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Hacker News API 1 credit/request

Hacker News Search

GET https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story

Full-text search over Hacker News stories and comments through the Algolia HN Search API. Each result carries id, title, url, author, points, comment count, creation date, and the story or comment text with a plain-text variant for comments. Sort by relevance or date, and narrow with unix timestamp date bounds. Pagination is explicit and 1-based; has_more comes from the upstream page count. A query with no hits is a valid empty answer and is billed as one.

Hacker News Search 1 credit/request

Endpoint

Request preview
GET
https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story
Auth header
x-api-key
Cost
1 credit/request
query = dishwasher
Response preview
200 OK
{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "results": [
            {
                "id": 43463200,
                "title": "I won't connect my dishwasher to your cloud",
                "url": "https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/i-wont-connect-my-dishwasher-your-stupid-cloud",
                "author": "HieronymusBosch",
                "points": 1012,
                "num_comments": 663,
                "created_at": "2025-03-24T17:09:07Z"
            }
        ],
...

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.

6 optional filters available.

query string Required

Search query, e.g. dishwasher.

Example value dishwasher
type string Optional

story or comment. Defaults to story.

Example value story
sort string Optional

relevance or date. Defaults to relevance.

Example value relevance
page integer Optional

1-based page number. Defaults to 1.

Example value 1
per_page integer Optional

Results per page, 1-30. Defaults to 20.

Example value 10
date_from integer Optional

Only results created at or after this unix timestamp.

Example value 2026-06-15
date_to integer Optional

Only results created at or before this unix timestamp.

Example value 2026-06-15

Request Examples

PHP
<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
    CURLOPT_URL => "https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story",
    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
<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

$response = Http::timeout(30)
    ->withHeaders(['x-api-key' => 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'])
    ->get('https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story');

if ($response->successful()) {
    echo $response->body();
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $response->status();
}
JavaScript
const options = {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
        'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'
    }
};

fetch('https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story', 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));
JavaScript
const axios = require('axios');

const options = {
    method: 'GET',
    url: 'https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story',
    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);
}
Ruby
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'

uri = URI.parse("https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story")
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
Python
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/search?query=dishwasher&type=story", headers=headers)
    res = conn.getresponse()
    data = res.read()
    print(data.decode("utf-8"))
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")
finally:
    conn.close()
Python
import requests

headers = {
    'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
}

try:
    response = requests.get('https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story', headers=headers)
    response.raise_for_status()
    print(response.text)
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")
Java
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/search?query=dishwasher&type=story")
        .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());
        }
    }
}
Go
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "io/ioutil"
)

func main() {
    client := &http.Client{}
    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story", 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))
}
Terminal
#!/bin/bash

curl -X GET \
    -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" \
    "https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story"
C#
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/search?query=dishwasher&type=story"));
            var content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            Console.WriteLine(content);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
        }
    }
}
TypeScript
import axios from 'axios';

async function run(): Promise<void> {
    try {
        const response = await axios({
            method: 'GET',
            url: 'https://scrappa.co/api/hackernews/search?query=dishwasher&type=story',
            headers: {
        'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
            },
        });

        console.log(response.data);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error:', error);
    }
}

void run();
RUST
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/search?query=dishwasher&type=story")
        .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
JSON Response
200 OK
{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "results": [
            {
                "id": 43463200,
                "title": "I won't connect my dishwasher to your cloud",
                "url": "https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/i-wont-connect-my-dishwasher-your-stupid-cloud",
                "author": "HieronymusBosch",
                "points": 1012,
                "num_comments": 663,
                "created_at": "2025-03-24T17:09:07Z"
            }
        ],
        "page": 1,
        "per_page": 20,
        "nb_hits": 199,
        "nb_pages": 100,
        "has_more": true
    },
    "meta": {
        "endpoint_family": "search",
        "billable": true
    }
}

Errors

Handle these documented responses before retrying or showing customer-facing failures.

503

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
    }
}
500

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
    }
}
422

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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