mcp-claude-hackernews

MCP Claude Hacker News

Features

Browse latest stories from Hacker News
View top and best-rated stories
Get story details
Read comments for stories
Clean formatting of Hacker News content for better readability

Demo

Requirements

Node.js 16 or higher
Claude Desktop
Internet connection to access Hacker News API

Installation

Installing Manually

Clone or download this repository:

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

Install dependencies:

npm install

Build the project:

npm run build

Running the MCP Server

There are two ways to run the MCP server:

Option 1: Running manually

Open a terminal or command prompt
Navigate to the project directory
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

Restart Claude Desktop after modifying the configuration
In Claude, use the hn command to interact with Hacker News
The MCP server runs as a child process managed by Claude Desktop

Available Commands

The Hacker News MCP provides a single tool named hn with several commands:

Command	Description	Parameters	Example
`latest`	Get the most recent stories from Hacker News	`param`: Optional number of stories (default: 10, max: 50)	`hn latest --50`
`top`	Get the top stories from Hacker News	`param`: Optional number of stories (default: 10, max: 50)	`hn top --20`
`best`	Get the best stories from Hacker News	`param`: Optional number of stories (default: 10, max: 50)	`hn best --30`
`history`	Get detailed information about a specific story	`param`: Required story ID	`hn history --12345678`
`comments`	Get comments for a story	`param`: Required index from last list or story ID	`hn comments --3` or `hn comments --12345678`

Example Usage

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

Direct Commands:

hn latest --50
hn top --20
hn best --30
hn history --29384756
hn comments --5

Natural Language Queries:

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

"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"
"Show me 20 Hacker News 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"

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:

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
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
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.

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.

mcp-claude-hackernews

Integrations