HackerNews

You can deploy and use the HackerNews MCP Server to access and manipulate HackerNews data through MCP clients. It exposes a set of tools that let you search, retrieve, and interact with stories, comments, polls, users, and more, enabling AI assistants and other MCP clients to work with HackerNews content efficiently.

How to use

You run the MCP server locally and connect your MCP client to it. The server is designed to be spawned as a stdio transport where you execute the server process and communicate via its standard input/output interface. You can start the server while developing or in production and then issue tools to perform searches, fetch front pages, retrieve user data, or get comments and story details. Use the available tools to compose requests that specify the action you want (for example, searching posts, getting the front page, or fetching a specific item by ID). To integrate with Claude Desktop or other MCP clients, configure the client to spawn the server process and point it to the server’s executable entry, so your client can send tool requests and receive structured responses.

How to install

Prerequisites include Node.js 18 or higher and npm or yarn for package management.

Step by step setup and run flow you can follow on your machine:

git clone <repository-url>
cd hn-mcp-server-vibe
npm install
npm run build

Configuration and usage with MCP clients

You can configure MCP clients to run the server as a stdio process. The following configuration demonstrates how to connect Claude Desktop to the local server. This config uses a direct stdio spawn pointing to the built server entry. Adjust the absolute path to your installation path as needed.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackernews": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/hn-mcp-server-vibe/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Other MCP clients

If your client supports stdio transport, you can start the server by spawning its runtime command directly. The typical pattern is to run the built server entry with Node. Use the exact path to the built file as shown in your client configuration.

node /path/to/hn-mcp-server-vibe/build/index.js

API examples and common tasks

The server exposes a range of tools to work with HackerNews data. You can search posts, fetch front page stories, retrieve latest stories or comments, get content by author, or obtain specific items and users. Use the tool name and provide the appropriate arguments to perform each action. For example, you can search for AI-related stories, fetch the front page, or retrieve a user’s profile.

Troubleshooting

If the server isn’t connecting or producing results, verify that the build output exists and you are using Node.js version 18 or higher. Ensure the absolute path in your client configuration points to the built server file.

Development notes

You can run the server in development mode if your project supports a dev script. This is useful during active development when you want hot reloading or rapid iteration.

Available tools

search-posts

Search posts by relevance with options to filter by tags and paginate results.

search-posts-by-date

Search posts sorted by date with most recent first.

search-by-url

Find posts that link to a specific URL.

search-by-time-range

Search posts within a specific time window using time-based filters.

get-front-page

Retrieve all stories currently shown on the HackerNews front page.

get-latest-stories

Fetch the most recently published stories.

get-latest-comments

Fetch the most recently published comments.

get-show-hn

Retrieve posts labeled Show HN (projects and demonstrations).

get-ask-hn

Retrieve posts labeled Ask HN (questions).

get-polls

Retrieve the latest polls.

get-top-stories

Retrieve stories with a minimum points threshold.

get-item

Get a specific item by ID (story, comment, poll).

get-user

Retrieve user information and karma.

get-posts-by-author

Retrieve all posts by a specific author.

get-story-comments

Retrieve all comments for a specific story.