Overview

The Hacker News MCP Server allows you to retrieve specific items directly using their unique identifiers. Every story, comment, and poll on Hacker News has a numeric ID that you can use to fetch detailed information about that particular item. This direct access method is essential when you need precise information about a specific post or want to follow up on items referenced elsewhere.

Understanding Hacker News IDs

Each piece of content on Hacker News—whether it's a story, comment, job posting, or poll—receives a unique numeric identifier when it's created. You'll find these IDs in URLs (e.g., https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678) and can use them to retrieve that exact item through the server.

How to Query by ID

To retrieve a specific item, simply ask your AI assistant for information about a Hacker News item using its ID. You can phrase your request naturally:

• "Get Hacker News item 12345678"
• "Show me details about HN post 12345678"
• "Fetch Hacker News story with ID 12345678"

The server will retrieve the item and return comprehensive details including the title, author, timestamp, score, and full text content if applicable.

What Information You'll Receive

When you query an item by ID, the response includes:

• Item type (story, comment, job, poll, or pollopt)
• Author username
• Submission timestamp
• Current score (for stories and comments)
• Title (for stories)
• URL (if the item links to external content)
• Text content (for comments and text posts)
• Parent and child IDs (showing the comment hierarchy)

Common Use Cases

Following Discussions

When someone references a specific Hacker News discussion in conversation or documentation, you can immediately pull up that exact thread using its ID to read the full context and comments.

Deep-Dive Analysis

If you're analyzing a particular story or comment thread, querying by ID ensures you're examining the exact item of interest rather than searching through similar posts.

Historical Research

IDs remain stable over time, making them perfect for referencing historical discussions. You can return to the same conversation months or years later using the same identifier.

Comment Thread Exploration

Retrieved items include their parent and child IDs, allowing you to navigate comment trees systematically by querying each related item's ID in sequence.

Tips for Success

Always verify you're using the correct ID format—Hacker News IDs are numeric only. If an item doesn't exist or has been deleted, the server will indicate that no data is available for that identifier. For exploring multiple related items like entire comment threads, you'll need to query each item's ID individually.