Hacker News MCP server

The Hacker News MCP Server integrates Hacker News functionality into Claude, Cursor, and other LLM clients through the Model Context Protocol. It provides access to stories, comments, user profiles, and search capabilities, enabling AI assistants to retrieve real-time Hacker News data directly within conversations.

Installation Options

Using Claude Desktop

Add the server to your claude_desktop_config.json configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackernews": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@devabdultech/hn-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Installing via Smithery

For automatic installation with Claude Desktop using Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @devabdultech/hn-mcp --client claude

Available Tools

Search

Search for stories and comments on Hacker News using Algolia's search API.

Inputs:

• query (string): Search query
• type (optional string): Filter by type ('story' or 'comment')
• page (optional number): Page number for pagination
• hitsPerPage (optional number): Results per page (max 100)

Returns: Search results with stories and comments

Get Stories

Retrieve multiple stories by type (top, new, best, ask, show, job).

Inputs:

• type (string): Type of stories to fetch ('top', 'new', 'best', 'ask', 'show', 'job')
• limit (optional number): Number of stories to fetch (max 100)

Returns: Array of story objects

Get Story With Comments

Retrieve a story along with its comment thread.

Inputs:

• id (number): Story ID

Returns: Story details with nested comments

Get Comment Tree

Fetch the full comment tree for a story.

Inputs:

• storyId (number): ID of the story

Returns: Hierarchical comment tree structure

Get User

Retrieve a user's profile information.

Inputs:

• id (string): Username

Returns: User profile details including karma, created date, and about text

Get User Submissions

Retrieve a user's submissions (stories and comments).

Inputs:

• id (string): Username

Returns: Array of user's submitted stories and comments

How to add this MCP server to Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.