get_stories
Get stories from Hacker News
LABSCO SUMMARY
One tool, five listings, no key.
The value is in the shape of the output: points, comment count and rank come back as numbers, so "what got traction today that mentions databases" is a filter rather than a reading exercise. Ask HN and Show HN are covered by the same tool as the front page, which is where most of the interesting discussion actually is.
What it is
A small MCP server that parses the HTML of news.ycombinator.com and hands back stories as objects instead of prose. One tool covers all five listings, so an assistant can read the front page the way a script would.
What you get
- Stories from any of the five listings —
top,new,ask,showorjobs, defaulting totop— fetched byget_stories - Each story as structured fields:
title,url,points,author,time,commentCountandrank, so results can be filtered and sorted rather than read - A count you choose, from 1 to 30, defaulting to 10
Requirements
No account and no key — it reads the public site. The npm package name is hn-server (0.1.0); the documented path is a clone plus npm install and npm run build, then pointing your client at the built index.js. Because it parses HTML rather than calling an API, a redesign of the Hacker News front page is what would break it.
Setup effort
One command — npx -y github:pskill9/hn-server
USE CASES
01
Catching up on the front page in one message
Pull the top stories with points and comment counts attached and have the model summarise what is worth opening, instead of scrolling.
02
Watching Show HN for launches in your space
Fetch the Show listing and filter the titles for the domain you care about, so launches surface without a daily visit.
03
Finding the discussions, not the links
Read the Ask listing and sort by comment count, which is the signal for a thread with actual answers in it.
04
Tracking who is hiring
Pull the jobs listing as structured stories and let the model group them by company or role rather than reading each post.
1 tool
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
1 tool when we connected.
Requires
npx on PATH
CONTEXT COST
Light Standing cost
Rated by the size of the one tool definition that rides along on every turn
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Add the block to your client, or run the command directly.
Server setup
Configuration file
JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"hn-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"github:pskill9/hn-server"
]
}
}
}npx
TERMINAL
npx -y github:pskill9/hn-server
