Hacker News Has Two Secret APIs — Firebase + Algolia Search

Hacker News doesn't have an obvious API button on its website. But it has two powerful APIs running behind the scenes.

API 1: Firebase (Real-Time)

HN's data is stored in Firebase. Every story, comment, and user profile is accessible:

https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json     # Top 500 story IDs
https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/12345.json      # Any item by ID
https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/pg.json          # Any user profile

No authentication. Real-time updates. Returns clean JSON.

API 2: Algolia (Full-Text Search)

HN has a search API powered by Algolia — full-text search across all stories and comments:

https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=web+scraping&tags=story
https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date?query=MCP+server&numericFilters=points>10

Filter by: story/comment type, points, date range, author. Sort by relevance or date.

What This Data Tells You

Technology trends. What gets upvoted on HN today becomes mainstream in 6-12 months. Track points over time for any technology keyword.

Developer sentiment. Comments on HN are brutally honest. Product launches get genuine feedback — positive and negative.

Hiring signals. "Who is Hiring" threads list companies actively growing. Filter by technology or location.

Content validation. Before writing an article, search HN for the topic. High-point stories = proven interest.

Tools

• Hacker News Scraper — wraps both APIs into a single tool
• MCP Trend Detector — uses HN as one of 5 trend signals
• MCP Market Research — includes HN community sentiment

All 77 tools: Apify Store

Custom tech trend analysis — $20: Order via Payoneer