# Hacker News Search API (https://www.socialcrawl.dev/platforms/hackernews/search)

> 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`). Returns the raw Algolia hits in `data.items[]` — each hit includes `objectID`, `title`, `url`, `author`, `points`, `num_comments`, `created_at_i`, and `_tags`.

TL;DR: `GET /v1/hackernews/search` costs 1 credit per call and returns SocialCrawl's unified JSON schema. Single x-api-key auth, 100 free credits on signup.

## 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. |

## Code example

```bash
curl "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/hackernews/search?query=claude%20code" \
  -H "x-api-key: sc_YOUR_API_KEY"
```

## FAQ

### How do I search Hacker News with an API?

Send a GET request to /v1/hackernews/search with your terms in the query parameter. SocialCrawl returns matching HN stories and comments with title, URL, points, author, comment count, and item ID, normalized into the unified data.items schema.

### What filters does the Hacker News Search API support?

Pass tags to restrict to story, comment, show_hn, ask_hn, or a specific author, and numericFilters to bound by points, number of comments, or created_at timestamp. Combine them to pull, for example, Show HN posts above 100 points from the last week.

### How do I paginate Hacker News search results?

Use hitsPerPage to set the page size and page to step through results, starting at page 0. Increment page until you stop receiving hits to walk the full result set for a query beyond the first page.

### Can I monitor tech trends and launches on Hacker News?

Yes. Run the search endpoint on a cron with your topic, product, or domain as the query, scope with tags=show_hn for launches, and ingest the hits. It is built for tech-trend monitoring and dev-sentiment pipelines alongside your Reddit and GitHub sources.

### How much does the Hacker News Search API cost?

Each search request costs 1 credit on the standard tier, regardless of how many hits come back. New accounts get 100 free credits with no credit card required, enough to run around 100 searches while you build your pipeline.

See the full Hacker News API: https://www.socialcrawl.dev/platforms/hackernews

## Pricing

- Standard endpoints: 1 credit per call
- Advanced endpoints: 5 credits per call
- Premium endpoints: 10 credits per call
- 100 free credits on signup, no credit card required. Cached responses cost 0 credits. Credit packs never expire.
- Full pricing: https://www.socialcrawl.dev/pricing

## Explore with AI

Questions this API answers, phrased for an AI assistant:

- How to search Hacker News stories and comments with an API
- What does the SocialCrawl Hacker News Search API return?