agentutility(7)$ man hn-search
/hn-search
PRICE / CALL
$0.001
USDC · base mainnet · scheme: exact
METHOD
POST
CLUSTER
webprobeCATEGORY
uncategorized
STATUS
● live
NAME
hn-search — searches 30m+ hacker news stories and comments via the public algolia hn index
SYNOPSIS
POST https://x402.agentutility.ai/hn-search
Content-Type: application/json
X-PAYMENT: <signed-transferWithAuthorization>
{ ... }↳ first call →
402 Payment Required. Sign USDCtransferWithAuthorization, retry with theX-PAYMENT header.DESCRIPTION
Searches 30M+ Hacker News stories and comments via the public Algolia HN index. Filter by type (story|comment|poll), author, minimum points, ISO8601 date range (since/until), and sort by relevance or recency. Returns total hit count plus per-hit objectID, title, author, points, comment count, created_at, URL, and story/comment text. Public Algolia API, no auth, commercial-OK. Use it as an HN search, yc-news or startup-news search, who-is-hiring scraper, or programmer-news firehose.
INPUT — request schema
| property | type | description | req? |
|---|---|---|---|
| query | string | Free-text search query (matches title, body, author, URL). | required |
| type | string | Restrict to a single HN item type. Omit to include all types. enum: story · comment · poll | optional |
| author | string | Filter to a specific HN username (e.g. 'pg', 'dang'). | optional |
| min_points | number | Minimum points (upvotes) floor. Comments don't have points; using this implicitly filters to stories. | optional |
| since | string | Lower bound on created_at — ISO8601 date (YYYY-MM-DD) or full timestamp. | optional |
| until | string | Upper bound on created_at — ISO8601 date (YYYY-MM-DD) or full timestamp. | optional |
| sort | string | 'relevance' (default, popularity-weighted) or 'date' (most-recent-first). enum: relevance · date | optional |
| limit | number | Max hits to return. 1-20. Default 10. | optional |
OUTPUT — response shape
| field | type | description |
|---|---|---|
| query | string | Echoes back the search query string that was submitted to the Algolia HN index. |
| total_hits | string | Total number of HN stories or comments matching the query before pagination is applied. |
| results | string | Array of hit objects with objectID, title, author, points, num_comments, created_at, url, and story/comment text. |
| source | string | Identifier for the upstream index queried, typically the Algolia HN search endpoint. |
EXAMPLES — two ways to call
EXAMPLE 1 · curl
curl -X POST https://x402.agentutility.ai/hn-search \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{ }'first response =
402 Payment Required with payment requirements; sign + retry with X-PAYMENT.EXAMPLE 2 · mcp
# Install the MCP package for this endpoint's cluster npx -y @agentutility/mcp-<cluster> # Required: EVM private key with USDC on Base export X402_PRIVATE_KEY=0x... # Then call the hn-search tool from your MCP-aware agent.
MCP server handles payment automatically — your coding agent just calls the tool by name.
METADATA
- tags
- web-probehacker-newshn-searchalgolia-hnstory-searchwho-is-hiringyc-news
- methods
- POST
- cluster
- webprobe
- price
- $0.001 USDC per call
ADJACENT — other endpoints in webprobe
| endpoint | description | price |
|---|---|---|
| hacker-news-search | Search 30M+ Hacker News stories and comments via the Algolia HN index. | $0.001 |
| ip-asn | Looks up ASN and geolocation for any IPv4 or IPv6 address: ASN number, ASN org, ISP, country, region, city, postal, latitude/longitude, a… | $0.001 |
| qr-generator | Generates PNG or SVG QR codes from text, URLs, vCards, WiFi strings, and plain text with configurable size, margin, colors, and error cor… | $0.001 |
| qr-maker | Makes a QR code from text, URL, vCard, WiFi join string, or plain text and returns it as PNG or SVG. | $0.001 |
| keyword-suggest | Keyword and autocomplete suggestions for any seed query. | $0.002 |
| crates-io-stats | Fetches the public crates.io API record for a Rust crate and returns description, license, repository, homepage, documentation, keywords,… | $0.003 |
| crypto-news-api | Returns recent cryptocurrency headline metadata and sentiment. | $0.003 |
| homoglyph-check | Detects Unicode lookalike characters that impersonate ASCII Latin letters, a common phishing-domain trick. | $0.003 |
SEE ALSO