- name
- apify-hn-scraper
- description
- Scrape Hacker News stories, comments, and discussions. Use when user asks to search HN, find Hacker News posts, monitor tech discussions, or extract HN data. Requires APIFY_TOKEN environment variable.
- metadata
- {"openclaw":{"emoji":"🟧","requires":{"env":["APIFY_TOKEN"],"bins":["curl","jq"]},"primaryEnv":"APIFY_TOKEN"}}
Hacker News Scraper
Scrape Hacker News using an Apify Actor via the REST API.
Actor ID
0UDODOnpTkxY3Oc90
Prerequisites
APIFY_TOKENenvironment variable must be setcurlandjqmust be available
Workflow
Step 1: Confirm parameters with user
Ask what they want to scrape. Supported input fields:
searchTerms(array of strings) - keywords to searchmaxResults(integer) - max stories to returnsortBy(string) - "points", "date", or "relevance"includeComments(boolean) - include comment threads
Step 2: Run the Actor
RESULT=$(curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/0UDODOnpTkxY3Oc90/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"searchTerms": ["TERM"], "maxResults": 30}')
echo "$RESULT" | jq '.'Step 3: Poll and fetch (if async)
RUN_ID=$(curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/0UDODOnpTkxY3Oc90/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"searchTerms": ["TERM"], "maxResults": 100}' | jq -r '.data.id')
curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/$RUN_ID?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" | jq -r '.data.status'
curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/$RUN_ID/dataset/items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" | jq '.'Step 4: Present results
Summarize: top stories by points, comment counts, domains, trends. Offer JSON/CSV export.
Error Handling
- If APIFY_TOKEN not set:
export APIFY_TOKEN=your_token - If run FAILS: check log endpoint