Understanding Story Feeds

The Hacker News MCP Server provides access to multiple story feeds that represent different views of community activity. Each feed serves a distinct purpose and helps you stay connected with the content that matters most to your workflow.

Top Stories represent the most popular submissions currently on Hacker News. These are posts that have received significant upvotes from the community and have risen to prominence on the front page. Top stories reflect what the Hacker News community finds most valuable or interesting at this moment, making this feed ideal for understanding current trends and hot topics in technology.

New Stories show the most recent submissions to Hacker News as they arrive. This feed gives you access to content before it has been widely voted on or discussed, allowing you to discover emerging topics early and track breaking news in real-time.

Best Stories highlight submissions that have demonstrated lasting value and engagement. This curated feed showcases posts that have maintained strong community interest over time, making it perfect for finding high-quality content that has been thoroughly vetted by the community.

Retrieving Stories

To access any of these story feeds, simply ask your AI assistant using natural language. You don't need to memorize commands or syntax—the server understands conversational requests.

For example, you might ask:

• "What are the top stories on Hacker News right now?"
• "Show me the latest new submissions"
• "What are the best stories today?"

The server processes your request and returns structured information about each story, including the title, URL to the original source, current score (upvotes), the username of the person who submitted it, when it was posted, and how many comments it has received.

Working with Story Data

Once you receive story information, you can dive deeper into any submission that interests you. Each story has a unique identifier that allows you to retrieve its full comment thread, explore discussion patterns, or track how engagement evolves over time.

You can also filter or analyze stories based on specific criteria. For instance, you might ask to see only stories with more than 100 points, identify submissions from particular domains, or find posts about specific technologies or topics.

Practical Applications

Use top stories to stay informed about what's capturing the tech community's attention. Monitor new stories to catch emerging discussions early or identify trending topics before they hit the mainstream. Explore best stories when researching a topic and seeking high-quality, community-validated resources.

The flexibility of natural language queries means you can combine story retrieval with other analysis tasks, creating powerful workflows that transform raw Hacker News data into actionable insights.