Hacker News API

In plain words

The Hacker News API provides programmatic access to Hacker News data through a read-only interface powered by Firebase. Developed for software developers who previously relied on web scraping, the API delivers near real-time information about stories, comments, and user activity. The service is publicly available with documentation and examples, designed to support application development and integration with Hacker News content.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Today we’re excited to launch an official Hacker News API [https://github.com/HackerNews/API]. [https://github.com/HackerNews/API] We’ve partnered up with Firebase [http://firebase.com] (YC S11) so that the data we’re making available will be near real time, which should be a huge improvement for developers who had to rely on scraping the site for this info. The API is available at https://hacker-

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