Returns one Hacker News item: id, title, url, score, author, ISO 8601 creation time, descendant count, kid ids, type, optional text with a plain-text variant, and parent id, deleted and dead when set. With comments=true (the default) the response also carries the full nested comment tree from the Algolia items document, each comment with author, text, plain-text variant, creation time, parent id and nested children. An unknown id answers 404 and is never charged.
Run this endpoint
Endpoint
Parameters
Start with the required fields, then add optional filters only when your use case needs them.
Runnable path
1 required parameter needed before sending a request.
1 optional filter available.
integer
Required
Hacker News item id, e.g. 50068946.
50068946
boolean
Optional
Include the full nested comment tree. Defaults to true. When false, the comments field is omitted.
true
Request Examples
<?php
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, [
CURLOPT_URL => "https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1",
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET",
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
"x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
],
]);
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);
curl_close($curl);
if ($err) {
echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
echo $response;
}
<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
$response = Http::timeout(30)
->withHeaders(['x-api-key' => 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'])
->get('https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1');
if ($response->successful()) {
echo $response->body();
} else {
echo "Error: " . $response->status();
}
const options = {
method: 'GET',
headers: {
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'
}
};
fetch('https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1', options)
.then(response => {
if (!response.ok) {
throw new Error(`HTTP error! status: ${response.status}`);
}
return response.text();
})
.then(data => console.log(data))
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));
const axios = require('axios');
const options = {
method: 'GET',
url: 'https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1',
headers: {
x-api-key: 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
}
};
try {
const response = await axios(options);
console.log(response.data);
} catch (error) {
console.error('Error:', error.message);
}
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
uri = URI.parse("https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1")
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == 'https'
request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
request['x-api-key'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'
begin
response = http.request(request)
puts response.body
rescue => e
puts "Error: #{e.message}"
end
import http.client
import json
conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("scrappa.co")
headers = {
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
}
try:
conn.request("GET", "/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1", headers=headers)
res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()
print(data.decode("utf-8"))
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
finally:
conn.close()
import requests
headers = {
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
}
try:
response = requests.get('https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1', headers=headers)
response.raise_for_status()
print(response.text)
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.Response;
import java.io.IOException;
public class ApiExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
Request request = new Request.Builder()
.url("https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1")
.addHeader("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")
.build();
try (Response response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
if (response.isSuccessful()) {
System.out.println(response.body().string());
} else {
System.out.println("Error: " + response.code());
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
}
}
}
package main
import (
"fmt"
"net/http"
"io/ioutil"
)
func main() {
client := &http.Client{}
req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1", nil)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Error creating request:", err)
return
}
req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")
resp, err := client.Do(req)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Error making request:", err)
return
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Error reading response:", err)
return
}
fmt.Println(string(body))
}
#!/bin/bash
curl -X GET \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" \
"https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1"
using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
class Program
{
static async Task Main()
{
using var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE");
try
{
var response = await client.SendAsync(new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1"));
var content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
Console.WriteLine(content);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
}
}
}
import axios from 'axios';
async function run(): Promise<void> {
try {
const response = await axios({
method: 'GET',
url: 'https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1',
headers: {
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
},
});
console.log(response.data);
} catch (error) {
console.error('Error:', error);
}
}
void run();
use reqwest::Client;
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
let client = Client::new();
let response = client
.get("https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/item?id=50068946&comments=1")
.header("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")
.send()
.await?;
println!("{}", response.text().await?);
Ok(())
}
Response Schema
Example response fields are illustrative; inspect the JSON before integrating.
Example response fields
Scan these fields before integrating.
success
data
meta
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"id": 50068946,
"title": "Were Software Engineers blue-collar workers all along?",
"url": "https://ptrbrynt.com/posts/were-we-blue-collar-workers-all-along",
"score": 75,
"by": "ilreb",
"created_at": "2026-10-13T09:25:10Z",
"descendants": 157,
"kids": [
50069266,
50069036,
50069053,
50069278,
50069122
],
"type": "story",
"comments": [
{
"id": 50068994,
"author": "bananaflag",
"text": "> But if we learn how to use the looms, the spreadsheets, and the chainsaws, we might just be oka",
"text_plain": "> But if we learn how to use the looms, the spreadsheets, and the chainsaws, we might just be oka",
"parent_id": 50068946,
"created_at": "2026-10-13T09:38:34Z",
"children": []
}
]
},
"meta": {
"endpoint_family": "item",
"billable": true
}
}
Errors
Handle these documented responses before retrying or showing customer-facing failures.
Hacker News Upstream Unavailable
The upstream service is temporarily unavailable. Please retry shortly.
{
"success": false,
"error": {
"code": "UPSTREAM_UNAVAILABLE",
"message": "Hacker News upstream is temporarily unavailable."
},
"meta": {
"billable": false,
"retryable": true
}
}Parser Drift
Hacker News returned a response shape this parser does not recognise. The incident has been reported; retrying will return the same result.
{
"success": false,
"error": {
"code": "PARSER_DRIFT",
"message": "Hacker News response shape changed unexpectedly. The incident has been reported."
},
"meta": {
"billable": false,
"retryable": false
}
}Not Found
Hacker News has no such public resource. Firebase answers an unknown item or user with a null payload, which this endpoint maps to 404.
{
"success": false,
"error": {
"code": "NOT_FOUND",
"message": "Hacker News has no such public resource."
},
"meta": {
"billable": false,
"retryable": false
}
}Bad Request Upstream
Hacker News rejected a value in this request. Never charged.
{
"success": false,
"error": {
"code": "INVALID_PARAMETER",
"message": "Hacker News rejected a value in this request. Check the parameters before retrying."
},
"meta": {
"billable": false,
"retryable": false
}
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