Understanding User Profile Queries

The Hacker News MCP Server makes it simple to retrieve detailed information about any Hacker News user, giving you access to their contribution history, community standing, and activity patterns. User profiles contain valuable data including karma scores, submission history, comments, and biographical information that users have chosen to share.

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

What Profile Data Is Available

When you query a user profile, you'll receive several key pieces of information:

Basic Information: The user's username, account creation date, and total karma score. Karma reflects the cumulative votes that user's submissions and comments have received, providing a rough measure of their community contributions and engagement level.

Biographical Details: Many users include an "about" section in their profiles where they share background information, contact details, or links to their personal websites and projects. This information helps you understand the user's expertise and areas of interest.

Submission History: Access the complete list of stories and links the user has submitted to Hacker News. This reveals what topics they find interesting enough to share with the community and can help you identify thought leaders in specific technical domains.

Comment Activity: Review the user's comment history to understand their perspectives, expertise, and engagement style. Comments often reveal more about a user's knowledge and viewpoints than their submissions alone.

Tracking User Activity

Beyond static profile information, you can track ongoing user activity by periodically querying their profiles. This is particularly useful for monitoring subject matter experts, following influential community members, or researching how specific users engage with particular topics over time.

Ask questions like "What has paulg submitted recently?" or "Show me the latest comments from tptacek" to stay updated on specific users' contributions. This capability is valuable for competitive intelligence, identifying expertise for potential collaboration, or simply following thought leaders whose insights you value.

Practical Applications

User profile queries support various use cases. Researchers can identify and track domain experts. Companies can monitor how key community members discuss their products or technologies. Recruiters might identify talented developers based on their technical contributions. Content creators can find authoritative voices to cite or interview.

The server handles all the technical complexity of fetching and parsing user data, allowing you to focus on analysis and insights rather than data collection mechanics.