Hacker News MCP Server

What is Hacker News MCP Server?

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides tools for fetching stories from Hacker News by parsing the HTML content from news.ycombinator.com and returning structured data for different story types (top, new, ask, show, jobs). It is intended for use with Claude or other MCP-compatible clients.

How to use Hacker News MCP Server?

Install dependencies with npm install, build with npm run build, then add the server to your MCP settings configuration file for the Claude desktop app or VSCode Claude extension using a JSON entry specifying the node command and path to the built index.js. Once configured, ask Claude in natural language for Hacker News stories (e.g., “Show me the top 5 stories”) and it will call the get_stories tool.

Key features of Hacker News MCP Server

• Fetch different types of stories (top, new, ask, show, jobs)
• Get structured data including titles, URLs, points, authors, timestamps, and comment counts
• Configurable limit on number of stories returned (1-30, default 10)
• Clean error handling and validation for invalid types, network failures, and parsing errors

Use cases of Hacker News MCP Server

• Ask an AI assistant to show the top stories from Hacker News.
• Retrieve the latest “Ask HN” posts for answering community questions.
• Fetch recent “Show HN” submissions to discover new projects.
• Get job listings posted on Hacker News for quick browsing.

FAQ from Hacker News MCP Server

How does this server get Hacker News data?

It parses the HTML content from news.ycombinator.com using Cheerio, not an official API. Data is fetched live; no caching or persistence is mentioned.

What runtime or dependencies are required?

Node.js is required. The server depends on the Model Context Protocol SDK, Axios, and Cheerio (installed via npm).

Where does the server store data?

The README does not mention any local storage or database. Data is fetched from Hacker News on each request and returned to the client; it is not saved by the server.

What transports or authentication does this server support?

The README does not specify transports (e.g., stdio vs HTTP) or authentication. Configuration examples show a command and args for stdio integration with Claude.

Are there any limits on the number of stories returned?

Yes. The limit parameter accepts values from 1 to 30, with a default of 10.