Overview

The Hacker News MCP Server provides multiple ways to retrieve stories from the platform, each serving different purposes. Understanding how to access top stories and various story feeds will help you stay current with trending discussions and discover content that matters to the tech community.

Available Story Feeds

The server supports three primary story feeds that mirror the main sections of Hacker News:

Top Stories represent the most popular submissions currently on the front page, ranked by community votes and recency. These stories have gained significant traction and represent what the community finds most valuable right now.

New Stories show the latest submissions as they arrive on the platform, regardless of voting status. This feed is ideal for discovering emerging content before it becomes widely popular or monitoring real-time submissions.

Best Stories highlight submissions that have demonstrated lasting value through sustained engagement and positive reception. This curated feed surfaces high-quality content that has proven its worth over time.

Retrieving Stories

To access any story feed, simply make a natural language request to your AI assistant. The server translates your request into the appropriate API call and returns structured data about each story.

For example, you might ask: "Show me the current top stories on Hacker News" or "What are the latest new submissions?" The server will retrieve the relevant feed and present the information in an easily readable format.

Each story result includes essential metadata such as the title, URL (if linking to external content), submission score, author username, submission timestamp, and the number of comments. This comprehensive data allows you to quickly assess which stories merit deeper investigation.

Working with Story Data

Once you've retrieved a story feed, you can drill deeper into specific submissions. If a story has an interesting discussion, you can request its comment thread to read community perspectives. If an author catches your attention, you can retrieve their user profile to explore their contribution history.

Story IDs are included in every result, enabling you to reference specific submissions for follow-up queries. This makes it simple to track particular discussions over time or share references to specific content.

Best Practices

For trend monitoring, check top stories periodically to understand what topics dominate community attention. For content discovery, explore new stories to find emerging resources before they become widely known. For research purposes, best stories provide a vetted collection of high-quality submissions worth deeper analysis.

The real-time nature of these feeds means you're always working with current data, making the server valuable for staying informed about technology discussions as they unfold.