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Substack Post Comments

Get the full comment thread of a Substack post, nested. Returns every comment with text, author, date, likes, replies and restacks, replies nested under their parent to any depth, sorted by relevance, newest first or oldest first.

Endpoint

GET /v1/substack/post/comments

Price: $0.003 per request Free tier: 50 requests/month

Provide exactly one of url, post_id, or publication together with slug.

Parameters

Parameter Required Description
url One required Post URL, e.g. https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/all-of-the-lenny-and-friends-summit (max 500 characters). Provide url, post_id, or publication and slug.
post_id One required Numeric post ID, as returned in post_id. Provide url, post_id, or publication and slug.
publication One required Publication subdomain, host or URL, used together with slug.
slug One required Post URL slug, e.g. all-of-the-lenny-and-friends-summit, used together with publication.
sort_by No Sort order: relevance (best first), most_recent, oldest (default: relevance)
get_sentiment No Set to true to add AI emotion analysis (Plutchik’s Wheel) to each result. Adds +$0.001 per request to the cost. Returns emotion scores, dominant emotion, intensity, and polarity.

Response Fields

Field Type Description
comments array Top-level comments in the requested order
comments[].comment_id string Comment ID
comments[].body string Comment text
comments[].date string Date and time posted (UTC)
comments[].author string Commenter’s handle
comments[].author_name string Commenter’s display name
comments[].author_id string Commenter’s user ID
comments[].author_url string Link to the commenter’s profile
comments[].likes integer Number of likes
comments[].replies integer Number of replies
comments[].restacks integer Number of restacks
comments[].is_author boolean Whether the commenter wrote the post
comments[].is_pinned boolean Whether the comment is pinned
comments[].author_pic_url string Author’s profile picture URL
comments[].reactions object Reaction counts by emoji
comments[].liked_by array Names of the first people who liked the comment
comments[].status string published, or Substack’s removal status
comments[].url string Direct link to the comment
comments[].children array Replies, each with the same fields (nested to any depth)
comments[].sentiment object/null Emotion analysis results. Only present when get_sentiment=true. Returns null if analysis fails.
comments[].sentiment.emotions object Plutchik emotion scores (0-100) for: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation.
comments[].sentiment.dominant_emotion string The emotion with the highest score.
comments[].sentiment.emotional_intensity integer Overall emotional intensity on a scale of 0-10.
comments[].sentiment.polarity string Overall sentiment polarity: positive, negative, or neutral.
post_id string The post’s ID
post_url string The post’s URL
sort_by string The sort order used
total integer The post’s comment count
count integer Number of comments returned, including nested replies
truncated boolean True when a very large thread was cut at the response size limit (whole top-level comments are dropped from the end)

Example Request

cURL

curl "https://apidirect.io/v1/substack/post/comments?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lennysnewsletter.com%2Fp%2Fhow-duolingo-reignited-user-growth" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Python

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://apidirect.io/v1/substack/post/comments",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    params={"url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-duolingo-reignited-user-growth"}
)
print(response.json())

Example Response

{
  "comments": [
    {
      "author": "fullstackresearcher",
      "author_id": "8067246",
      "author_name": "Daniel Kyne",
      "author_pic_url": "https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/69f08c0f-8d66-4b63-8d88-97af005d6bab_2126x2126.png",
      "author_url": "https://substack.com/@fullstackresearcher",
      "body": "Nothing beats real life examples (especially including failures) in deep detail like this! 🙏",
      "children": [
        {
          "author": "jorgemazal1",
          "author_id": "25411757",
          "author_name": "Jorge Mazal",
          "author_url": "https://substack.com/@jorgemazal1",
          "body": "Thank you Daniel!",
          "children": [],
          "comment_id": "13190378",
          "date": "2023-02-28 21:45:14",
          "is_author": true,
          "is_pinned": false,
          "likes": 5,
          "replies": 0,
          "restacks": 0,
          "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-duolingo-reignited-user-growth/comment/13190378"
        }
      ],
      "comment_id": "13180393",
      "date": "2023-02-28 16:40:12",
      "is_author": false,
      "is_pinned": false,
      "liked_by": [
        "Lenny Rachitsky"
      ],
      "likes": 49,
      "reactions": {
        "❤": 49
      },
      "replies": 1,
      "restacks": 0,
      "status": "published",
      "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-duolingo-reignited-user-growth/comment/13180393"
    }
  ],
  "count": 79,
  "post_id": "104096876",
  "post_url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-duolingo-reignited-user-growth",
  "sort_by": "relevance",
  "total": 78,
  "truncated": false
}
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