Hacker News

Retrieve articles, user profiles, and search items from Hacker News.

Overview

Hacker News is a social news website focusing on technology and startups. This tool provides read-only access via the HN Algolia Search API (http://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/). It supports three resources: Article (get a single item by ID with optional comments), User (get a user profile by username), and All (search/list items with keyword and tag filtering). The All resource supports pagination via returnAll/limit pattern using Algolia page-based pagination. No authentication is required — this is a public API.

Category: Communication
Tool Name: hacker_news
Version: 1

Appearance: Icon: lucide-Newspaper | Color: #FF6600

Node Type

Action — processes input items and produces output

Input / Output

Direction	Port(s)
Input	Input
Output	Output, Error

Credentials

This tool does not require any credentials.

Resources

Resource	Value
All	all
Article	article
User	user

Operations

Operation	Value	Description
Get Many	getAll	Get many items (All resource)
Get	get	Get a Hacker News article (Article resource)
Get	get	Get a Hacker News user (User resource)

Parameters

All: Get Many

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Return All	boolean	No	false	Whether to return all results or only up to a given limit.
Limit	number	No	100	Max number of results to return. (shown when Return All is false)
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Extra search filters. Add only the ones you need.
— Keyword	string	No	—	The keyword for filtering the results of the query. Supports expressions like {{ $json.term }}.
— Tags	multiOptions	No	[]	Tags for filtering the results of the query.
				Options: ask_hn (Ask HN posts), comment (comments), front_page (front page items), poll (polls), show_hn (Show HN posts), story (stories)

Article: Get

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Article ID	string	Yes	—	The ID of the Hacker News article to be returned. Supports expressions like {{ $json.id }}.
Additional Fields	collection	No	{}	Extra options for the article lookup.
— Include Comments	boolean	No	false	Whether to include all the comments in a Hacker News article.

User: Get

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Username	string	Yes	—	The Hacker News username to be returned. Supports expressions like {{ $json.author }}.

All Operations

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Max Concurrency	number	No	10	Maximum number of items to process concurrently.

Output Data

Each Hacker News result is merged into the incoming item JSON, so the fields you sent in pass through and binary data is forwarded. The API response fields are written at the top level of the item — not nested under a wrapper property.

How many output items an input item produces depends on the operation:

Operation	Output items
all / getAll	Fans out — one output item per search hit. With Return All on, every page of results is fetched and emitted; otherwise up to Limit items. A search with no hits emits the input item unchanged.
article / get	One item — the article record. Its comment tree arrives under children only when Include Comments is on; with the option off the property is stripped before output.
user / get	One item — the user profile record.

Because search fans out, downstream nodes see one item per story and can be wired directly without a Split Out node.

Usage Examples

• Get a Hacker News article by ID
• Get a Hacker News user profile by username
• Search Hacker News for articles matching a keyword
• List all front page stories from Hacker News
• Search Hacker News for Ask HN posts about a topic

Example Configuration

Get a specific article:

{
  "type": "hacker_news",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "article",
    "operation": "get",
    "articleId": "12345678"
  }
}

Get an article together with its comment tree:

{
  "type": "hacker_news",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "article",
    "operation": "get",
    "articleId": "{{ $json.storyId }}",
    "additionalFields": {
      "includeComments": true
    }
  }
}

Get a user profile:

{
  "type": "hacker_news",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "user",
    "operation": "get",
    "username": "pg"
  }
}

Search with a keyword and tag filter, capped at 100 results:

{
  "type": "hacker_news",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "all",
    "operation": "getAll",
    "returnAll": false,
    "limit": 100,
    "additionalFields": {
      "keyword": "artificial intelligence",
      "tags": ["story", "show_hn"]
    }
  }
}

Pull every matching result, paging through the API:

{
  "type": "hacker_news",
  "parameters": {
    "resource": "all",
    "operation": "getAll",
    "returnAll": true,
    "maxConcurrency": 5
  }
}

Error Handling

Mode	Behavior
stop	Halts workflow on first error
continue	Skips failed items, passes successful ones through
errorPort	Routes failed items to Error output port

Tips

Retrieve Hacker News articles, user profiles, and search items via the public Algolia HN Search API.

Important Notes

• The additionalFields parameter structure varies by resource type
• For article resources: use includeComments boolean field
• For all resources: use keyword string and tags array fields
• Always ensure conditional parameters match their display requirements
• The limit parameter only appears when returnAll is set to false