Bring Tech Trends
to Windsurf
Learn how to connect Hacker News to Windsurf and start using 3 AI agent tools in minutes. Fully managed, enterprise secure, and ready to use without writing a single line of code.
GDPR Free for Subscribers
What is the Hacker News MCP Server?
Connect to Hacker News (Y Combinator) and take full control of your tech news consumption, discussion auditing, and trend tracking through natural conversation.
What you can do
- Front Page Orchestration — Fetch current Top stories to retrieve popular social links, titles, scores, and author metadata natively within your chat
- Real-time Submission Tracking — Iterate through chronological submissions to discover cutting-edge tech updates and new project launches flawlessly
- Detailed Item Auditing — Read the full contents of specific HN items (stories, comments, or polls) by their numeric IDs to extract exact textual context
- Clean Comment Retrieval — Retrieve discussion threads with HTML comments converted cleanly into Markdown, allowing your AI agent to reason with structured conversations limitlessly
- Story Metadata Inspection — Analyze specific node blocks identifying submission times, URL references, and total comment counts synchronously
- Trend Discovery — Identify high-ranking tech discussions and gather required IDs to browse and discover ongoing community debates natively
How it works
1. Subscribe to this server
2. No authentication required (Public API)
3. Start exploring tech news from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client
Who is this for?
- Developers & Engineers — stay updated on the latest tech trends and library releases without manual browsing
- Product Managers — monitor community feedback and discover new product launches using natural language conversation
- Researchers — audit discussion threads and extract key insights from tech-focused community debates in real-time
- Curious Professionals — quickly summarize top stories and read insightful comments through the chat interface
Built-in capabilities (3)
Read the detailed contents of a specific Hacker News item (a story, comment, or poll) by its ID. Returns HTML comments converted cleanly to Markdown
Fetch the most recently submitted stories on Hacker News
Fetch the current Top stories on the Hacker News front page
Why Windsurf?
Windsurf's Cascade agent chains multiple Hacker News tool calls autonomously. query data, analyze results, and generate code in a single agentic session. Paste Vinkius Edge URL, reload, and all 3 tools are immediately available. Real-time tool feedback appears inline, so you see API responses directly in your editor.
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Windsurf's Cascade agent autonomously chains multiple tool calls in sequence, solving complex multi-step tasks without manual intervention
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Purpose-built for agentic workflows. Cascade understands context across your entire codebase and integrates MCP tools natively
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JSON-based configuration means zero code changes: paste a URL, reload, and all 3 tools are immediately available
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Real-time tool feedback is displayed inline, so you see API responses directly in your editor without switching contexts
Hacker News in Windsurf
Hacker News and 3,400+ other MCP servers. One platform. One governance layer.
Teams that connect Hacker News to Windsurf through Vinkius don't need to source, host, or maintain individual MCP servers. Every tool call runs inside a hardened runtime with credential isolation, DLP, and a signed audit chain.
Raw MCP | Vinkius | |
|---|---|---|
| Server catalog | Find and host yourself | 3,400+ managed |
| Infrastructure | Self-hosted | Sandboxed V8 isolates |
| Credential handling | Plaintext in config | Vault + runtime injection |
| Data loss prevention | None | Configurable DLP policies |
| Kill switch | None | Global instant shutdown |
| Financial circuit breakers | None | Per-server limits + alerts |
| Audit trail | None | Ed25519 signed logs |
| SIEM log streaming | None | Splunk, Datadog, Webhook |
| Honeytokens | None | Canary alerts on leak |
| Custom domains | Not applicable | DNS challenge verified |
| GDPR compliance | Manual effort | Automated purge + export |
Why teams choose Vinkius for Hacker News in Windsurf
The Hacker News MCP Server runs on Vinkius-managed infrastructure inside AWS — a purpose-built runtime with per-request V8 isolates, Ed25519 signed audit chains, and sub-40ms cold starts. All 3 tools execute in hardened sandboxes optimized for native MCP execution.
Your AI agents in Windsurf only access the data you authorize, with DLP that blocks sensitive information from ever reaching the model, kill switch for instant shutdown, and up to 60% token savings. Enterprise-grade infrastructure, zero maintenance.
* Every MCP server runs on Vinkius-managed infrastructure inside AWS - a purpose-built runtime with per-request V8 isolates, Ed25519 signed audit chains, and sub-40ms cold starts optimized for native MCP execution. See our infrastructure
How Vinkius secures
Hacker News for Windsurf
Every tool call from Windsurf to the Hacker News MCP Server is protected by DLP redaction, cryptographic audit chains, V8 sandbox isolation, kill switch, and financial circuit breakers.
Frequently asked questions
Can my agent fetch the latest news from Hacker News without an API key?
Yes. This server uses the public Hacker News API, which does not require authentication. You can start exploring stories and comments immediately after subscribing.
How do I read comments for a specific HN story via chat?
Use the 'get_item' tool. Provide the story's numeric ID. The agent will retrieve the detailed contents including all top-level comments, converted cleanly from HTML to Markdown for easy reading.
Can I see the most recent submissions instead of just the top stories?
Absolutely. Use the 'new_stories' tool. This retrieves the most recently submitted stories chronologically, allowing you to track cutting-edge updates and launches in real-time.
How does Windsurf discover MCP tools?
Windsurf reads the mcp_config.json file on startup and connects to each configured server via Streamable HTTP. Tools are listed in the MCP panel and available to Cascade automatically.
Can Cascade chain multiple MCP tool calls?
Yes. Cascade is an agentic system. it can plan and execute multi-step workflows, calling several tools in sequence to accomplish complex tasks without manual prompting between steps.
Does Windsurf support multiple MCP servers?
Yes. Add as many servers as needed in mcp_config.json. Each server's tools appear in the MCP panel and Cascade can use tools from different servers in a single flow.
Server not connecting
Check Settings → MCP for the server status. Try toggling it off and on.