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Understanding Story Data Structure and Fields

What is Story Data?

When you retrieve stories from Hacker News through this MCP server, each story is returned as a structured data object containing multiple fields. Understanding these fields helps you interpret the information correctly and make the most of the data available to you.

Core Story Fields

ID

Every story has a unique numeric identifier that serves as its permanent reference within Hacker News. You'll use this ID when you want to retrieve specific stories, access their comments, or reference them in other queries.

Title

The headline or title of the submission as it appears on Hacker News. This is the text users see when browsing and typically describes the linked content or discussion topic.

URL

For link submissions, this field contains the web address of the external content being shared. If the submission is a text post (known as "Ask HN" or "Show HN" posts), this field may be empty or null since the discussion happens entirely on Hacker News.

Score

The number of upvotes the story has received from the community. Higher scores indicate greater community interest and approval. This metric helps identify which stories are resonating most strongly with readers.

Author (by)

The username of the Hacker News member who submitted the story. You can use this information to research the submitter's profile or track submissions from specific users.

Time

A timestamp indicating when the story was submitted, typically provided as a Unix timestamp (seconds since January 1, 1970). This helps you understand how recent a story is and track submission patterns over time.

Type

Indicates what kind of item you're looking at. For stories, this will typically be "story," but the field exists to distinguish stories from comments, polls, or other item types in the Hacker News system.

Descendants

The total count of comments and nested replies associated with the story. This number gives you a sense of how much discussion the story has generated. Stories with many descendants indicate active, engaged conversations.

Kids

An array of comment IDs representing direct replies to the story. These are the top-level comments in the discussion thread. You can retrieve these comments individually to explore the conversation.

Working with Story Data

When analyzing stories, consider combining multiple fields for richer insights. For example, compare score with descendants to distinguish between stories that receive upvotes versus those that generate discussion. Check timestamps to understand how quickly stories gain traction or to filter for recent submissions.

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