# Hacker News MCP > Hacker News MCP lets you pull Y Combinator's tech discussions directly into your agent. Fetch the top stories, track new project launches, and read full comment threads—all without leaving your chat interface. It’s how you audit industry trends in real time. ## Overview - **Category:** productivity - **Price:** Free - **Tags:** tech-trends, community-discussion, social-news, data-scraping, content-aggregation ## Description This MCP connects your AI client to Hacker News (Y Combinator), giving you a complete view of current tech discussions. You don't have to manually visit the site, scroll through pages, or copy-paste snippets anymore. Instead, you talk to your agent and it handles the heavy lifting. Need to know what the industry is talking about right now? Use this MCP to pull the most popular stories immediately. Want to track a brand new open-source project launch as soon as it hits the site? Your agent can check for those submissions on your behalf. It's perfect for anyone who needs to audit community sentiment or quickly summarize complex, technical debates. Connecting this resource through Vinkius means you get instant access to Hacker News alongside thousands of other data sources, keeping all your research centralized and actionable. ## Tools ### top_stories Grabs the current list of top stories from the Hacker News front page. ### new_stories Fetches a chronological feed of the most recently submitted stories on Hacker News. ### get_item Retrieves all content, including comments, for any specific story or comment using its unique ID. ## Prompt Examples **Prompt:** ``` Show me the top 5 stories on Hacker News right now ``` **Response:** ``` Retrieving top stories... I found 5 trending items including 'Release of New AI Protocol' (Score: 450) and 'Advancements in Fusion Energy'. Would you like the link or comments for any of these? ``` **Prompt:** ``` Get details and comments for HN item 123456 ``` **Response:** ``` Retrieving item 123456... Title: 'Mastering Rust for Systems Programming'. I've also fetched 10 top-level comments discussing memory safety and performance. Would you like me to summarize the discussion? ``` **Prompt:** ``` What are the newest submissions on tech launches? ``` **Response:** ``` Checking newest stories... I found several recent submissions including 'Show HN: A new open-source database' and 'Beta release of WebFramework X'. I can provide the IDs if you want to track their progress. ``` ## Capabilities ### Identify trending tech topics Fetch the current list of top stories on the front page for an immediate overview of popular discussions. ### Monitor new project launches Check for and retrieve details about the most recently submitted stories, useful for spotting cutting-edge updates. ### Deep dive into specific content Read the full text of any story, comment, or poll by its unique ID, converting messy HTML comments cleanly into structured Markdown format. ## Use Cases ### Tracking a specific tech debate A developer is researching Rust performance. They ask their agent for details on HN item 123456. The agent uses `get_item` to retrieve the full discussion, allowing the developer to read all comments about memory safety in one place and summarize key arguments. ### Monitoring competitor activity A product manager wants to see what new tech services are launching. They ask their agent to check for `new_stories`. The agent reports several recent submissions, allowing the PM to quickly gauge market interest in a new category. ### Quick industry pulse check A consultant needs an immediate snapshot of general tech sentiment. They prompt their agent using `top_stories` and get a list of trending items, immediately identifying the most debated topics across the entire tech landscape. ## Benefits - Know what's hot right now. Use the `top_stories` tool to get an instant summary of the most popular discussions without clicking through multiple tabs. - Never miss a launch. The `new_stories` tool lets you track brand new open-source projects and cutting-edge articles as they hit the feed, helping you stay ahead of the curve. - Deep context retrieval. Need to understand *why* people disagree on a memory model? Use `get_item` to pull the full discussion thread, converting messy HTML comments into clean Markdown for your agent. - Efficient data gathering. Instead of copying links and IDs manually, ask your agent to summarize the top stories, getting you key metadata instantly. - Streamlined research workflow. This MCP lets your AI client handle all the scraping and aggregation in one chat, leaving you free to analyze the insights. ## How It Works The bottom line is you talk to your agent naturally, and it handles the complex API calls behind the scenes. 1. Subscribe to this MCP connection within Vinkius. 2. Select your AI client (like Cursor or Claude) and authorize access. No API keys are needed because it's a public feed. 3. Ask your agent a natural language question, such as 'What are the top stories on AI?' The tool executes the request and returns clean data. ## Frequently Asked Questions **How do I find the most popular stories using Hacker News MCP?** You use the `top_stories` tool. This instantly fetches the current list of top-voted articles on the front page, giving you a quick pulse check on tech trends. **Can I track new submissions with Hacker News MCP?** Yes, use `new_stories`. This tool provides a chronological feed of recently submitted items, which is perfect for monitoring brand-new project launches or beta releases. **How does the Hacker News MCP handle comments?** The `get_item` tool retrieves all content, including full comment threads. Crucially, it converts messy HTML into clean Markdown so your agent can read and reason with structured text. **Do I need to worry about authentication for Hacker News MCP?** No. The connection uses a public API, so you don't have to provide any private keys or credentials when setting up the MCP.