Tutorial · curl
How to scrape Hacker News profiles with curl (2026)
A curl walkthrough for GET /v1/hackernews/users/{username}. Copy the snippet, run it, then read the JSON.
GET /v1/hackernews/users/{username} · 1 credit
In this tutorial
You'll pull a public Hacker News profile and see the fields you get back.
Typical job: looking into an author. Look up a Hacker News username for its karma and about text, then fetch its submissions, comments or favourites only when lookupStatus is found. Useful before you read through a prolific poster's history.
Step 1
Get ready
Create a Social Fetch API key and get curl ready. New accounts include 100 free credits.
API key. Create a Social Fetch account, open API Keys and create a key. New accounts include 100 free credits.
curl setup. Any shell with curl. Set SOCIALFETCH_API_KEY to your key (export SOCIALFETCH_API_KEY=sfk_…) before you run the sample.
When you're done, SOCIALFETCH_API_KEY is set in your shell.
Step 2
Make the request
Copy the curl sample and run it. It calls GET /v1/hackernews/users/{username} with your key in the x-api-key header, using this example: /v1/hackernews/users/pg.
It prints the JSON response. With -sS, curl stays quiet on success but still prints connection errors.
Step 3
Read the response
The response is JSON with two parts: data holds the profiles and meta holds creditsCharged and requestId. The sample below is a trimmed copy of a real response; the endpoint page lists every field. Credits are charged on completed lookups, not on failed requests.
Check data.lookupStatus first when the response has one. Keep meta.requestId in case a row looks wrong.
Watch out
this returns the user only; submissions, comments and favourites are separate calls. not_found means no public user has that name, so don't store an empty row.
Step 4
You finished
The Playground, the docs and your code all call the same endpoint at the same price. Pick a next step below.
FAQ
Common questions
Do I need an official Hacker News developer account?
No. Social Fetch authenticates with your Social Fetch API key. You call GET /v1/hackernews/users/{username} and we handle the lookup. You still need to follow each platform's terms for how you use public data.
What does the Hacker News users endpoint return?
JSON with two parts: data holds the profiles and meta holds creditsCharged and requestId. The endpoint page and the API docs describe every field.
Does the Hacker News user endpoint return submissions?
No. This route returns the user only. For submissions use GET /v1/hackernews/users/{username}/submissions; comments and favourites have their own routes next to it.
What does not_found mean on a Hacker News user?
not_found means no public user has that username, and data.profile is null. HTTP 200 still means the request finished. Check lookupStatus before you write rows.
How much does a successful request cost?
1 credit. Failed requests are free.
Is this okay for production?
Yes. It's the same API the Playground and the docs use: typed errors, a requestId on every response, and credits charged only on completed lookups. New accounts get 100 free credits.
Any curl-specific tips for this request?
Yes. Pass the key with -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALFETCH_API_KEY", and wrap the full URL in double quotes so the shell doesn't split it at the & between query parameters. -sS hides the progress meter but still shows connection errors. curl doesn't treat an HTTP error status as a failure, so read the error JSON it prints, or add --fail-with-body.
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