Overview

The Hacker News MCP Server makes it easy to access different story feeds from Hacker News, including top stories, new submissions, and best stories. This guide will walk you through retrieving these feeds and understanding what each one offers.

Understanding Story Feed Types

Hacker News organizes content into several distinct feeds, each serving a different purpose:

Top Stories represent the most popular content currently on the front page, ranked by community votes and recency. These stories have gained significant traction and represent what the community finds most valuable right now.

New Stories show the latest submissions as they arrive on the platform, regardless of their vote count. This feed is perfect for catching emerging topics before they hit the front page.

Best Stories highlight content that has demonstrated lasting value over time, combining vote scores with other quality signals to surface particularly worthwhile submissions.

Retrieving Story Feeds

To access any story feed, simply ask your AI assistant for the specific feed you're interested in. The server handles all the technical details behind the scenes.

For top stories, you might say: "Show me the current top stories on Hacker News." This returns a list of stories currently dominating the front page, complete with titles, URLs, scores, and author information.

To explore new submissions, request: "What are the newest stories on Hacker News?" This gives you real-time access to fresh content as it's submitted.

For curated quality content, ask: "Get the best stories from Hacker News." This retrieves stories that have proven their value to the community over time.

Working With Story Data

Each story returned by the server includes comprehensive metadata. You'll receive the story title, external URL (if applicable), the current score based on community votes, submission timestamp, and the username of who posted it. Many stories also include comment counts, helping you identify which submissions are generating the most discussion.

This structured data makes it easy to analyze trends, identify popular topics, or track specific subjects over time. You can ask follow-up questions about specific stories, dive into their comment threads, or research the users who submitted them.

Practical Tips

Check top stories regularly to stay current with what the tech community considers important. Use new stories to discover emerging topics early. Explore best stories when you're looking for high-quality content that has stood the test of time and community scrutiny.