Find example Hacker News discussions for a topic and date range. Enter a query, choose a UTC window and result type, then inspect linked matches. This sampler shows one newest-first page from the HN Search API. It is a way to collect qualitative examples, not a representative survey, demand estimate, or tool ranking.
Sample HN discussions
The query is sent to hn.algolia.com when you submit it. This page does not store the query.
What does this sampler return?
It calls the public HN Search API’s date-ordered search endpoint with your text query, selected story/comment tags, UTC start and end dates, and a 20-result page size. The API response supplies matched records and fields such as item ID, creation time, points, comment count, author, title or text, and an optional submitted URL. Each result links to its Hacker News item; stories with an external URL also link to that submission target.
How should I use the examples?
- Freeze the query wording, date window, and story/comment scope before comparing topics.
- Open each linked item and record why it is relevant; a keyword match can be irrelevant or duplicated.
- Deduplicate by item ID when combining searches, and keep the exact query and collection date with your notes.
- Review comments separately from stories. A comment match may belong to a larger discussion with different context.
- Do not interpret returned examples, points, or API hit totals as search volume, market size, or representative user opinion.
What are the limits?
The tool displays only the first 20 matches in newest-first order. It does not fetch later pages, export a dataset, judge relevance, or establish that a discussion represents users generally. The API or browser connection can fail; when it does, check the query and date range and try again later. For a documented evidence process, see the AI writing discussion-signal method.
Frequently asked questions
Are the results a complete sample of Hacker News?
No. The page fetches at most the first 20 matching records sorted by date. It does not paginate, audit API coverage, or manually classify every result.
Does a higher point or comment count mean a tool is better?
No. Those are fields reported for individual HN items. They are not product evaluations, comparable usage measures, or quality scores.
Is my search saved by this site?
This page does not save or submit the query to this site’s server. Your browser sends the request to the HN Search API when you press the button; avoid entering private or sensitive text.
Can I use the results to rank AI tools?
Not by themselves. A fair comparison needs a fixed task scope, comparable queries and collection windows, documented relevance decisions, deduplication, and suitable evidence for each candidate. Query matches alone do not measure demand or product quality.
Sources · checked November 3, 2026
Related: review the discussion evidence method, inspect open-source coding-agent repository data, and browse coding assistant profiles.
Methodology and limitations
The browser calls the public HN Algolia Search API date-ordered endpoint with the visitor’s query, selected story/comment tags, an inclusive UTC date window, and a single 20-hit page. Displayed records are query matches, not manually validated representative samples. Points and comments are shown only as item metadata; no demand, popularity, or product-quality claim is inferred. API fields and the live endpoint were checked November 3, 2026.
Affiliate placeholder {{AFF_TOOLNAME}} — referral link not configured.