Understanding User Profiles

The Hacker News MCP Server provides comprehensive access to user profile information, allowing you to explore individual contributor histories and activity patterns. Every Hacker News user maintains a public profile containing their submission history, comments, karma score, account creation date, and optional biographical information. This feature enables you to research contributors, track thought leaders, and analyze engagement within the community.

Accessing User Profile Data

To retrieve a user's profile, simply ask your AI assistant for information about a specific Hacker News username. For example, you might request "Show me the profile for user pg" or "Get information about the Hacker News user dang." The server will return structured data including:

• Username and karma score - The user's identifier and cumulative reputation points
• Account age - When the user joined Hacker News
• About section - The user's biographical information, if provided
• Submission history - Links to stories and posts the user has submitted
• Comment activity - Access to the user's comment history

Exploring Activity History

Beyond basic profile information, you can dive deeper into a user's contributions. Request recent submissions to see what stories or links a user has shared with the community. Access their comment history to understand their areas of expertise, discussion patterns, and community engagement style.

This granular access is particularly valuable when you want to identify subject matter experts in specific domains, understand the perspective of frequent contributors on particular topics, or analyze how influential community members engage with different subjects.

Practical Applications

User profile data enables several powerful use cases. You can identify and follow thought leaders in areas relevant to your interests, ensuring you don't miss their contributions. When researching a technical topic, examining the comment history of knowledgeable users often reveals valuable insights and resources.

The activity data also helps with community research and understanding dynamics. Track how active contributors engage over time, identify users who consistently provide valuable technical commentary, or discover new voices emerging in specific technology domains.

Making Effective Requests

When requesting user information, be specific about what data you need. Ask for "the last 10 submissions by user X" or "recent comments from user Y about machine learning" to get focused, relevant results. The server handles the complexity of API interactions, returning clean data ready for analysis or further exploration.