Understanding User Profiles

The Hacker News MCP Server provides comprehensive access to user profile information, allowing you to retrieve detailed data about any member of the Hacker News community. Each profile contains valuable information including the user's karma score, account creation date, biographical details (if provided), and complete activity history.

To retrieve a user profile, simply ask your AI assistant about a specific Hacker News user by their username. For example, you might request "Show me the profile for user pg" or "What's the karma score for username dang?" The server will fetch the current profile data and present it in an easy-to-read format.

Accessing Activity Data

User activity data encompasses two primary types of content: submissions and comments. This data reveals what topics interest a particular user, how they engage with the community, and their areas of expertise.

Submissions History

Every story or link a user has submitted to Hacker News appears in their activity history. This includes the title, URL, submission time, and the score each submission received. Reviewing submission history helps you understand what content a user finds valuable enough to share with the community.

Comment History

Comments often provide deeper insights than submissions, revealing a user's technical knowledge, opinions, and communication style. The server retrieves a user's complete comment history, showing what discussions they've participated in and what perspectives they've contributed.

Practical Applications

Identifying Experts: Find users who consistently contribute to discussions in your area of interest. Look for high karma scores and relevant comment histories to identify genuine subject matter experts.

Following Thought Leaders: Track the activity of influential community members by periodically checking their profiles. Stay updated on what topics they're engaging with and what resources they're sharing.

Research Verification: When evaluating technical claims or seeking diverse perspectives, examine the profiles of users contributing to relevant discussions to assess their credibility and expertise level.

Community Analysis: Study activity patterns across multiple users to understand community dynamics, identify trending topics, or gauge sentiment around specific technologies or companies.

Making Requests

Interact with user profile features through natural language queries to your AI assistant. The server handles the technical details of API communication, returning structured data you can immediately use. Whether you're conducting one-time research or ongoing monitoring, the profile and activity features provide direct access to the collective knowledge and perspectives of the Hacker News community.