Technology link aggregation stories submitted by the community
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openapi: 3.2.0
info:
title: Lobsters Stories API
description: The Lobsters public API provides read access to stories, comments, tags, and user profiles from the technology-focused link aggregation community. Endpoints return JSON and are available without authentication for public data. Stories can be retrieved by hottest or newest ranking, filtered by tag, and paginated by page number.
version: 1.0.0
contact:
url: https://lobste.rs/about
license:
name: BSD 3-Clause
url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/blob/main/LICENSE
servers:
- url: https://lobste.rs
description: Lobsters production server
tags:
- name: Stories
description: Technology link aggregation stories submitted by the community
paths:
/hottest.json:
get:
operationId: getHottestStories
summary: Get hottest stories
description: Returns a paginated list of stories sorted by the hotness algorithm, combining score, age, and community activity. This is the default front page ranking.
tags:
- Stories
parameters:
- name: page
in: query
description: Page number for pagination (1-indexed)
required: false
schema:
type: integer
minimum: 1
default: 1
responses:
'200':
description: List of hottest stories
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/Story'
/newest.json:
get:
operationId: getNewestStories
summary: Get newest stories
description: Returns a paginated list of stories sorted by submission time, newest first.
tags:
- Stories
parameters:
- name: page
in: query
description: Page number for pagination (1-indexed)
required: false
schema:
type: integer
minimum: 1
default: 1
responses:
'200':
description: List of newest stories
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/Story'
/active.json:
get:
operationId: getActiveStories
summary: Get active discussion stories
description: Returns stories with recent comment activity, sorted by latest discussion time.
tags:
- Stories
parameters:
- name: page
in: query
description: Page number for pagination (1-indexed)
required: false
schema:
type: integer
minimum: 1
default: 1
responses:
'200':
description: List of stories with active discussions
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/Story'
/t/{tag}.json:
get:
operationId: getStoriesByTag
summary: Get stories by tag
description: Returns a paginated list of hottest stories filtered to a specific tag.
tags:
- Stories
parameters:
- name: tag
in: path
description: Tag identifier (e.g. "programming", "security")
required: true
schema:
type: string
pattern: ^[^,./]+$
- name: page
in: query
description: Page number for pagination (1-indexed)
required: false
schema:
type: integer
minimum: 1
default: 1
responses:
'200':
description: List of stories with the specified tag
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/Story'
'404':
description: Tag not found
/s/{short_id}.json:
get:
operationId: getStory
summary: Get a story by short ID
description: Returns a single story and its nested comment thread by the story's short identifier.
tags:
- Stories
parameters:
- name: short_id
in: path
description: Short alphanumeric identifier for the story (e.g. "abcdef")
required: true
schema:
type: string
maxLength: 6
responses:
'200':
description: Story with nested comments
content:
application/json:
schema:
allOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/Story'
- type: object
properties:
comments:
type: array
description: Nested comment thread for the story
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/Comment'
'404':
description: Story not found
components:
schemas:
Comment:
type: object
description: A community discussion comment on a story
properties:
short_id:
type: string
description: Short alphanumeric identifier for the comment
short_id_url:
type: string
format: uri
description: Full URL to the comment's short-id redirect
url:
type: string
format: uri
description: Full URL to the comment in context of its story
created_at:
type: string
format: date-time
description: ISO 8601 timestamp when the comment was posted
last_edited_at:
type: string
format: date-time
description: ISO 8601 timestamp of the last edit
is_deleted:
type: boolean
description: Whether the comment has been deleted by the author
is_moderated:
type: boolean
description: Whether the comment has been removed by a moderator
score:
type: integer
description: Net vote score for the comment
flags:
type: integer
description: Number of flags the comment has received
parent_comment:
type: string
nullable: true
description: Short ID of the parent comment; null for top-level comments
comment:
type: string
description: HTML-rendered comment text
comment_plain:
type: string
description: Plain text comment body
depth:
type: integer
description: Nesting depth in the comment thread (0 = top level)
commenting_user:
type: string
description: Username of the comment author
required:
- short_id
- short_id_url
- url
- created_at
- last_edited_at
- is_deleted
- is_moderated
- score
- flags
- comment
- comment_plain
- depth
- commenting_user
Story:
type: object
description: A community-submitted technology link or text post
properties:
short_id:
type: string
description: Short alphanumeric identifier for the story
example: abcdef
created_at:
type: string
format: date-time
description: ISO 8601 timestamp when the story was submitted
title:
type: string
description: Title of the story
example: Interesting technology article
url:
type: string
format: uri
nullable: true
description: URL of the linked resource; null for text-only posts
score:
type: integer
description: Net vote score (upvotes minus downvotes)
flags:
type: integer
description: Number of flags the story has received
comment_count:
type: integer
description: Total number of comments on the story
description:
type: string
description: HTML-rendered description or body text for text posts
nullable: true
description_plain:
type: string
description: Plain text description or body text for text posts
nullable: true
submitter_user:
type: string
description: Username of the user who submitted the story
example: alice
user_is_author:
type: boolean
description: Whether the submitter is the author of the linked content
tags:
type: array
description: List of tag names applied to the story, sorted alphabetically
items:
type: string
example:
- programming
- security
required:
- short_id
- created_at
- title
- score
- flags
- comment_count
- submitter_user
- user_is_author
- tags