Understanding Direct Access to Content

When browsing Hacker News, every story, comment, and item has a unique numerical identifier. These IDs are the foundation of how content is organized and retrieved on the platform. The Hacker News MCP Server allows you to query specific items directly using these identifiers, giving you precise access to any piece of content without needing to search through feeds or listings.

What Are Hacker News IDs?

Every item on Hacker News—whether it's a story, comment, poll, or job posting—receives a unique ID when it's created. These IDs are sequential numbers that increment with each new submission. You'll often see these IDs in the URL when browsing Hacker News. For example, a URL like news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38471822 indicates that the item has ID 38471822.

Querying Stories by ID

To retrieve a specific story, you can request it directly using its ID. This is particularly useful when you've identified an interesting discussion and want to access its full details, including the submission title, URL, author, score, timestamp, and associated comment thread.

Simply ask your AI assistant to fetch a Hacker News item by its ID number. For example: "Get me Hacker News story 38471822" or "Show me the details for HN item 38471822." The server will return comprehensive information about that specific item.

Accessing Individual Comments

Comments also have unique IDs, and you can retrieve them individually using the same approach. This is valuable when you want to examine a specific comment in detail, including its author, timestamp, text content, and its position within the broader conversation thread.

Request a comment by asking for its specific ID, such as: "Fetch Hacker News comment 38472150." You'll receive the comment's full content along with metadata about when it was posted and who wrote it.

When to Use ID-Based Queries

Direct ID queries are most useful when you already know the specific content you want to access. This might happen when:

• Following a link or reference that includes an item ID
• Tracking specific discussions over time to monitor new comments
• Building on previous queries where you've already identified items of interest
• Accessing content that may no longer appear in current feeds but remains available by ID

Combining Approaches

ID-based queries work best when combined with feed-based browsing. You might start by retrieving top stories to identify interesting discussions, then use the IDs from those results to dive deeper into specific comment threads or related items. This two-stage approach lets you efficiently navigate from general exploration to targeted analysis.