Best Code Comments API

An API that shares legendary source code comments as embeddable image or JSON.

What is this?

This project grew out of revisiting the classic Stack Overflow thread:

• “What is the best comment in source code you have ever encountered?”

Those snippets are too good to stay buried in an old discussion, so this service curates and repackages them. Use the API to

• fetch JSON for bots, dashboards, or daily inspiration widgets,
• embed themed SVG/PNG cards in READMEs, slides, and blog posts,
• or simply hit /api/random for a laugh whenever you need one.

Endpoints

Method	Path	Description	Query params
GET	/health	Service status and metadata	—
GET	/api/random	Random comment with optional filters	tags, author, maxLines, minPopularity
GET	/api/comment/:id	Fetch a comment by numeric ID	—
GET	/comment.svg /comment.png	Render a comment as SVG or PNG (via Sharp)	id, tags, author, maxLines, minPopularity, theme, width

Query Parameters

Name	Default	Description
tags	—	Comma-separated tag filter; see src/types.ts for supported values.
author	—	Case-insensitive substring match on the author field.
maxLines	25	Maximum number of lines the comment should have.
minPopularity	2	Minimum stackoverflow popularity score the comment should have.
id	—	Request a specific comment by numeric ID.
theme	light	Theme for rendered SVG/PNG cards; supports light and dark.
width	820	Width of the rendered SVG in pixels (string or number).

SVG/PNG requests without an id redirect to a random comment that fits your filters, including maxLines and minPopularity.

Examples

JSON (random)

curl https://localhost:3000/api/random

{
  "id": 66,
  "author": "Yuval",
  "date": "2011-07-15 11:57:51Z",
  "source": "https://stackoverflow.com/a/400211",
  "popularity": 105,
  "tags": [
    "humor",
    "meta"
  ],
  "content": "// This comment is self explanatory."
}

SVG (random)

curl "https://localhost:3000/comment.svg" -o comment.svg

SVG (dark theme)

curl "https://localhost:3000/comment.svg?id=135&theme=dark" -o comment.svg

PNG (custom width)

curl "https://localhost:3000/comment.png?id=177&width=1300" -o comment.png

Quick Start

bun install
bun run build    # preprocess comment data
bun run dev      # runs bun --hot src/index.ts

Visit http://localhost:3000/health to confirm the service is running. The /all route is available in development for a quick gallery of every comment.

Project Structure

.
├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   │   ├── commentsAllPage.ts    # Dev-only gallery HTML renderer
│   │   └── commentsSvg.ts        # SVG string renderer
│   ├── data/                     # Preprocessed comment dataset (JSON)
│   ├── index.ts                  # Hono application entry point
│   ├── types.ts                  # Shared type definitions
│   └── utils.ts                  # Filtering helpers and constants
├── scripts/                      # Data scraping/build tools
├── fonts/                        # Local fallbacks for Sharp/Vercel
├── html/                         # Scraped HTML snapshots
└── README.md

Rendering Details

• SVGs import JetBrains Mono and Roboto from Google Fonts (distributed under the SIL Open Font License and Apache 2.0 respectively).
• Text wrapping keeps whitespace intact for ASCII art comments.
• PNGs are rasterised from SVG using Sharp, so fonts must be accessible even in headless environments (handled by inline imports and optional fontconfig).

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🙌 Thanks to the Stack Overflow community.

⭐ If this API made you smile, consider sharing it and starring the repo.