How to Use the Hacker News MCP in AutoGen

Q: How do I register Hacker News tools with AutoGen?

Install autogen-extmcp and use the mcpservertools function to register the MCP server with AutoGen. Pass the resulting Hacker News tool list directly to your AssistantAgent constructor.

Let your AutoGen agents debate tech trends by fetching real-time Hacker News stories and analyzing comment sentiment.

See Vinkius in Action

Works with every AI agent you already use

…and any MCP-compatible client

MCP Servers - Free for Subscribers

Connect Hacker News MCP to AutoGen

Create your Vinkius account to connect Hacker News to AutoGen and route execution through our secure gateway. The platform manages server hosting, runtime updates, and security layers. Configuration requires no manual server provisioning.

GDPR Free for Subscribers

Setup Hacker News with AutoGen

Ask AI about this MCP

ChatGPT

Claude

Perplexity

Debate Tech Sentiment with the Hacker News MCP Server

The `get_item` tool gets detailed Hacker News comment threads and converts them to Markdown so your AutoGen agents can analyze community feedback. An AutoGen research agent can pull the Hacker News data while a critic agent reviews the arguments. AutoGen coordinates this multi-agent conversation to reach a balanced conclusion on Hacker News trends. You get a synthesized summary of what the Hacker News community actually thinks about a launch, backed by real quotes in your AutoGen chat.

Filter the Front Page Collectively

The `top_stories` tool retrieves the top 500 Hacker News story IDs to give your AutoGen agent group a snapshot of current industry focus. Individual AutoGen agents then divide the workload to analyze different Hacker News IDs simultaneously. AutoGen manages the message flow between these agents to prevent redundant Hacker News API calls. This collective processing keeps your AutoGen team's context clear and avoids Hacker News rate limit issues.

Analyze Breaking Tech News Instantly

The `new_stories` tool fetches the latest Hacker News submissions directly from the firehose for immediate AutoGen evaluation. Your specialized AutoGen agents scan these fresh Hacker News items to detect emerging security vulnerabilities or product launches. AutoGen allows these agents to flag critical Hacker News posts and trigger automated workflows based on the content. This turns raw Hacker News forum feeds into actionable, structured intelligence for your AutoGen network.

Setup guide

Set up Hacker News MCP in AutoGen

Prerequisites

Python 3.10+ installed
autogen-ext[mcp] package
Active Vinkius subscription with a valid endpoint token

1

Install AutoGen with MCP
Run pip install "autogen-ext[mcp]" autogen-agentchat. The MCP extension includes mcp_server_tools for stateless tool access.
2

Fetch tools from the MCP
Call mcp_server_tools(SseServerParams(url=...)) with your Vinkius endpoint. Replace [YOUR_TOKEN_HERE] with your token from cloud.vinkius.com.
3

Run your agent
Pass the tools to AssistantAgent and call agent.run(). The agent invokes Hacker News tools and returns structured results.

agent.py

from autogen_ext.tools.mcp import SseServerParams, mcp_server_tools
from autogen_agentchat.agents import AssistantAgent
from autogen_ext.models.openai import OpenAIChatCompletionClient

server_params = SseServerParams(
    url="https://edge.vinkius.com/[YOUR_TOKEN_HERE]/mcp"
)

tools = await mcp_server_tools(server_params)

agent = AssistantAgent(
    name="Hacker News_assistant",
    model_client=OpenAIChatCompletionClient(model="gpt-4o"),
    tools=tools,
)

result = await agent.run("List recent Hacker News data")
print(result.messages[-1].content)

Get your connection token →

Prerequisites

Python 3.10+ installed
autogen-ext[mcp] + autogen-agentchat
Active Vinkius subscription with a valid endpoint token

1

Install dependencies
Same packages as above. McpWorkbench is ideal when your agent needs stateful sessions across multiple tool calls.
2

Use McpWorkbench as context manager
Wrap your agent in async with McpWorkbench(...) to maintain shared state and resources. The workbench manages the full MCP session lifecycle.
3

Run with workbench
Pass workbench=workbench to your agent. State is preserved across multiple tool calls within the same session.

agent.py

from autogen_ext.tools.mcp import McpWorkbench, SseServerParams
from autogen_agentchat.agents import AssistantAgent
from autogen_ext.models.openai import OpenAIChatCompletionClient

server_params = SseServerParams(
    url="https://edge.vinkius.com/[YOUR_TOKEN_HERE]/mcp"
)

async with McpWorkbench(server_params) as workbench:
    agent = AssistantAgent(
        name="Hacker News_assistant",
        model_client=OpenAIChatCompletionClient(model="gpt-4o"),
        workbench=workbench,
    )

    result = await agent.run("List recent Hacker News data")
    print(result.messages[-1].content)

Get your connection token →

Independent Platform Disclaimer: Vinkius is an independent platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, verified by, or otherwise authorized by Hacker News. All third-party trademarks, logos, and brand names are the property of their respective owners. Their use on this website is strictly for informational purposes to identify service compatibility and interoperability.

Why Choose Vinkius

Vinkius connects your tools to AI with real-time monitoring and automatic cost savings — all from one dashboard.

Connect Hacker News now

Real-time monitoring

Live

visibility into every interaction

Connect your favorite tools to your AI and see exactly what's happening — every request, every response, in real time.

Built-in savings

60%

lower AI costs

Vinkius compresses data between your apps and your AI automatically. Lower bills every month — no configuration required.

Single dashboard

One

place for every integration

Every tool your AI connects to, managed from a single screen. One account, complete control.

Common questions about Hacker News MCP in AutoGen

Install autogen-ext[mcp] and use the mcp_server_tools function to register the MCP server with AutoGen. Pass the resulting Hacker News tool list directly to your AssistantAgent constructor.

Yes. The MCP adapter handles schema conversion so any agent in your AutoGen group can invoke `get_item` or `top_stories` to analyze Hacker News as needed.

Yes. You can configure the StreamableHttpServerParams with your Hacker News server URL to connect AutoGen to the hosted API endpoints.

No. The Hacker News server only provides read access to public stories and comments. Your AutoGen agents cannot write or modify data on the platform.

No. This MCP server only receives requests for public Hacker News item IDs and returns public story text. Your multi-agent AutoGen chat logs and internal reasoning remain private.

Use it with your favorite AI tools

Connect this server to Cursor, Claude, VS Code, and more.

OpenAI Agents SDK sdk-python

Google ADK sdk-python

Pydantic AI sdk-python

Vercel AI SDK sdk-typescript