Yes. The server is open source and free to run, and it reads from the public Hacker News API, which requires no key or account. There are no usage charges beyond the public API's fair-use expectations.

Does it support remote/OAuth?

It runs locally over stdio via uvx and does not require authentication, since Hacker News data is public. There is no hosted OAuth endpoint; it is designed as a drop-in local grounding tool.

Can it post comments or stories?

No. The server is read-only. It exposes tools to fetch stories, comments, search, and user info, but it does not submit, comment on, or vote on content.

Hacker News MCP server

CommunityRithwik Babu74Config last verified Jun 1, 2026

A lightweight MCP server that lets an agent read Hacker News — top, new, Ask HN, and Show HN stories, comments, search, and user profiles.

Hacker News MCP (mcp-hn) is a small, maintained community server that gives an AI agent live access to Hacker News, the technology and startup news aggregator run by Y Combinator. With it a model can pull the current top, new, Ask HN, and Show HN stories, fetch the comment thread attached to any story, search stories by query, and look up a user's profile. That makes it a handy tool for tracking what the developer community is discussing right now, summarizing a thread, gauging reaction to a launch, or grounding an answer about a current technology story in the actual conversation rather than memorized facts.

The server is published as the mcp-hn Python package and runs locally over stdio, launched with uvx (uvx mcp-hn). It reads from the public Hacker News API and needs no API key or account, which makes it one of the lowest-friction grounding tools to add to a client: drop it into your config and the agent can immediately read stories and discussion. It can also be installed through the Smithery CLI for clients that use that workflow.

Quick install

Copy-paste configs are provided for all 8 supported clients. Pick your client below.

Add to ~/.claude.json

~/.claude.json

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hackernews": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-hn"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Or via CLI

bash

claude mcp add hackernews -- uvx mcp-hn

Step-by-step guides

Available tools

Tool	Description
get_stories	Fetches stories from a chosen feed: top, new, Ask HN, or Show HN.
get_story_info	Fetches a story along with its associated comments.
search_stories	Searches Hacker News stories by query.
get_user_info	Fetches a Hacker News user's profile information.

What you can do with it

Summarize the front page

The agent pulls the current top or new stories and their comment threads, then summarizes what the developer community is discussing and the sentiment around it.

Gauge reaction to a launch

Search for a product or company on Hacker News and read the Show HN or discussion thread to understand how an audience of builders responded.

FAQ

Is it free?: Yes. The server is open source and free to run, and it reads from the public Hacker News API, which requires no key or account. There are no usage charges beyond the public API's fair-use expectations.
Does it support remote/OAuth?: It runs locally over stdio via uvx and does not require authentication, since Hacker News data is public. There is no hosted OAuth endpoint; it is designed as a drop-in local grounding tool.
Can it post comments or stories?: No. The server is read-only. It exposes tools to fetch stories, comments, search, and user info, but it does not submit, comment on, or vote on content.

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