Hacker News MCP Server

A high-quality Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Hacker News, enabling LLMs to explore stories, items, and user profiles.

Features

• Store Feeds: Fetch Top, New, Best, Ask HN, Show HN, and Job stories.
• Detailed Inspection: Get full details for items (stories, comments, polls) and user profiles.
• Live Updates: Access recently changed items and the current max item ID.
• Optimized for LLMs:
  • Responses formatted in clear Markdown.
  • Built-in token limit (~3,000 tokens) to prevent context overflow.
  • Support for pagination (limit/offset) on all list-based tools.
• Modern Infrastructure: Built with TypeScript and the official MCP SDK.

Available Tools

• hn_get_top_stories: Get top stories (paginated).
• hn_get_new_stories: Get new stories (paginated).
• hn_get_best_stories: Get best stories (paginated).
• hn_get_ask_stories: Get Ask HN stories (paginated).
• hn_get_show_stories: Get Show HN stories (paginated).
• hn_get_job_stories: Get Job stories (paginated).
• hn_get_item: Get detailed info for a specific item ID.
• hn_get_user: Get user profile details by username.
• hn_get_updates: Get IDs of recently updated items and profiles.
• hn_get_max_item: Get the latest item ID on Hacker News.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or higher
• npm

Installation

Via npx

You can run the server directly using npx:

npx @fritzprix/hn-mcp

Via npm (Global)

npm install -g @fritzprix/hn-mcp

From Source

1. Clone the repository or copy the project files.
2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

Building

Build the project using TypeScript:

npm run build

Running

Start the server via stdio:

npm start

For development with auto-reload:

npm run dev

Configuration

Claude Desktop

To use this server with Claude Desktop, add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json (usually located at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackernews": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/home/fritzprix/my_works/hn-mcp/dist/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

[!NOTE] Make sure to provide the absolute path to dist/index.js.

License

MIT