Overview

Real-time monitoring of trending topics on Hacker News helps you stay ahead of technology discussions, emerging trends, and breaking news in the tech community. With the Hacker News MCP server, you can set up automated monitoring workflows that track what's gaining traction and alert you to relevant conversations as they develop.

Understanding Story Feeds

The server provides access to three primary story feeds that form the foundation of your monitoring strategy:

Top Stories represent content currently on the front page, ranked by community votes and recency. These stories have already gained significant traction and reflect what the community considers most important right now.

New Stories show the latest submissions as they arrive, before voting determines their popularity. Monitoring this feed lets you catch emerging topics early, often hours before they reach the front page.

Best Stories highlight content with sustained engagement and high quality scores. This feed filters for posts that have demonstrated lasting value to the community.

Setting Up Basic Monitoring

Start by requesting the top stories feed through your AI assistant. Simply ask: "What are the current top stories on Hacker News?" This gives you an immediate snapshot of trending content.

For ongoing monitoring, request periodic updates at intervals that match your needs. You might check hourly for breaking developments or several times daily for general awareness. The server retrieves live data with each request, ensuring you're always working with current information.

Filtering for Relevant Topics

Rather than monitoring all stories, focus on topics relevant to your interests. Instruct your AI assistant to retrieve top stories and identify those matching specific keywords, domains, or themes. For example: "Show me top Hacker News stories about artificial intelligence" or "Find trending posts about cybersecurity."

This filtering approach reduces noise and ensures you only see discussions that matter to your work or research.

Tracking Comment Engagement

Story scores alone don't tell the complete picture. A post with moderate votes but extensive comments often indicates controversial or technically deep discussions. Ask for stories with high comment counts to find substantive conversations: "Which top stories have the most comments right now?"

Monitoring User Activity

Track specific thought leaders or company representatives by requesting their recent activity. This helps you understand what topics particular experts find noteworthy and catch their commentary as it happens.

Building Monitoring Workflows

Create effective monitoring routines by combining different approaches: check new stories for early signals, review top stories for validated trends, and examine comment threads on high-engagement posts. This multi-layered strategy ensures comprehensive coverage of community discussions while maintaining focus on truly significant developments.