Hacker News MCP Server

A powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides seamless access to Hacker News data. This server enables AI assistants and applications to retrieve stories, comments, user information, and track updates from one of tech's most influential communities. Access top stories, explore user submissions, retrieve detailed item information, and monitor the latest discussions—all through a clean, standardized interface.

Overview

The Hacker News MCP Server acts as a bridge between your AI applications and the Hacker News API, providing comprehensive access to the platform's rich content ecosystem. Whether you're building content aggregators, research tools, or AI assistants that need to stay informed about the latest tech trends, this server offers the capabilities you need to tap into Hacker News programmatically.

This server provides real-time access to various story categories including top stories, newest submissions, best-rated content, Ask HN discussions, Show HN projects, and job postings. It also enables deep dives into specific items, user profiles, and comment threads, making it easy to analyze trends, track conversations, and extract insights from the Hacker News community.

Features

Story Discovery and Curation

Access multiple curated feeds of Hacker News content, each offering a different perspective on what's happening in the tech community. Retrieve top stories that are currently trending, discover the newest submissions as they appear, or explore the best-rated content that has resonated most with the community. The server also provides specialized access to Ask HN threads where community members seek advice, Show HN posts where creators share their projects, and job listings for opportunities in the tech industry.

Flexible Result Limiting

Each story retrieval tool supports configurable result limits, allowing you to fetch anywhere from a single item to hundreds of entries depending on your needs. This flexibility ensures you can balance between comprehensive data collection and focused, targeted queries that retrieve only what you need.

User Profile Analysis

Explore user profiles and their contribution history on Hacker News. Retrieve submission histories for any user, enabling analysis of their posting patterns, areas of interest, and community engagement. This capability is invaluable for research, community analysis, or simply following the work of influential contributors.

Real-Time Tracking

Stay current with the latest activity through tools that track the maximum item ID and recent updates. These capabilities enable polling for new content and monitoring changes to existing items and profiles, ensuring your application always has access to the freshest data.

Tools

get_top_stories

Retrieves the list of top story IDs currently trending on Hacker News. These stories represent the most popular and actively discussed content based on votes and comment activity.

Parameters:

limit (optional): Maximum number of story IDs to return. Accepts values between 1 and 500. Defaults to 30 if not specified.

get_new_stories

Fetches the newest story IDs submitted to Hacker News, ordered by submission time. This tool is perfect for discovering fresh content as it appears on the platform.

Parameters:

limit (optional): Maximum number of story IDs to return. Accepts values between 1 and 500. Defaults to 30 if not specified.

get_best_stories

Retrieves the best story IDs based on community ratings and engagement. These represent the highest quality content as determined by the Hacker News community.

Parameters:

limit (optional): Maximum number of story IDs to return. Accepts values between 1 and 500. Defaults to 30 if not specified.

get_ask_stories

Accesses Ask HN story IDs, which are community discussion threads where users pose questions or seek advice from fellow Hacker News members.

Parameters:

limit (optional): Maximum number of story IDs to return. Accepts values between 1 and 200. Defaults to 30 if not specified.

get_show_stories

Retrieves Show HN story IDs where creators showcase their projects, products, or creations to the Hacker News community for feedback and discussion.

Parameters:

limit (optional): Maximum number of story IDs to return. Accepts values between 1 and 200. Defaults to 30 if not specified.

get_job_stories

Fetches job posting IDs from Hacker News, providing access to employment opportunities shared within the community.

Parameters:

limit (optional): Maximum number of job IDs to return. Accepts values between 1 and 200. Defaults to 30 if not specified.

get_user_submissions

Retrieves all submission IDs for a specific Hacker News user, enabling analysis of their posting history and contributions to the platform.

Parameters:

username (required): The Hacker News username to look up.
limit (optional): Maximum number of submission IDs to return. Accepts values between 1 and 100. Defaults to 30 if not specified.

get_max_item_id

Returns the current maximum item ID on Hacker News. This is useful for tracking new content by comparing against previously retrieved maximum IDs, enabling efficient polling mechanisms.

Parameters: None required.

get_updates

Retrieves lists of items and user profiles that have been recently changed or updated on Hacker News, helping you stay synchronized with the latest modifications.

Parameters: None required.

Resource Templates

Resource templates provide structured access to specific Hacker News entities using URI-based addressing. These templates enable direct retrieval of detailed information about individual items, users, and content types.

story

Access detailed information about a specific Hacker News story using its unique identifier.

URI Template: hn://story/{id}

Parameters:

id: The unique numeric identifier of the story.

comment

Retrieve comprehensive details about a specific comment, including its text, author, timestamp, and relationship to parent items.

URI Template: hn://comment/{id}

Parameters:

id: The unique numeric identifier of the comment.

user

Get detailed profile information for a specific Hacker News user, including their karma, about text, and account creation date.

URI Template: hn://user/{username}

Parameters:

username: The username of the Hacker News account to retrieve.

item

Access detailed information about any type of Hacker News item, whether it's a story, comment, poll, job posting, or other content type. This is the most general-purpose resource template.

URI Template: hn://item/{id}

Parameters:

id: The unique numeric identifier of the item.

poll

Retrieve complete information about a Hacker News poll, including the poll question, all available options, and voting results.

URI Template: hn://poll/{id}

Parameters:

id: The unique numeric identifier of the poll.

Use Cases

This MCP server enables a wide range of applications and workflows. Build AI assistants that can discuss trending tech topics by accessing top stories in real-time. Create research tools that analyze user behavior and posting patterns across the Hacker News community. Develop content curation systems that filter and organize stories based on specific criteria. Monitor job postings to track hiring trends in the tech industry. Aggregate Ask HN and Show HN posts to identify common questions and innovative projects. Track comment threads to understand community sentiment on important topics.

The server's comprehensive access to Hacker News data makes it an essential tool for anyone building applications that need to integrate with or analyze content from this influential platform.