What Are Story Data Fields?

When you retrieve stories from Hacker News through the MCP server, each story comes with a rich set of metadata that helps you understand and evaluate the content. These data fields provide essential context about submissions, enabling you to filter, analyze, and make informed decisions about which stories matter most to you.

Core Story Metadata

Every Hacker News story includes several fundamental fields that describe the submission:

Title and URL: The story title represents what the submitter chose to highlight, while the URL points to the external content being discussed. Some stories are "Ask HN" or "Show HN" posts without external URLs, serving as discussion prompts instead.

Score: This numeric value reflects community engagement through upvotes. Higher scores generally indicate content that the community finds valuable, interesting, or discussion-worthy. Scores change dynamically as users continue to vote.

Submission Time: A timestamp showing when the story was submitted. This helps you understand recency and track how quickly stories gain traction. Combined with score, it reveals velocity—how rapidly a story is rising.

Author Information: The username of the person who submitted the story. This field connects to user profiles, allowing you to research the submitter's history and credibility within the community.

Engagement Metrics

Beyond basic metadata, stories include engagement indicators that reveal community interaction:

Comment Count: The number of comments a story has received. High comment counts often signal controversial topics or stories that sparked meaningful discussion. Sometimes comment count matters more than score for understanding community interest.

Story Type: Hacker News categorizes submissions into different types—stories, jobs, polls, and more. Understanding the type helps you filter content appropriately for your needs.

Using Metadata Effectively

When working with the MCP server, leverage these fields to create sophisticated queries. For example, you might request stories with high scores but low comment counts to find widely appreciated content without extensive debate, or seek stories with many comments relative to score to identify controversial discussions.

The submission timestamp combined with score data helps identify trending stories—those gaining votes rapidly. User information allows you to track submissions from specific community members or identify prolific contributors in particular domains.

Understanding these data fields transforms raw Hacker News data into actionable intelligence, enabling you to cut through noise and focus on content that matches your specific interests and research needs.