news-ycombinator API for agents (unofficial) — JSON over curl | clify
Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com): read front page, new, past, Ask, Show and jobs listings, stories with comment trees, comment feeds, user profiles, submissions, comments and favorites, and post comments. Every command parses the server-rendered HTML.
Host: news.ycombinator.com. Call these verified read commands with plain curl; no install, key, or account. Use the public JSON API with plain curl. No install, key, account, or browser is needed. Example: curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/sites.json'. Start with /search?q=weather, then call /abc/COMMAND. Responses are one JSON object. The hosted MCP and GitHub repo are also available.
Commands
list-stories
List ranked stories from a Hacker News feed: front page (news), Ask HN, Show HN, best, or most active. Page-numbered. Params: feed, p, h
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-stories?p=2&h=24'
list-new-stories
List the newest submissions, newest Ask HN, newest Show HN, or job postings, in chronological order. Params: feed, next, n
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-new-stories?next=50138000&n=31'
list-front-page-by-day
List the stories that were on the Hacker News front page on a given past day. Params: day*, p
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-front-page-by-day?day=2026-10-15&p=2'
list-site-stories
List Hacker News submissions from a given domain or site path (e.g. github.com/antirez). Params: site*, next, n
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-site-stories?site=github.com%2Fantirez&next=50000000&n=31'
get-item
Get one story, Ask/Show post or comment by id: title, link, points, author, age, comment count and body text. Params: id*
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/get-item?id=50138531'
list-item-comments
List the comment tree of a story or comment (flattened in thread order, with indent depth). Params: id*, p
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-item-comments?id=50138531&p=2'
list-new-comments
List the newest comments across Hacker News, with the story each one is on. Params: next
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-new-comments?next=50138000'
list-best-comments
List the most-upvoted comments of the last N hours (48 by default). Params: h, p
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-best-comments?h=24&p=2'
get-user
Get a Hacker News user's profile: username, account creation date, karma and about text, as label/value rows. Params: id*
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/get-user?id=fagnerbrack'
list-user-submissions
List the stories a user has submitted, newest first. Params: id*, next, n
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-user-submissions?id=fagnerbrack&next=50000000&n=31'
list-user-comments
List a user's recent comments, with the story each one is on. Params: id*, next
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-user-comments?id=fagnerbrack&next=50000000'
list-leaders
List the top 100 Hacker News users by karma, in rank order. Params: none
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-leaders'
list-lists
List Hacker News's special listing pages (front, best, active, leaders, etc.) with descriptions. Params: none
curl 'https://clify-dev.netlify.app/news-ycombinator/list-lists'