Hacker News

MCP Server for Hackernews

python

61

GitHub Stars

python

Language

6 months ago

First Indexed

2 months ago

Catalog Refreshed

Documentation & install

Readme and setup notes from the catalogue, plus a client-ready config you can copy for your MCP host.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

View docs

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "erithwik-mcp-hn": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-hn"
      ]
    }
  }
}

You can use the Hacker News MCP Server to fetch top stories, story details, user activity, and perform searches from Hacker News. It provides a programmable interface that lets you query content and retrieve concise summaries for your applications or workflows.

How to use

Connect to the MCP Server using your MCP client. You will interact with a set of tools that map to Hacker News actions: getting top or filtered stories, retrieving comments for a story, fetching user activity, and searching stories by a query. Use the client’s standard request pattern to invoke each tool by name and then process the returned results in your app or workflow. For example, you can pull the latest top stories, then fetch the details and comments for a story that interests you, and finally search for stories about a topic you care about. Use the flow that best matches your needs: fetch stories, drill into a story, then summarize or compare multiple stories or users.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before you start: Node.js and npm (Node.js recommended version ranges may vary by platform). You also need access to a terminal or command prompt with network access.

Install the MCP server client via the package runner:

npx -y @smithery/cli install mcp-hn --client claude

Production configuration for Claude Desktop

Update the production MCP configuration so Claude Desktop can discover and run the MCP server. Create or edit the Claude desktop config file to include the MCP server entry.

On macOS, set the path to Claude’s config file to:

~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

On Windows, set the path to Claude’s config file to:

%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Production MCP server entry for Claude Desktop

Add the MCP server configuration block for the built server. This example shows how to declare the mcp-hn server so Claude Desktop can start it.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-hn": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-hn"]
    }
  }
}

Available tools

get_stories

Fetches stories by category such as top, new, ask_hn, or show_hn.

get_story_info

Fetches the comments and discussion for a specific story.

search_stories

Searches Hacker News stories by a query and returns matching results.

get_user_info

Fetches information about a Hacker News user, including activity summaries.