Claude Hacker News

You can integrate Hacker News into Claude Desktop using MCP, letting you browse, open stories, and read comments directly from your chat interface. This MCP server runs locally and communicates with Claude Desktop to fetch and format Hacker News content for you.

How to use

Use the Hacker News MCP with Claude Desktop to pull latest, top, and best stories, fetch detailed story data, and retrieve comments. You can issue direct tool commands like hn_latest, hn_top, hn_best, hn_story, and hn_comments, or ask natural language questions and Claude will route them to the appropriate tools. When you request content, you’ll get clean, readable formatting of Hacker News data.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installation are Node.js 16 or higher and Claude Desktop installed on your computer. You also need an active Internet connection to access the Hacker News API.

Step 1. Clone the MCP server repository.

git clone https://github.com/imprvhub/mcp-claude-hackernews
cd mcp-claude-hackernews

Step 2. Install dependencies.

npm install

Step 3. Build the project.

npm run build

Step 4. (Optional) Configure Claude Desktop to auto-start the MCP server. Create or edit your Claude Desktop configuration file to include the Hacker News MCP as a stdio server.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackerNews": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_DIRECTORY/mcp-claude-hackernews/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Additional setup notes

If you already have other MCPs configured, place the Hacker News entry inside the same mcpServers object. The MCP server will start automatically when Claude Desktop needs it, using the path you provide in your config.

Troubleshooting

Server disconnected messages indicate the MCP server isn’t running or Claude Desktop can’t reach it. Try these steps:

1. Verify the server is running by starting it manually from the project directory:

node build/index.js

2. Confirm the absolute path in your Claude Desktop config is correct and uses proper path syntax for your OS.

3. Restart Claude Desktop after modifying the configuration and verify the Hacker News tools appear in Claude.

Notes on configuration and usage

The MCP server in this setup runs as a child process managed by Claude Desktop. You can fetch: latest, top, best stories, detailed story data, and comments through the provided tools.

Tools available through this MCP server

hn_latest fetches the most recent stories with an optional limit from 1 to 50 (default 10).

hn_top fetches the top-ranked stories with an optional limit (1-50, default 10).

hn_best fetches the best stories with an optional limit (1-50, default 10).

hn_story fetches detailed information about a specific story by its ID (required: story_id).

hn_comments fetches comments for a story by story_id or by the story’s position in the last list (story_index, 1-based). You must provide either story_id or story_index.

Security and privacy

This MCP server retrieves data from Hacker News via public APIs. Ensure your Claude Desktop environment remains secure and prune any sensitive data from your environment as needed.

Available tools

hn_latest

Fetches the most recent Hacker News stories with an optional limit (1-50, default 10).

hn_top

Fetches the top-ranked Hacker News stories with an optional limit (1-50, default 10).

hn_best

Fetches the best Hacker News stories with an optional limit (1-50, default 10).

hn_story

Fetches detailed information about a specific story by its ID (story_id).

hn_comments

Fetches comments for a story by story_id or by the story's position in the last list (story_index); either story_id or story_index must be provided.