Understanding User Profile Lookups

The Hacker News MCP server provides comprehensive access to user profile information, allowing you to research contributors and track activity across the platform. Every Hacker News user maintains a public profile containing their submission history, comments, karma score, and optional biographical details.

How to Request User Profiles

To look up a user profile, simply ask your AI assistant for information about a specific Hacker News user by their username. For example, you might say "Show me the profile for username pg" or "What's the karma score for user dang?" The server retrieves current profile data directly from Hacker News, ensuring you're working with up-to-date information.

Profile Information Available

When you request a user profile, you'll receive several key pieces of information:

• Username and account age: See when the user joined Hacker News
• Karma score: A numerical representation of community appreciation for their contributions
• About section: Biographical information the user has chosen to share
• Submission history: A list of stories and links the user has posted
• Comment history: The user's participation in discussions across the platform

Tracking User Activity

Beyond basic profile information, you can explore a user's activity patterns and contributions. Request their recent submissions to see what content they're sharing with the community, or review their comment history to understand their areas of expertise and discussion interests. This capability is particularly valuable for identifying subject matter experts in specific domains or understanding thought leadership within the community.

Practical Applications

User profile lookups serve multiple purposes. You might research prolific contributors in your field to follow their insights, identify active community members for networking purposes, or analyze the credibility of sources by examining their contribution history and karma. When evaluating discussions, checking user profiles helps you understand the expertise and perspective behind different viewpoints.

Using Profile Data Effectively

When working with user profile information, remember that karma scores reflect community engagement over time, while submission and comment histories reveal areas of interest and expertise. Combine profile data with story and comment retrieval to build a complete picture of how specific users contribute to and influence discussions around topics relevant to your interests.

The server handles all technical aspects of profile retrieval, allowing you to focus on analyzing and understanding the data rather than managing API calls and data formatting.