# hackernews.item_comments

**stable** **Advanced**

Top-level comments of a Hacker News item (children of the comment tree).

`GET /v1/hackernews/item_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.

## 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | string | yes | (required) | Item id | max 10 chars; must match `[0-9]{1,10}`; trimmed |

## Request

```bash
curl "https://api.onekey.dev/v1/hackernews/item_comments?id=8863" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"
```

```python
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.onekey.dev/v1/hackernews/item_comments",
    params={"id": "8863"},
    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({ id: "8863" });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.onekey.dev/v1/hackernews/item_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": "8865",
        "text": "oh, and a mac port is coming :)",
        "createdAt": "2007-04-04T19:22:55Z",
        "parentId": "8863"
      },
      "author": {
        "username": "dhouston"
      }
    },
    {
      "content": {
        "id": "8869",
        "text": "This has great potential! Only suggestion I would have is go slower on the demo. I know you lost me very early into it switching between windows. If you are looking for a wider audience than those who already know the context of dropbox, make a video where you lay out the case for use of dropbox using simple examples from user point of view(think a college student) and then in the demo show just the basic features. I got the feeling you tried to show too many features too quickly. In general, I have realized it is much better to launch with something that does a few things REALLY well rather than a lot of things with little focus. When you launch with whole lot of features people assume you are competing with the big companies. When you launch small and do it well, it is easier to attract a user-base and THEN keep feeding it more advance features in form of updates. Good luck! Looks slick from the UI.",
        "createdAt": "2007-04-04T19:36:20Z",
        "parentId": "8863"
      },
      "author": {
        "username": "zaidf"
      }
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "platform": "hackernews",
    "endpoint": "item_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 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | `content.id` | `toString` |
| `author` | `author.username` | - |
| `text` | `content.text` | `stripHtml` |
| `created_at` | `content.createdAt` | `toIsoDate` |
| `parent_id` | `content.parentId` | `toString` |

## 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).