Hacker News for community and forums
The Hacker News server is our second pick for community and forums, and its niche is sharp: developer sentiment and launch signal, read early. It pulls top, new, Ask HN, and Show HN stories along with their comments, search, and user profiles, so an agent can catch what the engineering crowd is reacting to before it spreads.
It ranks second of four because it is read-only and bound to one community. That is the right tool when Hacker News is the conversation you care about; Reddit, Discord MCP, and Telegram each reach a different community and most of them can also post.
How Hacker News fits
Four tools cover the job. get_stories fetches a chosen feed, top, new, Ask HN, or Show HN, which is how an agent watches for launches and trending discussion. get_story_info pulls a story with its comment tree so the agent reads the actual sentiment rather than the headline alone. search_stories finds past discussion by query, useful for tracking mentions of a product or competitor, and get_user_info looks up a poster's profile for context on who is saying it.
The honest limit is that this is listening only. There is no tool here to post a comment, reply in a thread, or moderate, and it sees only Hacker News. This is also a community server from Rithwik Babu, not an official one. Reddit is the stronger pick when you need broad subreddit monitoring and the option to participate; Discord MCP fits real-time server chat where the agent may also respond; Telegram covers group messaging with posting. Reach for Hacker News when early developer reaction and launch coverage are the signal, and reading it is enough.
Tools you would use
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| 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. |
FAQ
- Can the Hacker News MCP server post comments or replies?
- No. Its four tools, get_stories, get_story_info, search_stories, and get_user_info, are read-only. For communities where the agent should also post or reply, Reddit, Discord MCP, or Telegram fit better.
- What is the Hacker News server best at for community monitoring?
- Catching developer sentiment and launches early. get_stories reads the top, new, Ask HN, and Show HN feeds, get_story_info pulls full comment threads, and search_stories finds past mentions of a product or competitor.