Understanding Comment Threads

Hacker News discussions often contain insights that rival or exceed the value of the original submissions. The comment section is where the community dissects topics, shares expertise, and debates ideas. With the Hacker News MCP Server, you can access these rich conversations programmatically through simple requests to your AI assistant.

Retrieving Comments for a Story

To access comments on a specific story, you'll need the story's unique identifier. Once you have this ID, simply ask your assistant to retrieve the comments for that item. The server will return the complete comment thread, including all replies and nested discussions.

For example, you might say: "Show me the comments on story 38745621" or "What are people saying about the top story on Hacker News right now?" Your assistant will fetch the comment data and present it in a readable format.

Navigating Comment Hierarchies

Hacker News comments are organized in threaded conversations, where replies nest under parent comments to form discussion trees. When you retrieve comments through the server, you'll see this hierarchical structure preserved.

Each comment includes metadata like the author's username, timestamp, score (upvotes), and the comment text itself. Replies to a comment are linked through parent-child relationships, allowing you to trace conversation branches from top-level responses down through detailed back-and-forth exchanges.

Accessing Individual Comments

If you're interested in a specific comment rather than an entire thread, you can request it directly using its unique ID. This is particularly useful when tracking specific discussions or referencing particular insights. Ask your assistant something like: "Get comment 38746892" to retrieve just that comment and its immediate context.

Exploring User Commentary

You can also approach comments from a user-centric perspective. Request a user's profile to see their comment history, allowing you to follow specific contributors whose insights you value or research expert opinions on particular topics. Try asking: "Show me recent comments from user 'tptacek'" to access their latest contributions to discussions.

Practical Tips

When exploring comment threads, start with top-level comments to get an overview of community sentiment, then drill down into specific branches that interest you. Comments with higher scores often indicate particularly valuable insights or widely-held perspectives. Pay attention to timestamps to understand how discussions evolved over time, especially on breaking news or controversial topics.