Create an account and generate a FetchLayer API key from your dashboard. There is no Product Hunt developer account, OAuth flow, or API token involved.

Create free account →

2. Pull a leaderboard

bash

curl -X POST https://api.fetchlayer.dev/producthunt/leaderboard \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ss-your-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"period":"daily","date":"2026-09-01","limit":20}'

Counts will not match the website exactly

Product Hunt places three promoted entries in every twenty of a leaderboard feed. Those are dropped from entries, and the number dropped is reported in notes — so twenty ranked launches on the site can come back as seventeen here, with a note saying why.

3. Follow a launch into its comments

Every leaderboard entry carries a launch.slug and a productSlug. Pass either to /product-comments to read launch-day feedback, or to /product-detail for the full record.

bash

curl -X POST https://api.fetchlayer.dev/producthunt/product-comments \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ss-your-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"product":"granola","sortBy":"SCORE","limit":100}'

Tip

Replies are nested, not flattened: each thread in comments carries its own replies array, which carries theirs. Walk the tree recursively — a flat loop over comments sees only the top-level posts.

4. Read the notes

Every JSON response carries a notes array. It is where the backend reports a reply walk that stopped early, an upstream ceiling it hit, or promoted entries it dropped — rather than failing the request. An empty array means nothing was held back.

json

{
  "notes": [
    "Dropped 3 promoted entries from the feed."
  ],
  "entryCount": 17,
  "hasNextPage": true
}

Error responses

Every error, on every route, is JSON in one shape: error (what went wrong, in words), status, code, retryable and requestId, which also comes as the X-Request-Id header. Branch on code and retryable rather than on the text; on a 5xx the text is generic. Quote requestId when reporting a problem.

json

{
  "error": "Missing required parameter: url",
  "status": 400,
  "missing": ["url"],
  "code": "invalid_input",
  "retryable": false,
  "requestId": "922874e3-c0d0-40d8-8866-d198af132420"
}

code	Status	Retryable	Meaning
invalid_input	400	no	The request needs fixing; error names the field. A missing required parameter also lists it in missing.
unauthorized	401	no	The API key is missing or not valid.
insufficient_credits	402	no	Nothing left to spend: no credits, a used-up free trial, or a monthly allowance and credit balance both spent. error says which. Waiting does not help; topping up does.
forbidden	403	no	This key or account is not allowed this request.
not_found	404	no	What the request names does not exist or is not public.
expired	410	no	What the request refers to is no longer available; ask for it afresh.
quota_exceeded	429	no	A request-rate limit was reached; error says which. Slow down before sending more.
cancelled	499	no	The caller closed or cancelled the request before it finished. The work was stopped and nothing was charged.
time_limit	503	yes	Your timeoutMs ran out before there was anything to return; ask again, or allow more time.
temporarily_unavailable	503	yes	Not available right now; ask again shortly.
store_unreachable	503	yes	Store routes (Shopify, WooCommerce): the store itself can’t be reached right now — it may be offline. Ask again later. Where a store route doesn’t say so yet, an offline store is temporarily_unavailable.
upstream_error	502	yes	The source answered in a way that could not be used; ask again later.
internal_error	500	yes	Something failed on our side; ask again later, and quote requestId if it persists.
tool_error	—	no	MCP only: a tool call failed in a way no other code describes; error says what.

More codes may be added; treat one you do not recognise by its retryable flag. Over MCP, a tool error carries the same fields in structuredContent, and as a JSON text block beside the message.

Next steps

On this page