Overview

When you need to retrieve specific information about a particular Hacker News story, comment, or user, querying by ID is the most direct and efficient approach. Every item on Hacker News—whether it's a story, comment, poll, or job posting—has a unique numeric identifier. This guide will help you understand how to use the Hacker News MCP server to fetch specific items using these IDs.

Understanding Hacker News IDs

Hacker News assigns a sequential numeric ID to every item posted on the platform. You'll often encounter these IDs in URLs when browsing the site. For example, in the URL https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38471822, the ID is 38471822. These IDs are permanent and never change, making them reliable references for retrieving specific content.

How to Query by ID

To retrieve a specific story or item, simply ask your AI assistant to fetch the Hacker News item with the corresponding ID. You can phrase your request naturally, such as:

• "Get Hacker News story 38471822"
• "Show me the details for Hacker News item 38471822"
• "Retrieve Hacker News post with ID 38471822"

The server will return structured information about the item, including its title, URL, author, score, timestamp, and the number of comments. If the item is a comment rather than a story, you'll receive the comment text, author, and its position in the discussion thread.

What You'll Receive

When querying by ID, the server returns comprehensive details about the requested item:

• For stories: Title, external URL (if applicable), author username, points/score, submission time, and comment count
• For comments: Comment text, author, timestamp, and parent item information
• For polls: Question text, options, and voting information
• For users: Profile information including karma, about text, and account creation date

Practical Applications

Querying by ID is particularly useful when you want to:

• Follow up on a specific story you've seen previously
• Retrieve the full context of a comment thread after seeing a reference elsewhere
• Monitor how a particular story's score or comment count changes over time
• Access detailed information about items discovered through other queries or external sources

Tips for Success

Remember that IDs are purely numeric—don't include the full URL when making your request. The server needs only the numeric identifier. If you're unsure of an ID, you can first browse current stories using other server features, then query specific items that interest you using their returned IDs.