# hackernews.author_comments

**stable** **Advanced**

Comments written by a Hacker News user.

`GET /v1/hackernews/author_comments`

## What you get

A list of Hacker News results in Onekey's unified shape, in `data` (an array). An empty array is a normal, successful answer and is charged like any other; a source that reports "nothing found" as an error returns a free `404 not_found` instead.

**Pagination:** 20 results per page. The response carries a `pagination` block; send its `next_cursor` back as the `cursor` parameter to get the next page. Every page is one call at the price below. See [Pagination](https://onekey.dev/docs/pagination.md).

## What it costs

- **Advanced · 5 credits** for a fresh fetch, charged only when it succeeds.
- **Free when served from cache (0.2 credit for a cached response over 100 KB).**
- **Free** if the request is invalid (never charged) or the source fails or reports not found (refunded).

## Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Default | What it is | Constraints |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `user` | string | yes | (required) | Hacker News username, e.g. pg | max 15 chars; must match `[A-Za-z0-9_-]{2,15}`; trimmed |
| `cursor` | string | no | - | Opaque cursor from a previous response's `pagination.next_cursor`. Omit for the first page. | - |

## Request

```bash
curl "https://api.onekey.dev/v1/hackernews/author_comments?user=pg" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"
```

```python
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.onekey.dev/v1/hackernews/author_comments",
    params={"user": "pg"},
    headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
body = res.json()

if body["success"]:
    print(body["data"])
else:
    print(body["error"]["code"], body["error"]["message"])
```

```javascript
const params = new URLSearchParams({ user: "pg" });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.onekey.dev/v1/hackernews/author_comments?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" },
});
const body = await res.json();

if (body.success) console.log(body.data);
else console.error(body.error.code, body.error.message);
```

## Recorded response

A real Hacker News response, recorded and returned in Onekey's shape. Fields the platform does not provide are `null`.

```json
{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "content": {
        "id": "39667625",
        "title": "The Best Essay",
        "url": "https://paulgraham.com/best.html",
        "text": "In earlier drafts I wrote \"the existence of some set of best essays follows necessarily\" but it sounded so pedantic that it didn't seem worth keeping just to protect myself from being accused of not understanding the distinction between a partial and total order. I assumed anyone reading it in good faith would understand what I was saying.",
        "createdAt": "2024-03-11T12:57:11Z",
        "threadId": "39662615"
      },
      "author": {
        "username": "pg"
      },
      "engagement": {
        "likes": null
      }
    },
    {
      "content": {
        "id": "37278578",
        "title": "If you're interested in eye-tracking, I'm interested in funding you",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1695596853864321055",
        "text": "It's not available yet. And in any case if this is the future there should be multiple companies doing it, not just Apple.",
        "createdAt": "2023-08-27T01:29:42Z",
        "threadId": "37278345"
      },
      "author": {
        "username": "pg"
      },
      "engagement": {
        "likes": null
      }
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "platform": "hackernews",
    "endpoint": "author_comments",
    "cached": false,
    "stale": false,
    "age_s": 0,
    "fetched_at": "2026-01-01T12:00:00+00:00",
    "credits_charged": 5,
    "request_id": "7f3a9c2e5b1d4c8fa2e6d0b9c4f18e37"
  },
  "error": null
}
```

## Field mapping

How this endpoint's source fields become Onekey's [unified schema](https://onekey.dev/docs/schema.md). Fields the source lacks come back as `null`.

| Source path | Onekey field | Transform |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `objectID` | `content.id` | - |
| `author` | `author.username` | - |
| `story_title` | `content.title` | - |
| `story_url` | `content.url` | `safeUrl` |
| `comment_text` | `content.text` | `stripHtml` |
| `created_at` | `content.createdAt` | `toIsoDate` |
| `story_id` | `content.threadId` | `toString` |
| `points` | `engagement.likes` | `toNumber` |

## Caching and freshness

- Fresh for about 2 minutes. Repeat calls in that window are served from cache and are free.
- Between 2 minutes and 15 minutes the cached copy is still served instantly and marked `stale: true` while Onekey refreshes it in the background.
- If the source is down when a refresh is needed, the last copy can be served for up to 1 hour more (marked stale).
- A "not found" is remembered for 1 minute and is free.
- The cache is shared across all customers, which is what keeps repeat calls cheap.

## What can go wrong

| Status | Code | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 401 | `unauthorized` | Check the `x-api-key` header. |
| 402 | `insufficient_credits` | [Add credits](https://onekey.dev/pricing); your balance must cover the price. |
| 404 | `not_found` | Unknown endpoint path. |
| 422 | `invalid_params` | Fix the parameters using the table above. Free. |
| 429 | `rate_limited` | Wait `Retry-After` seconds, then retry. |
| 502 | `upstream_error` | The source failed. Refunded; retry with backoff. |

See [Errors](https://onekey.dev/docs/errors.md) for the full list and retry guidance.

Status: stable (verified against the live source).