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Lobsters

Hottest tech links on Lobste.rs

💬 Social & WorkUNMONITORED
AUTH NONECORS ✗AGENT ?HTTPS ✓COMMERCIAL ?

Lobsters exposes /hottest.json and /newest.json story lists. Compact JSON for computing-focused link aggregators.

—HOW IT'S SCORED ⓘ
Docs ↗
Status badge · for your READMEshipapis health badge: — · unmonitored
ON PROBE SCHEDULE

We probe a documented GET and expect 2xx JSON — full uptime and health score. Open provider docs ↗

Uptime historystarts after first probe

On our probe schedule. Uptime charts appear after the first check lands.

Example responsefrom provider docs — not verified by us
GET https://lobste.rs/hottest.json

[
  {
    "short_id": "zhizsf",
    "created_at": "2026-07-05T03:24:06.000-05:00",
    "title": "If you’re a button, you have one job",
    "url": "https://unsung.aresluna.org/if-youre-a-button-you-have-one-job/",
    "score": 55,
    "flags": 0,
    "comment_count": 22,
    "description": ""
  },
  {
    "short_id": "zwz0wh",
    "created_at": "2026-07-03T09:14:38.000-05:00",
    "title": "Fourteener Lobsters",
    "url": "",
    "score": 389,
    "flags": 0,
    "comment_count": 42,
    "description": "<p>Hey folks,</p>\n<p>Once more around the sun, today is 14 years since Lobsters launched in 2012.</p>\n<p>Like the the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteener\" rel=\"ugc\">American fourteeners</a>, our <a href=\"https://lobste.rs/stats\" rel=\"ugc\">activity charts</a> have been busily sloping upwards.\nWe now have 20,412 users who've submitted 127,589 stories, written 696,054 comments, and cast 4,911,743 votes.\n(I'm happy to run <a href=\"https://lobste.rs/about#queries\" rel=\"ugc\">more complicated queries</a> than <code>count(*)</code>.)</p>\n<p>Previously:\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/rxmopc/lobsters_is_1_year_old_today\" rel=\"ugc\">2013</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/9fcuzc/happy_birthday_lobste_rs\" rel=\"ugc\">2016</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/mazaum/happy_5th_anniversary_lobsters\" rel=\"ugc\">2017</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/cgtc2w/happy_7th_anniversary_lobsters\" rel=\"ugc\">2019</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/orrpdv/lobsters_launched_8_years_ago_today\" rel=\"ugc\">2020</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/idj3tm/lobsters_is_nine_today\" rel=\"ugc\">2021</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/jclvos/one_decade_lobsters\" rel=\"ugc\">2022</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/hhoopi/lobsters_is_11_today\" rel=\"ugc\">2023</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/slfdci/one_dozen_lobsters\" rel=\"ugc\">2024</a>\n<a href=\"https://lobste.rs/s/8we4dn/lucky_13_lobsters\" rel=\"ugc\">2025</a></p>\n<p>Look back at the last year’s <a href=\"https://lobste.rs/top/1y\" rel=\"ugc\">top stories</a>,\nor review your upvoted <a href=\"https://lobste.rs/upvoted/comments\" rel=\"ugc\">comments</a>\nand <a href=\"https://lobste.rs/upvoted/stories\" rel=\"ugc\">stories</a> to share your favorites.</p>\n"
  }
]
Call itcurl · fetch · python
curl "https://lobste.rs/hottest.json"
const res = await fetch("https://lobste.rs/hottest.json");
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);
import requests

res = requests.get("https://lobste.rs/hottest.json")
print(res.json())

BROWSER CALLS BLOCKED (NO CORS/HTTPS) — USE THE CURL SNIPPET

Endpoints · 2On scheduleFULL DOCS ↗
On schedule — GET /hottest.json awaits first probe
GET/hottest.jsonPROBED

Hottest tech links on Lobste.rs

GET/hottest.json?limit=5

Paginated variant with limit parameter.

Machine-readable spec

We probe a documented GET and expect 2xx JSON — full uptime and health score. Export includes every documented route below.

Response-shape history

Not tracked yet. Shape-change history starts once this API joins our probe schedule.

Lobsters: common questions

Is Lobsters free to use?

Yes — Lobsters is a free social & work API. Free tier: Free — limits not published. Whether the free tier allows commercial use is unclear — check the provider docs.

Does Lobsters need an API key?

No — Lobsters needs no API key or signup. You can call it straight away; rate limits still apply (Unpublished).

Can I call Lobsters from the browser?

Not directly — Lobsters doesn't send browser-friendly CORS headers, so call it from a server or proxy instead. Copy the curl or Python snippet on this page to get started.

Is Lobsters up right now?

Lobsters is catalogued but not yet on our probe schedule, so we don't publish a live status for it. Check the provider's own status page or docs for its current state.