MCP Claude Hacker News

Features

• Browse latest stories from Hacker News

• View top and best-rated stories

• Search stories by keyword, by relevance or most recent (Algolia HN Search API)

• Get story details

• Read comments for stories, capped so a busy thread cannot flood the context

• Clean formatting of Hacker News content for better readability, including HTML entity decoding

Related MCP server: MCP Hacker News

Demo

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or higher

• Claude Desktop

• Internet connection to access Hacker News API

Installation

Installing via Smithery

Install the packaged bundle from the Smithery server page, or from the CLI:

npx -y @smithery/cli@latest mcp add imprvhub/mcp-claude-hackernews --client claude

Installing Manually

1. Clone or download this repository:

git clone https://github.com/imprvhub/mcp-claude-hackernews
cd mcp-claude-hackernews

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the project:

npm run build

Running the MCP Server

There are two ways to run the MCP server:

Option 1: Running manually

1. Open a terminal or command prompt

2. Navigate to the project directory

3. Run the server directly:

node build/index.js

Keep this terminal window open while using Claude Desktop. The server will run until you close the terminal.

Option 2: Auto-starting with Claude Desktop (recommended for regular use)

The Claude Desktop can automatically start the MCP server when needed. To set this up:

Configuration

The Claude Desktop configuration file is located at:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Edit this file to add the Hacker News MCP configuration. If the file doesn't exist, create it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackerNews": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_DIRECTORY/mcp-claude-hackernews/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Important: Replace ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_DIRECTORY with the complete absolute path where you installed the MCP

• macOS/Linux example: /Users/username/mcp-claude-hackernews

• Windows example: C:\\Users\\username\\mcp-claude-hackernews

If you already have other MCPs configured, simply add the "hackerNews" section inside the "mcpServers" object. Here's an example of a configuration with multiple MCPs:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "otherMcp1": {
      "command": "...",
      "args": ["..."]
    },
    "otherMcp2": {
      "command": "...",
      "args": ["..."]
    },
    "hackerNews": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_DIRECTORY/mcp-claude-hackernews/build/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

The MCP server will automatically start when Claude Desktop needs it, based on the configuration in your claude_desktop_config.json file.

Usage

1. Restart Claude Desktop after modifying the configuration

2. In Claude, use the Hacker News tools to interact with Hacker News

3. The MCP server runs as a child process managed by Claude Desktop

Available Tools

The Hacker News MCP provides 6 specialized tools for different functions:

Tool Parameters Details

hn_latest, hn_top, hn_best

• limit (optional): Number of stories to fetch

  • Type: Number

  • Range: 1-50

  • Default: 10

hn_search

• query (required): Search terms

  • Type: String

  • Example: "model context protocol"

• limit (optional): Number of results, 1-50, default 10

• sort (optional): relevance (default) or date for newest first

hn_story

• story_id (required): The ID of the story to fetch

  • Type: Number

  • Example: 12345678

hn_comments

• story_id (optional): The ID of the story to get comments for

  • Type: Number

  • Example: 12345678

• story_index (optional): The index of the story from the last fetched list

  • Type: Number (1-based)

  • Example: 3 (for the 3rd story in the last list)

• limit (optional): Maximum number of top-level comments to return

  • Type: Number

  • Range: 1-50

  • Default: 20

Note: For hn_comments, you must provide either story_id OR story_index. Only top-level comments are fetched; the reply count is reported per comment. The response states how many of the thread's top-level comments were returned.

Example Usage

Here are various examples of how to use the Hacker News MCP with Claude:

Direct Tool Usage:

"Use hn_latest to get 20 recent stories"
"Use hn_top with limit 15 to get top stories"
"Use hn_best to get 25 best stories"
"Use hn_search with query 'model context protocol' to find related stories"
"Use hn_search with query 'rust' and sort date to see the newest posts"
"Use hn_story with story_id 29384756 to get story details"
"Use hn_comments with story_index 3 to get comments for the 3rd story"
"Use hn_comments with story_id 12345678 to get comments for that story"

Natural Language Queries:

You can also interact with the MCP using natural language. Claude will interpret these requests and use the appropriate tools:

• "Show me the top 30 stories on Hacker News today"

• "What are the 40 latest posts on Hacker News?"

• "I'd like to see the 20 best articles from Hacker News"

• "Can you fetch me 30 recent tech news stories from Hacker News?"

• "Tell me what's the top 50 trending topics on Hacker News"

• "Search Hacker News for stories about machine learning"

• "Get me the 40 most recent Hacker News headlines"

• "What are the 30 most active discussions on Hacker News right now?"

• "I'm interested in reading the 40 most popular Hacker News articles this week"

• "Show me a list of 20 best programming articles from Hacker News"

• "Get the comments for story number 5 from the last list"

• "Show me the details of story ID 12345678"

Language Translation Requests:

You can request Hacker News content to be translated into different languages:

• "Show me the top 30 stories on Hacker News today in Spanish"

• "Get the 20 latest Hacker News posts and translate them to French"

• "I'd like to see the 40 best articles from Hacker News in German"

• "Show me 30 recent Hacker News stories translated to Japanese"

• "Get the top 20 Hacker News articles and present them in Portuguese"

Troubleshooting

"Server disconnected" error

If you see the error "MCP Hacker News: Server disconnected" in Claude Desktop:

1. Verify the server is running:

   • Open a terminal and manually run node build/index.js from the project directory

   • If the server starts successfully, use Claude while keeping this terminal open

2. Check your configuration:

   • Ensure the absolute path in claude_desktop_config.json is correct for your system

   • Double-check that you've used double backslashes (\\) for Windows paths

   • Verify you're using the complete path from the root of your filesystem

3. Try the auto-start option:

   • Set up the auto-start script for your operating system as described in the "Setting up auto-start scripts" section

   • This ensures the server is always running when you need it

Tools not appearing in Claude

If the Hacker News tools don't appear in Claude:

• Make sure you've restarted Claude Desktop after configuration

• Check the Claude Desktop logs for any MCP communication errors

• Ensure the MCP server process is running (run it manually to confirm)

• Verify that the MCP server is correctly registered in the Claude Desktop MCP registry

Checking if the server is running

To check if the server is running:

• Windows: Open Task Manager, go to the "Details" tab, and look for "node.exe"

• macOS/Linux: Open Terminal and run ps aux | grep node

If you don't see the server running, start it manually or use the auto-start method.

Development

Run the test suite (no network required):

npm install
npm run build
npm test

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Related Links

• Model Context Protocol

• Hacker News API

• Claude Desktop

• MCP Series