Overview

The Hacker News MCP Server gives you instant access to various story feeds that the Hacker News community engages with daily. Whether you're monitoring tech trends, researching emerging topics, or simply staying informed about what's capturing the community's attention, retrieving story feeds is one of the most fundamental operations you'll perform with this server.

Available Story Feeds

The server provides access to three primary story feeds, each serving a distinct purpose:

Top Stories represent submissions that have risen to the front page through community voting. These are the most visible stories at any given moment and reflect what the Hacker News community currently finds most interesting or valuable.

New Stories show the latest submissions as they arrive on the platform. This feed is perfect for early discovery and monitoring breaking news before stories gain widespread attention.

Best Stories highlight submissions that have demonstrated lasting value over time. The algorithm considers various factors beyond just upvotes, making this feed ideal for finding high-quality content.

Retrieving Story Feeds

To access story feeds, simply make natural language requests to your AI assistant connected to the Hacker News MCP Server. The server interprets your intent and retrieves the appropriate data.

For example, you might ask:

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

The server processes these requests, queries the Hacker News API, and returns structured data containing story details.

Understanding Story Data

Each story entry includes comprehensive information to help you understand and evaluate the submission:

• Title and URL: The story headline and link to the original content
• Score: The number of upvotes, indicating community interest
• Author: The username of the submitter
• Time: When the story was submitted
• Comment count: How much discussion the story has generated

This structured data enables you to quickly assess stories and identify those worth deeper exploration.

Practical Tips

When retrieving story feeds, consider the specific feed that matches your needs. Use top stories for understanding current community focus, new stories for early trend detection, and best stories when quality matters more than timeliness.

Story feeds are live data, so running the same query at different times will yield different results. This real-time nature makes the server particularly valuable for monitoring and staying current with technology discussions.