Full-text search across all of Hacker News (via the Algolia HN API). Search stories or comments by keyword, sorted by relevance or by date (newest first). Filter by tags (story/comment/ask_hn/show_hn/poll) and by author. Each hit: title, URL, author, points, comment count, story/comment text, created time, and canonical HN URL. Net-new vs news.hn-top (curated feeds) and news.search (general news).
/api/news/hn-searchPAYMENT-SIGNATURE.The hn search API is a pay-per-call news endpoint built for AI agents and autonomous software. Full-text search across all of Hacker News (via the Algolia HN API).
There is no signup and no API key. An agent (or any HTTP client) hits the endpoint, receives an x402 "402 Payment Required" challenge, signs a sub-cent USDC payment on Base or Solana, and retries — the data comes back on the paid request. That makes it a drop-in hn search data source for an agent tool-use loop, an MCP host, or a backend that needs news data on demand without onboarding to yet another vendor portal.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
query | string | Search keywords (may be empty when filtering by tags/author). max 400 chars |
tags | string | one of: story | comment | ask_hn | show_hn | poll |
sort | string | one of: relevance | date |
author | string | Restrict to one HN author. max 40 chars |
limit | integer | min 1 · max 50 |
# 1. Probe with no auth → 402 envelope with PaymentRequirements curl -sS 'https://2s.io/api/news/hn-search?query=&tags=story&sort=relevance&author=example&limit=1' # 2. Sign + retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE: curl -sS 'https://2s.io/api/news/hn-search?query=&tags=story&sort=relevance&author=example&limit=1' \ -H 'PAYMENT-SIGNATURE: <base64-json-payload>' # Or use the canonical runner (handles probe → sign → retry): # EVM_PRIVATE_KEY=0x... node --env-file=.env.local \ # --experimental-strip-types scripts/x402-pay.ts \ # 'https://2s.io/api/news/hn-search?query=&tags=story&sort=relevance&author=example&limit=1'
import { TwoS } from '@2sio/sdk'
const client = new TwoS({
privateKey: process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY as `0x${string}`,
})
const result = await client.news.hnSearch({
"query": "",
"tags": "story",
"sort": "relevance",
"author": "example",
"limit": 1
})
console.log('endpoint:', result.endpoint)
console.log('cost:', result.costUsd, 'USDC')
console.log('tx:', result.settlement?.txHash)
console.log('data:', result.data)import os
from twosio import TwoS
client = TwoS(private_key=os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])
result = client.news.hn_search(query="", tags="story", sort="relevance", author="example", limit=1)
print("endpoint:", result.endpoint)
print("cost:", result.cost_usd, "USDC")
print("tx:", (result.settlement or {}).get("tx_hash"))
print("data:", result.data)// 1. Add @2sio/mcp to your MCP host config (Claude Desktop example below).
// EVM_PRIVATE_KEY funds x402 payments per call.
// claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"2sio": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@2sio/mcp"],
"env": { "EVM_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x..." }
}
}
}
// 2. Once the server is running, agents call this tool via standard MCP:
{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": 1,
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"name": "news.hn-search",
"arguments": {
"query": "",
"tags": "story",
"sort": "relevance",
"author": "example",
"limit": 1
}
}
}| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
ok | boolean | one of: true |
items | array | |
total | integer | Total matching rows upstream; null when unknown. |
source | object | |
meta | object |
{
"ok": true,
"items": [
{
"objectId": "example",
"type": "example",
"title": "example",
"url": "example",
"author": "example",
"points": 1,
"numComments": 1,
"storyText": "example",
"commentText": "example",
"createdAt": "example",
"storyId": 1,
"hnUrl": "example"
}
],
"total": 1,
"source": {
"provider": "example",
"url": "example",
"license": "example"
},
"meta": {
"query": "example",
"nbHits": 1
}
}