What You'll Need

Before setting up the Hacker News MCP Server, ensure you have Claude Desktop or another MCP-compatible client installed on your system. You'll also need Node.js (version 16 or higher) to run the server.

Installation Steps

The Hacker News MCP Server is available through Apify's MCP server collection. To get started, you'll need to configure your MCP client to connect to the server.

Configure Claude Desktop

Open your Claude Desktop configuration file. On macOS, you'll find it at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. On Windows, look for it in %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.

Add the Hacker News server to your configuration by including the following in the mcpServers section:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hacker-news": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@apify/hacker-news-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Save the configuration file and restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect.

Verifying the Connection

Once Claude Desktop restarts, the Hacker News MCP Server should be active. You can verify this by looking for the MCP indicator in the Claude interface or by asking Claude to retrieve Hacker News stories.

Try a simple query like "Show me the top stories on Hacker News" or "What are the latest submissions to Hacker News?" If the server is properly configured, Claude will retrieve and display current data from the platform.

Using the Server

With the server running, you can interact with Hacker News through natural language. Request top stories to see what's trending, ask for specific user profiles to research contributors, or explore comment threads on interesting submissions.

The server handles all API interactions automatically, so you can focus on the information rather than technical details. Ask follow-up questions about stories, dive into comment discussions, or track specific topics across multiple submissions—the server makes all of this seamless and accessible.

Troubleshooting

If the server doesn't connect, verify your configuration file syntax is correct and that Node.js is properly installed. Restarting Claude Desktop after configuration changes is essential for the server to load properly.