Updated
Hacker News · Free accountExport Hacker News comments to CSV.
Every comment in an HN thread, nested replies included, in one spreadsheet. Open the thread, click Pull, download the file. No API calls to write, no copy-pasting.
- Every reply, every level
- HN's own ranking order
- CSV · JSON · text
- Chrome and Edge
How do you export Hacker News comments to CSV?
Open the thread on news.ycombinator.com, open the Threadpull side panel in Chrome or Edge, click Pull, then Download CSV. You get one row per comment, every nested reply included, in the order HN ranks them, with each comment's author, time, thread level, text and permalink. A 400-comment thread takes about half a minute. Hacker News threads need a free Threadpull account, and no API key or code is needed.
| Author | Time | Thread Level | Is Reply | Comment | Permalink |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| skissane | 2026-10-29 20:52 | 0 | No | The big problem with these permission dialogs, is their lack of technical detail… | item?id=50295753 |
| soneil | 2026-10-31 17:35 | 1 | Yes | Giving too much detail could be an issue in itself… | item?id=50318177 |
| HughParry | 2026-10-29 19:47 | 0 | No | …what is the consensus on figuring out whether small brew packages like this one are malicious?… | item?id=50294763 |
Hacker News hides comment points, so the Score column is left out of HN exports.
What one real thread showed
We pulled a live Show HN launch and read it the way a founder would. This is the kind of read a CSV makes possible in ten minutes.
Show HN: Auto Dismiss Mac OS "Allow <app> to find devices on local networks?"
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294506 ↗Takeaway for a dev-tool launch: lead with why the tool is safe to install. Trust came up more than any feature.
Blame the platform, not the user
about 27 comments"Says a lot about the state of Mac OS."tobi_bsf
"Apple really needs to fix the very first point, preferably in a way that doesn't force app developers to ship a "helper" binary."mschuster91
Is this safe to install?
about 18 comments"I have no clue how I would know whether it is without reviewing the source code"HughParry
"Even if they're not malicious, there's no guarantee that they won't become malicious in the future."ASalazarMX
Workarounds people already use
about 8 comments"has mandated the use of Hammerspoon scripts and the like for more than a decade"dingdingdang
Do more: other dialogs too
about 5 comments"I'd LOVE for you to expand it, to also auto-dismiss"crazygringo
The thread in numbers
"Show HN: Auto Dismiss Mac OS "Allow <app> to find devices on local networks?"" had 131 comments from 88 people when we pulled it on 1 Nov 2026. 110 of them (84%) were replies to other comments, nested up to 8 levels deep, and the median comment was 29 words long. The theme raised most, blame the platform, not the user, came up in about 27 comments (21% of the thread).
How we did this research
- Pulled with Threadpull on 1 Nov 2026: every comment still live, at every reply level, from news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294506.
- Read and grouped into themes. A comment can raise more than one theme, so counts are approximate.
- Every quote on this page is checked word for word against the export, under its author, each time the page is built.
| Score on the post | 154 |
|---|---|
| Comments | 131 |
| Top-level comments | 21 |
| Replies | 110 (84%) |
| People commenting | 88 |
| Deepest reply level | 8 |
| Median comment length | 29 words |
| Comments from the 5 most active people | 26 (20%) |
| Theme | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Blame the platform, not the user | about 27 | 21% |
| Is this safe to install? | about 18 | 14% |
| Workarounds people already use | about 8 | 6% |
| Do more: other dialogs too | about 5 | 4% |
The words they used
How many comments used each word or named each product. Counted from the export each time the page is built; a comment counts once however often it repeats the word. Variants count together, so "self-host" includes "self-hosted" and "self hosting".
"Show HN: Auto Dismiss Mac OS "Allow <app> to find devices on local networks?""
| Word or phrase | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| permission | 22 | 17% |
| Apple | 19 | 15% |
| malicious or malware | 10 | 8% |
| local network | 6 | 5% |
| trust | 4 | 3% |
| App Store | 3 | 2% |
| Bluetooth | 3 | 2% |
| Name | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | 9 | 7% |
| Windows | 6 | 5% |
| Claude | 5 | 4% |
| Steam | 2 | 2% |
| Spotify | 2 | 2% |
| Adobe | 2 | 2% |
Where the conversation happened
Comments per reply level. The deep chains are often where people disagree, and a skim of the top-level comments misses them.
How to export an HN thread
Open the thread
Any news.ycombinator.com/item page: a story, Ask HN, Show HN or a single comment.
Open Threadpull
The side panel spots the thread and shows how many comments HN reports.
Click Pull
Every reply is collected in HN's order, with its thread level. A 400-comment thread takes about half a minute.
Download CSV
Or JSON for code, or send the comments straight to ChatGPT or Claude.
What's in the CSV
One row per comment, ready for Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. The file starts with a byte-order mark so emoji and accents survive in Excel, and any cell starting with =, +, - or @ gets an apostrophe so a spreadsheet won't run it as a formula.
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Author | The commenter's HN username |
| Time | When the comment was posted |
| Thread Level | 0 for a top-level comment, 1 for a reply to it, and so on |
| Is Reply | Yes for any comment below the top level |
| Comment | The full text, with links written out |
| Permalink | The comment's own news.ycombinator.com/item?id= address |
| Links | Every link in the comment, separated by spaces |
Ways to get HN comments into a spreadsheet
Four ways to do it, from copy and paste to Threadpull.
| Method | Every nested reply | Code needed | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copy and paste the page | Only what's on the page you copy | No | Plain text, with reply levels lost |
| HN's official API | Yes, if you follow every reply list | Yes | JSON, one request per comment |
| Algolia's HN Search API | Yes, as one nested tree | Yes | Nested JSON you flatten yourself |
| Threadpull | Yes | No | CSV, JSON or text, one row per comment |
Then ask your AI
Paste the export with this prompt to get the same read we did above, for any thread.
You are reading every comment from a Hacker News launch thread. 1. Group the comments into the 4–6 themes people raise most. 2. For each theme: how many comments, and one short quote. 3. List every objection to installing or paying. 4. List the features people ask for. 5. End with three changes to the launch copy.
Working with an HN thread in a spreadsheet
Why export a Hacker News thread instead of reading it?
The Show HN above had 131 comments from 88 people, and 110 of them were replies sitting under other comments. In a spreadsheet you can filter for a word like "install" or "price", sort by thread level and count how often an objection comes up, instead of relying on the comments you happened to remember.
How do I rebuild the conversation from the CSV?
Keep the rows in file order: each reply comes after the comment it answers. Thread Level says how deep it sits, so a row at level 2 answers the nearest row above it at level 1. If you're writing code, the JSON export also gives each comment's id and parentId.
What can I do with the comments once they're in a sheet?
Count objections and feature requests, list every competitor or workaround people name, pull short quotes for a landing page, or put two launch threads side by side. The prompt above does the first pass for you in ChatGPT or Claude.
Does it work on Ask HN, Show HN and single comments?
Yes. Any news.ycombinator.com/item page works: a story, an Ask HN, a Show HN or a poll. Open a single comment and you get that comment and every reply below it.
How to find threads like these
Searches that turn up the threads worth pulling. Open one, then pull it with Threadpull.
| Search | Where | What it finds |
|---|---|---|
Ask HN: Who is hiring? | hn.algolia.com | The monthly hiring thread, 350 to 600 comments: one row per job in a sheet |
"Ask HN" what do you use for | hn.algolia.com | Tool recommendations you can count by name |
"Show HN" plus your category | hn.algolia.com | Launches in your space, with the objections written down |
site:news.ycombinator.com "alternatives to" | Threads where people list what they'd switch to, and why |
Threads worth pulling next
Comment counts as of 2 Nov 2026.
- Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2026)Every job post as a row: filter by remote, stack or location.
- Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?Hundreds of workflows and tool names to count in a sheet.
- Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?Sort by theme to see what developers plan to learn.
- Ask HN: My family business runs on a 1993-era text-based-UI (TUI). Anybody else?Real stories of legacy software that still runs a business.
- Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2026)Pull two months and compare which roles grew.
Hacker News export FAQ
Does it get every nested reply?
Yes. Every live comment at every level, in the order HN ranks them, with a thread level so you can rebuild the conversation. Deleted and flagged comments are left out; their replies stay.
Is Hacker News export free?
Hacker News threads need a free account. Reddit threads work without one.
Do I need an API key or to write code?
No. Threadpull reads HN's public API for you when you click Pull.
Why is there no score column?
Hacker News doesn't publish points for comments, only for stories. The story's points are in the export's post row.