Search Posts by Time Range

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• src/index.ts:496-511 (handler)

  The handler function that implements the core logic for the 'search-by-time-range' tool. It constructs URLSearchParams with numericFilters for the time range using created_at_i field, calls fetchHN on the /search_by_date endpoint, and returns both text and structured content.

  async ({ query, tags, startTime, endTime, page, hitsPerPage }) => {
    const params = new URLSearchParams();
    if (query) params.append('query', query);
    if (tags) params.append('tags', tags);
    params.append('numericFilters', `created_at_i>${startTime},created_at_i<${endTime}`);
    if (page !== undefined) params.append('page', page.toString());
    if (hitsPerPage !== undefined) params.append('hitsPerPage', hitsPerPage.toString());
    
    const endpoint = `/search_by_date?${params.toString()}`;
    const result = await fetchHN(endpoint);
    
    return {
      content: [{ type: 'text', text: JSON.stringify(result, null, 2) }],
      structuredContent: result
    };
  }

• src/index.ts:478-495 (schema)

  The input and output schemas for the tool, defined with Zod. Input includes startTime and endTime as required Unix timestamps, optional query, tags, and pagination.

    title: 'Search Posts by Time Range',
    description: 'Search for posts within a specific time range (Unix timestamps)',
    inputSchema: {
      query: z.string().optional().describe('Search query text (optional)'),
      tags: z.string().optional().describe('Filter tags (e.g., "story", "comment")'),
      startTime: z.number().describe('Start time in Unix timestamp (seconds)'),
      endTime: z.number().describe('End time in Unix timestamp (seconds)'),
      page: z.number().optional().describe('Page number for pagination (default: 0)'),
      hitsPerPage: z.number().optional().describe('Number of results per page (default: 20)')
    },
    outputSchema: {
      hits: z.array(z.any()),
      nbHits: z.number(),
      nbPages: z.number(),
      page: z.number(),
      hitsPerPage: z.number()
    }
  },

• src/index.ts:475-512 (registration)

  The server.registerTool call that registers the 'search-by-time-range' tool with its schema and handler function.

  server.registerTool(
    'search-by-time-range',
    {
      title: 'Search Posts by Time Range',
      description: 'Search for posts within a specific time range (Unix timestamps)',
      inputSchema: {
        query: z.string().optional().describe('Search query text (optional)'),
        tags: z.string().optional().describe('Filter tags (e.g., "story", "comment")'),
        startTime: z.number().describe('Start time in Unix timestamp (seconds)'),
        endTime: z.number().describe('End time in Unix timestamp (seconds)'),
        page: z.number().optional().describe('Page number for pagination (default: 0)'),
        hitsPerPage: z.number().optional().describe('Number of results per page (default: 20)')
      },
      outputSchema: {
        hits: z.array(z.any()),
        nbHits: z.number(),
        nbPages: z.number(),
        page: z.number(),
        hitsPerPage: z.number()
      }
    },
    async ({ query, tags, startTime, endTime, page, hitsPerPage }) => {
      const params = new URLSearchParams();
      if (query) params.append('query', query);
      if (tags) params.append('tags', tags);
      params.append('numericFilters', `created_at_i>${startTime},created_at_i<${endTime}`);
      if (page !== undefined) params.append('page', page.toString());
      if (hitsPerPage !== undefined) params.append('hitsPerPage', hitsPerPage.toString());
      
      const endpoint = `/search_by_date?${params.toString()}`;
      const result = await fetchHN(endpoint);
      
      return {
        content: [{ type: 'text', text: JSON.stringify(result, null, 2) }],
        structuredContent: result
      };
    }
  );

• src/index.ts:11-17 (helper)

  Shared helper utility function used by the tool handler to perform HTTP fetches to the HackerNews Algolia API endpoints.

  async function fetchHN(endpoint: string): Promise<any> {
    const response = await fetch(`${HN_API_BASE}${endpoint}`);
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`HN API error: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`);
    }
    return await response.json();
  }