Lobste.rs API
Simple JSON API for the Lobste.rs technology-focused news aggregator, providing stories, comments, and user data.
Status
🟢 Online · 787 ms
🟢 Online · 787 ms
30-day uptime
99.86%
99.86%
Free tier
Unlimited, no key, no credit card
Unlimited, no key, no credit card
Auth
No key required
No key required
Free alternatives (live ranking)
- Hacker News API — 🟢 Online · Unlimited, no key, no credit card
- DEV Community API — 🟢 Online · 30 calls/30s unauthenticated, no key for reads
- Wikipedia REST API — 🟢 Online · Unlimited, no key, must set User-Agent
Compare Lobste.rs API with…
- Lobste.rs API vs Hacker News API — Unlimited, no key, no credit card
- Lobste.rs API vs DEV Community API — 30 calls/30s unauthenticated, no key for reads
- Lobste.rs API vs Wikipedia REST API — Unlimited, no key, must set User-Agent
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Lobste.rs API require an API key?
No, Lobste.rs API is freely accessible without registration or an API key.
What is Lobste.rs API's free tier?
Unlimited, no key, no credit card
Is Lobste.rs API currently online?
We check Lobste.rs API every hour. The current status is shown at the top of this page. You can also see the 30-day uptime history in the chart above.
Implementation notes
When to use Lobste.rs API
Lobste.rs API is the best no-key alternative to Hacker News for curated tech-community content. The community is smaller (~15,000 active users) but the signal-to-noise ratio is higher due to invitation-only membership. Use it alongside HN for a blended tech feed, or alone for a more focused developer audience.
Common pitfalls
- There is no pagination parameter — the `/hottest.json` and `/newest.json` endpoints return a fixed 25 stories per page. For deeper pagination, append `?page=2`, `?page=3`, etc. The total page depth is not published; pages beyond ~10 usually return empty arrays.
- The API has no official documentation beyond a brief note in the site's About page. The endpoint structure is inferred from the site URLs: any Lobste.rs page URL appended with `.json` returns that page's data. This is by convention, not a contract.
- Rate limits are undocumented. Lobste.rs is a small community site run on volunteer infrastructure — aggressive polling has caused the site to block scraping IPs in the past. Staying under 1 req/sec and setting a `User-Agent` identifying your app is strongly recommended.
- Comment data requires a separate call per story. The story list does not embed comment bodies; you must fetch `/s/{story_short_id}.json` for each story to get its comment tree.
Quick start (bash)
curl "https://lobste.rs/hottest.json" | python3 -m json.tool | head -80Embed this badge
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