What is Story Data?

When you retrieve stories from Hacker News through the MCP server, you receive structured data objects that contain all the essential information about each submission. Understanding this data structure helps you effectively interpret and work with Hacker News content.

Each story object includes several key metadata fields that describe the submission and its current state within the community.

Core Story Metadata Fields

Identification and Content

Every story has a unique ID that serves as its permanent identifier across the Hacker News platform. This numeric ID is used to reference the story in subsequent queries, such as when retrieving comments or checking for updates.

The title field contains the headline or name of the submission, while the URL field (when present) points to the external resource being shared. Some stories are "Ask HN" or "Show HN" posts without external URLs, existing purely as discussion starters on Hacker News itself.

Community Engagement Metrics

The score indicates how many upvotes the story has received from the community. Higher scores generally correlate with greater visibility and community interest. This metric helps you identify which submissions are resonating most strongly with readers.

The descendants field shows the total number of comments in the discussion thread, including nested replies. This gives you an immediate sense of how much conversation a story has generated.

Temporal Information

Each story includes a time field represented as a Unix timestamp, indicating when it was submitted. This allows you to understand the age of content and track how stories gain traction over time.

Author Information

The by field identifies the Hacker News user who submitted the story. This username can be used to query the user's profile through the server, enabling you to learn more about frequent contributors or track submissions from specific individuals.

Story Types

Stories can have different types including "story" (standard submissions), "job" (job postings), "poll" (community polls), and others. Understanding the type helps you filter and categorize content appropriately.

Working with Story Lists

When you request story feeds like "top stories" or "new stories," you typically receive a list of story IDs first. You can then request detailed metadata for specific stories you want to examine more closely. This two-step approach keeps data transfer efficient while giving you control over how deeply you explore the content.