# Hacker News

> Search stories and comments, retrieve articles and user profiles from Hacker News via the Algolia-powered API.

Source: https://cotera.co/docs/reference/tools/individual-tools/hacker-news

---

**Authentication Type:** None
**Description:** Search stories and comments, retrieve articles and user profiles from Hacker News via the Algolia-powered API.

***

## Authentication

No authentication required. The Hacker News API is public and free to use.

***

## Search

### Search

Search Hacker News for stories, comments, and other content. Results are powered by the Algolia search API.

**Operation Type:** Query (Read)

**Parameters:**

* **query** `string` (required): The search query to find matching stories, comments, or other content on Hacker News.
* **tags** `string` (nullable): Filter results by type. Supported values: `story`, `comment`, `ask_hn`, `show_hn`, `front_page`. You can combine tags with commas for AND filtering.
* **sortByDate** `boolean` (nullable): If `true`, results are sorted by date (most recent first). If `false` or omitted, results are sorted by relevance.
* **maxResults** `number` (nullable): Maximum number of results to return. Default `20`.

**Returns:**

* **results** `array of objects`: List of matching items
  * **objectID** `string`: The unique Hacker News item ID
  * **title** `string`: The title of the story (if applicable)
  * **url** `string`: The URL the story links to (if applicable)
  * **author** `string`: The username of the author
  * **points** `number`: The score / upvote count
  * **num\_comments** `number`: The number of comments on the item
  * **created\_at** `string`: ISO 8601 timestamp of when the item was created
  * **story\_text** `string`: The body text of the story (for text posts like Ask HN)
* **totalHits** `number`: The total number of results matching the query

**Example Usage:**

```json
{
  "query": "large language models",
  "tags": "story",
  "sortByDate": true,
  "maxResults": 10
}
```

***

## Articles

### Get Article

Retrieve a single Hacker News article by its ID, including its comment tree.

**Operation Type:** Query (Read)

**Parameters:**

* **articleId** `string` (required): The Hacker News item ID of the article to retrieve (e.g., `"8863"`)

**Returns:**

* **id** `string`: The Hacker News item ID
* **title** `string`: The title of the article
* **url** `string`: The URL the article links to
* **author** `string`: The username of the author
* **points** `number`: The score / upvote count
* **created\_at** `string`: ISO 8601 timestamp of when the article was posted
* **text** `string`: The body text of the article (for text posts)
* **children** `array of objects`: The comment tree for this article, with nested replies

**Example Usage:**

```json
{
  "articleId": "8863"
}
```

***

## Users

### Get User

Retrieve a Hacker News user profile by username.

**Operation Type:** Query (Read)

**Parameters:**

* **username** `string` (required): The Hacker News username to look up (e.g., `"pg"`)

**Returns:**

* **username** `string`: The user's Hacker News username
* **about** `string`: The user's self-description / bio (may contain HTML)
* **karma** `number`: The user's karma score
* **created\_at** `string`: ISO 8601 timestamp of when the account was created
* **objectID** `string`: The unique identifier for the user

**Example Usage:**

```json
{
  "username": "pg"
}
```

***

## Common Use Cases

**Competitive Intelligence:**

* Monitor mentions of your company or competitors on Hacker News
* Track how often your brand appears in stories and comments
* Analyze sentiment and discussion around competitor product launches

**Content Research:**

* Find trending discussions about your industry or technology stack
* Discover popular articles and blog posts in your domain
* Identify frequently discussed pain points and feature requests

**Lead Discovery:**

* Find users who post about topics relevant to your product
* Identify active commenters in your industry vertical
* Look up user profiles to understand their interests and engagement level

**Market Research:**

* Track what tech topics are trending over time using date-sorted searches
* Monitor Ask HN and Show HN posts for emerging tools and products
* Analyze front page stories to understand what resonates with the developer community