Understanding Real-Time Updates

The Hacker News MCP server provides live access to the latest activity on Hacker News, ensuring you're always working with current information rather than outdated data. This real-time capability is essential for staying informed about breaking tech news, emerging discussions, and trending topics as they develop within the community.

Accessing New Submissions

To monitor the latest posts as they arrive on Hacker News, you can request the newest submissions through simple natural language queries to your AI assistant. Ask for "new stories on Hacker News" or "latest submissions," and the server will retrieve the most recent posts from the community. This feed updates continuously as users submit new content, giving you immediate visibility into fresh discussions, article shares, and questions being posted.

New submissions represent the raw stream of content before community voting has determined what rises to prominence. This makes them particularly valuable for early trend detection, discovering niche topics, or monitoring specific subjects before they gain widespread attention.

Tracking Live Story Updates

Stories on Hacker News are dynamic—their scores change as users vote, comment counts increase as discussions develop, and their ranking shifts accordingly. The server retrieves current data each time you make a request, reflecting the latest state of any story, including its current score, number of comments, and position in various story feeds.

This live data access means you can track how specific stories evolve over time, observe which discussions are gaining momentum, or identify when breaking news captures the community's attention. Simply request the same story at different times to see how engagement has developed.

Monitoring Top and Best Stories

The "top stories" feed shows what's currently on the Hacker News front page based on recent voting activity and submission time. This feed changes throughout the day as new stories gain traction and older ones decline. Requesting top stories gives you a snapshot of what the community considers most important right now.

The "best stories" feed applies additional quality filters, showing posts that have demonstrated sustained value and engagement. Both feeds update continuously, allowing you to monitor shifts in community focus and identify what's capturing attention at any moment.

Practical Monitoring Strategies

For effective real-time monitoring, consider establishing regular check-ins at intervals that match your needs—hourly for breaking news awareness, or several times daily for general trend tracking. You can also focus monitoring on specific topics by requesting new stories and filtering discussions based on keywords or subjects relevant to your interests.

By leveraging the server's real-time capabilities, you transform Hacker News from a passive reading experience into an active monitoring tool that keeps you connected to technology community discussions as they unfold.