HackerNews MCP Server — Search Stories, Comments, Show HN for AI Agents

Apify-hosted HackerNews MCP server giving AI agents instant access to 30M+ HN stories and comments via the official Algolia HN Search API. Search the front page, find Show HN trends, pull threaded comments, get user profiles. No API key, no rate limits to fight. $0.005 per tool call (cheapest MCP on the Apify Store).

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What is the HackerNews MCP Server?

The HackerNews MCP Server is an Apify actor implementing the Model Context Protocol for HackerNews. It wraps the Algolia HN Search API — the canonical search backend HN itself uses — into 6 clean tools your AI agent can call. Wire it into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Continue.dev to give your AI agent a live pulse on the HN tech community.

Tech founders, devs, and PMs read HN for a reason. This MCP server lets an AI agent read it for you and surface what matters.

Use cases

• Tech trend agents — let your AI agent scan HN front page daily and summarize what's hot.
• Show HN tracker — monitor product launches in your niche (top_show_hn returns trending Show HN posts).
• Comment sentiment — pull all comments on a story and analyze tone, dissent, key arguments.
• Founder research — get_user returns submission history for any HN user — useful for due diligence.
• Competitive intel — search_stories(query="your competitor") to find every HN mention.
• Content marketing research — find which posts on a topic ranked well, model your headlines on theirs.

Tools available

Tool	What it returns
search_stories(query, sort, limit)	Story search — sort by relevance or date
search_comments(query, limit)	Comment search — full-text
top_stories(limit)	Current HN front page
story_with_comments(story_id)	One story + nested comment tree
top_show_hn(limit)	Trending Show HN posts
get_user(username)	User profile + recent submissions
list_tools	Free — schema discovery

Input

{
  "mode": "call_tool",
  "tool_name": "search_stories",
  "arguments": { "query": "model context protocol", "sort": "relevance", "limit": 10 }
}

Output

{
  "id": "39495382",
  "type": "story",
  "title": "Show HN: Our open-source MCP server registry",
  "url": "https://github.com/example/mcp-registry",
  "author": "example_user",
  "points": 412,
  "num_comments": 87,
  "created_at": "2026-04-20T14:33:12Z",
  "hn_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39495382"
}

Pricing

PAY_PER_EVENT — $0.005 per tool call (= $5 per 1,000). The list_tools discovery call is free. No charge on errors. This is the cheapest MCP server on the Apify Store because the underlying Algolia HN API is fast and free, so we pass the savings on.

FAQ — HackerNews API for AI agents

HN Algolia vs Firebase API? Algolia is the search-optimized layer (full-text, fast, scoring). Firebase is the raw data layer (best for "fetch item by ID"). This MCP server uses Algolia for its 6 tools because search and filter is the agent use case. If you need real-time front-page polling, the HN Firebase API is better — DM and we'll add a tool.

Does it support HN polls and Ask HN? Yes — search_stories with the right tag returns Ask HN, polls, jobs. See list_tools output for full filter syntax.

Can I use this for Show HN trend analysis? Yes — top_show_hn(limit=50) returns Show HN posts ranked by recent traction. Plug into your AI agent for daily digests.

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License: MIT · Author: dltik