Overview

When working with the Hacker News MCP Server, you'll often need to retrieve specific items by their unique identifiers. Every story, comment, and poll on Hacker News has a distinct ID that allows you to access that exact piece of content. This direct access method is particularly useful when you know exactly what you're looking for or when you're following up on items discovered through other queries.

Understanding Hacker News Item IDs

Hacker News assigns each piece of content—whether it's a story submission, a comment, a poll, or a poll option—a unique numeric identifier. You'll typically encounter these IDs in URLs (for example, news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678) or as references within the data returned by other queries. These IDs are permanent and sequential, meaning once assigned, an ID always refers to the same item.

Querying Items by ID

To retrieve a specific item using the Hacker News MCP Server, you can make natural language requests to your AI assistant that reference the item's ID. Here are some examples of how to frame your requests:

• "Get Hacker News item 12345678"
• "Show me details for HN item 34567890"
• "Retrieve the comment with ID 23456789"
• "What's the content of Hacker News item 45678901?"

The server will fetch the complete data for that specific item, including its type (story, comment, poll), author, timestamp, text content, score, and any associated metadata.

What You'll Receive

When you query an item by ID, the server returns structured information that varies slightly depending on the item type:

For stories: You'll receive the title, URL (if it's a link post), author username, submission time, current score, and the number of comments.

For comments: The response includes the comment text, author, timestamp, and references to parent items, allowing you to understand the comment's context within a discussion thread.

For polls: You'll get the poll question, options, and voting information.

Practical Applications

Querying by ID is invaluable in several scenarios:

Following references: When exploring comment threads, users often reference other submissions. Having the ID lets you instantly retrieve those referenced items for context.

Monitoring specific content: If you're tracking particular stories or discussions, storing their IDs allows you to check back later for updates to scores, new comments, or changes in visibility.

Deep-diving into discussions: When you've identified an interesting comment through browsing, you can use its ID to retrieve the full comment data, including its position in the conversation thread and any replies it has received.

Tips for Effective Queries

Keep your item IDs organized if you're tracking multiple pieces of content. The numeric IDs don't convey meaning on their own, so maintaining notes about which IDs correspond to which topics helps you work more efficiently. Remember that item IDs are permanent—once you've identified something of interest, that ID will always retrieve the same content, making it reliable for long-term reference.