game. |
| judgments | No | Optional, on (the default) or off. By default every row gains free SocialCrawl judgments (computed.labels, and computed.relevance on search endpoints), reported in data.labels (mode default) and data.relevance (origin default), each with a status (complete, partial or skipped) and pending: the rows still being judged when the page was sent, which carry null now and are filled on your next call or cached read. Default judgments never add credits, never change an existing field, and never drop or reorder a row. off returns the page exactly as before, with none of those keys. label=none does the same. (on | off) |
| dry_run | No | Optional. When 1, return a cost preview for this labelled or relevance-filtered request without fetching the page or judging any row. data.estimate reports rows_expected, rows_cached, label_credits_min, label_credits_max and base_credits. 0 credits charged. (1) |
| fit | No | Optional. When goal, keep the rows and fields needed for the goal you pass in goal= (plus any that are uncertain, and the first and last), and replace the rest with a stub. data.held_back lists the held ids and a recall id that re-reads the full page from cache at no extra charge. Without this param the page is unchanged. (goal) |
| goal | No | Required by fit=goal. What you are trying to do, in your own words, up to 300 characters. |
| fit_tokens | No | Optional, only with fit=goal. Soft cap on how much of the page to keep, in tokens. Uncertain blocks and the first and last block are kept even if they exceed it. |
| label | No | Optional CSV of SocialCrawl labels to add to every post. Without this param every page already carries sponsored, intent and niche, free; label= adds the labels you name to them (the defaults keep running). sponsored, intent and niche are free when asked for too; mention, quality, intent with offer=, and injection add 1 credit per started 25 newly judged posts. judgments=off (or label=none) turns the default labels off. sponsored: is the post a paid or gifted promotion (p, 0 to 1), did it carry a disclosure marker such as #ad or 광고 (disclosed), is it likely paid with no marker (undisclosed), and which of the accounts it mentions does it promote (brand, or null). These are signals to review, never a finding. mention (needs brand=): is the post about that brand rather than something that shares its name (about_brand, 0 to 1), how it feels about the brand on five levels (sentiment_level 0 to 4 and sentiment_score 0 to 1, null when the post is not about the brand), is it sarcastic, which aspect it talks about (taste_or_quality, price_or_value, availability_or_delivery, health_or_safety, advertising_or_campaign, customer_service, none), and did the author buy or use it (first_hand). intent: what the author is mainly doing (label: asking_for_recommendation, comparing_options, switching_away, complaining, promoting, news_or_discussion, other, or null when unsure, with confidence), whether they read as a potential buyer rather than a seller (buyer, seller), how pressing the need is (urgency, 0 to 3), and, when you pass offer=, whether your offer would plausibly help them (fits_offer). niche: which of the 33 niches of the published taxonomy sc-niche-v1 the caption belongs to, or personal_no_niche, or other (label, confidence, taxonomy), with label null when the caption is too thin to tell or the pick is unsure. It reads the caption only, not the video. quality: how much checkable detail the caption carries (fact_density 0 to 3), whether it mainly asks for likes, replies, shares, follows or tags (engagement_bait, 0 to 1), whether it is written to provoke anger as a way to get engagement (rage_bait, 0 to 1; about the writing, never the side taken), whether it only repeats someone else's news or view (secondhand, 0 to 1), and what the post is mainly doing (post_aim: inform, opinion, sell, entertain, provoke, other). exclude=engagement_bait drops posts whose engagement_bait is 0.8 or higher. injection flags text that addresses an AI system and tries to direct it (flagged, p); it never drops or rewrites a row. A post that could not be judged carries labels: null. Posts already labelled for anyone are free, and so is a cached page. data.labels reports what was judged and billed. |
| exclude | No | Optional CSV (engagement_bait), only with label=quality. Drops posts whose engagement_bait probability is 0.8 or higher and lists their ids in data.labels.dropped_ids. A post that could not be judged is never dropped. |
| brand | No | Required by label=mention, ignored otherwise. The brand or product the posts are judged against, up to 300 characters, for example brand=Buldak. Without it label=mention is skipped with the warning label_mention_needs_brand and is not billed. |
| brand_description | No | Optional, with label=mention. One plain sentence saying what the brand is, for example brand_description=Samyang's spicy instant noodle brand. Use it when the name is also an ordinary word or another company's name. |
| offer | No | Optional, with label=intent. One or two plain sentences saying what you sell, up to 300 characters, for example offer=A web design agency that builds websites for small businesses. Adds fits_offer to every post; without it fits_offer is null. |
| label_evidence | No | Optional, only with label=. When 1, every labelled row also carries computed.labels_evidence.<preset> = { quote, sentence_index }: the sentence in the row that most clearly shows the label, copied verbatim. Absent or null when no single sentence shows it. (1) |
What does the Hacker News Search API return?
Every response follows one unified schema. Here is a real, unmodified response body, so you can see the exact fields you get back before spending a credit.
Example response
{
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"endpoint": "/v1/tiktok/profile/videos",
"data": {
"items": [
{
"post": {
"id": "7658005300657638669",
"url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio/video/7658005300657638669",
"content": {
"text": "dc @lara.joanna ",
"media_urls": "https://v19.tiktokcdn-eu.com/4a08329b68e24d90b840a05c9244ba65/6a498c37/video/tos/alisg/tos-alisg-ve-37c799-sg/ocXRU4saOAVGYeJRAAygAjFIzOGsgRf4peSeXk/?a=1233&bti=MzU8OGYpNHYpNzo5ZjEuLjpkLTptNDQwOg%3D%3D&&bt=1135&ft=ERfCkaZWD00Q12Nvr-HxzIxRA7lGF3_45SY&mime_type=video_mp4&rc=OTg8NGkzZTQ8PDo1NmQ2O0BpanEzd205cmRlPDMzZzczNEAvNWM0NDFfNi8xMjExNF5eYSNmMGwyMmQ0LzBhLS1kMS9zcw%3D%3D&vvpl=1&l=20260703224143F66ABC3BD3A97DB0685C&btag=e000b0000",
"thumbnail_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-useast5-p-0068-tx/owxEmiGPia440JkI3PgALU3bB7aBAlzdBEsKB~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:300:400:q70.heic?dr=9232&refresh_token=bf18ce44&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=8AANrRWOCWfS6xtQ9JJiHB77vxo%3D&t=bacd0480&ps=933b5bde&shp=d05b14bd&shcp=132edbea&idc=no1a&biz_tag=tt_video&s=PUBLISH&sc=cover",
"duration_seconds": 16.903
},
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"display_name": "charli d’amelio",
"avatar_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-maliva-avt-0068/ee31de49ddf64b45c5b2e3c55fbd0ea4~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:1080:1080:q70.heic?dr=9608&idc=no1a&ps=87d6e48a&refresh_token=e0b099bd&s=PUBLISH&sc=avatar&shcp=132edbea&shp=d05b14bd&t=223449c4&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=9SsuimlpGdsdlerisiaqvDVLV3c%3D",
"verified": true
},
"engagement": {
"views": 3417578,
"likes": 501973,
"comments": 2618,
"shares": 6304,
"saves": 22989
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": false,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-07-02T18:51:58.000Z",
"ext": {
"music_id": "7656080164593437471",
"published_at_epoch": 1783018318
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.14949,
"language": null,
"content_category": "other",
"estimated_reach": 4101094
}
},
{
"post": {
"id": "7657606229484670221",
"url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio/video/7657606229484670221",
"content": {
"text": "@Alexa Davis ",
"media_urls": "https://v19.tiktokcdn-eu.com/07ada727f60ed77f8504c4c9aee6f992/6a498c31/video/tos/alisg/tos-alisg-ve-37c799-sg/oAmE41FRfIDnKlQAZjDgfcEsqFENRqYDSBGUSB/?a=1233&bti=MzU8OGYpNHYpNzo5ZjEuLjpkLTptNDQwOg%3D%3D&&bt=857&ft=ERfCkaZWD00Q12Nvr-HxzIxRA7lGF3_45SY&mime_type=video_mp4&rc=NWU8OTg2aTw6ODlpNDU1PEBpanlrNmw5cmxuPDMzZzczNEBfLTEtMy8tXzYxLzYvYTNfYSNlbGVvMmRrYC9hLS1kMS9zcw%3D%3D&vvpl=1&l=20260703224143F66ABC3BD3A97DB0685C&btag=e000b0000",
"thumbnail_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-useast5-p-0068-tx/ooZRDflKEE2SIFSfsAqgFBcFEORUAY4jBDl2Yc~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:300:400:q70.heic?dr=9232&refresh_token=0ee7ce0e&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=DiqCJ1sMgLvKp5k1aK2lKgBm7CU%3D&t=bacd0480&ps=933b5bde&shp=d05b14bd&shcp=132edbea&idc=no1a&biz_tag=tt_video&s=PUBLISH&sc=cover",
"duration_seconds": 10.123
},
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"display_name": "charli d’amelio",
"avatar_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-maliva-avt-0068/ee31de49ddf64b45c5b2e3c55fbd0ea4~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:1080:1080:q70.heic?dr=9608&idc=no1a&ps=87d6e48a&refresh_token=e0b099bd&s=PUBLISH&sc=avatar&shcp=132edbea&shp=d05b14bd&t=223449c4&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=9SsuimlpGdsdlerisiaqvDVLV3c%3D",
"verified": true
},
"engagement": {
"views": 7205601,
"likes": 739100,
"comments": 1943,
"shares": 6268,
"saves": 28516
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": false,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-07-01T17:03:22.000Z",
"ext": {
"music_id": "7656080164593437471",
"published_at_epoch": 1782925402
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.103713,
"language": null,
"content_category": "other",
"estimated_reach": 8646721
}
},
{
"post": {
"id": "7657287641641143565",
"url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio/video/7657287641641143565",
"content": {
"text": null,
"media_urls": "https://v19.tiktokcdn-eu.com/24d5a0ceaf069ce4435f27d4a1fb7fa5/6a498c2d/video/tos/alisg/tos-alisg-ve-37c799-sg/o4IuEqzEKBC3UgRghYEA5FEDZJDB2RL2JfePpS/?a=1233&bti=M0BzMzU8OGYpNzo5Zi5wIzEuLjpkNDQwOg%3D%3D&&bt=939&ft=ERfCkaZWD00Q12Nvr-HxzIxRA7lGF3_45SY&mime_type=video_mp4&rc=O2Q8M2k1Nzo7ODkzPGQ2NkBpM3VrZmo5cm01PDMzZzczNEBiYC0yLjU0XjQxNTMxX2FhYSNjZy5mMmRzYC9hLS1kMS9zcw%3D%3D&vvpl=1&l=20260703224143F66ABC3BD3A97DB0685C&btag=e000b0000",
"thumbnail_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-useast5-p-0068-tx/oEEehFBRSDqxRYEZJgMgAQpzEf2PJiDEJNI7CB~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:300:400:q70.heic?dr=9232&refresh_token=7ef5f605&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=10x4mFTkwGHZf2I3P%2FcRrZr6vTo%3D&t=bacd0480&ps=933b5bde&shp=d05b14bd&shcp=132edbea&idc=no1a&biz_tag=tt_video&s=PUBLISH&sc=cover",
"duration_seconds": 6.467
},
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"display_name": "charli d’amelio",
"avatar_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-maliva-avt-0068/ee31de49ddf64b45c5b2e3c55fbd0ea4~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:1080:1080:q70.heic?dr=9608&idc=no1a&ps=87d6e48a&refresh_token=e0b099bd&s=PUBLISH&sc=avatar&shcp=132edbea&shp=d05b14bd&t=223449c4&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=9SsuimlpGdsdlerisiaqvDVLV3c%3D",
"verified": true
},
"engagement": {
"views": 5941789,
"likes": 941067,
"comments": 3165,
"shares": 17173,
"saves": 18760
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": false,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-06-30T20:27:04.000Z",
"ext": {
"music_id": "7530783142774065975",
"published_at_epoch": 1782851224
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.161804,
"language": null,
"content_category": null,
"estimated_reach": 7130147
}
}
],
"next_cursor": "1782516110000",
"total": 10,
"dropped": 0
},
"credits_used": 1,
"credits_remaining": 9999,
"request_id": "req-8Kq2ZmR4vT9xLb3P",
"cached": false,
"pagination": {
"next_cursor": "sc.eyJ2IjoyLCJjIjoiMTc4MjUxNjExMDAwMCIsInAiOiJtYXhfY3Vyc29yIn0",
"has_more": true,
"page_size": 10
}
}Example captured from the TikTok API. Every SocialCrawl endpoint returns this same unified schema, so your Hacker News Search response has the same fields.
How does the Hacker News Search API work?
Send a GET request with your API key and get back clean, structured JSON in our unified schema. Supported computed fields are populated when the source provides the required inputs.
Method
GET
Response
JSON
How do you scrape social media data in seconds?
The fastest social media scraping API for developers. Scrape profiles, posts, comments, and analytics from 67 platforms covering 10B+ monthly active users.
One schema, every platform
Query 67 platforms with identical response structures. Write your integration once.
Computed fields, not just scraped
When an endpoint supports these metrics and the source provides the required inputs, the normalized record includes engagement_rate, estimated_reach, content_category, and language. Ready to use.
See your data before you code
Visual Data Explorer. Paste any URL, get rich result cards, sortable tables, CSV export.
import requests
response = requests.get(
'https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/tiktok/profile',
params={'handle': 'charlidamelio'},
headers={'x-api-key': 'sc_YOUR_API_KEY'}
)
data = response.json(){
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"data": {
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"followers": 152400000
},
"engagement": {
"likes": 12400000000,
"engagement_rate": 0.087
},
"metadata": {
"language": "en",
"content_category": "lifestyle"
}
}
}Have a question? We got answers
Find answers to frequently asked questions about SocialCrawl's API, pricing, and capabilities.
Contact usHow do I search Hacker News with an API?
What filters does the Hacker News Search API support?
How do I paginate Hacker News search results?
Can I monitor tech trends and launches on Hacker News?
How much does the Hacker News Search API cost?
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