Hacker NewsSAFE
MCP Server for Hackernews
Overview
From the repository's own README, as read at the audited commit. Badges and raw HTML are left out.
[](https://smithery.ai/server/mcp-hn)
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides tools for fetching information from Hacker News.
Tools
get_storiesFetching (top, new, askhn, showhn) storiesget_story_infoFetching comments associated with a storysearch_storiesSearching for stories by queryget_user_infoFetching user info
Example Usage
Use prompts like the following:
User: Get the top stories of today Output: Uses `get_stories` tool and returns a story about AI User: What does the details of the story today that talks about the future of AI Output: Uses `get_story_info` tool based on the results of the previous tool User: What has the user `pg` been up to? Output: Uses `get_user_info` tool and returns a summary of the user's activity User: What does hackernews say about careers in AI? Output: Uses `search_stories` tool and returns a summary of the comments
A more detailed example with the puppeteer MCP server:
User: What are the top stories of today? Output: Uses `get_stories` tool and returns a story about AI User: Can you use the puppeteer tool to read the article about and also use the hackernews tool to view the comments and give me a summary of what the main comments are about the article? Output: Uses puppeteer tool to read the article about AI and then uses the `get_story_info` hn tool to get the comments and returns a summary of the comments
Quickstart
Installing via Smithery
To install Hacker News MCP Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:
npx -y @smithery/cli install mcp-hn --client claude
Claude Desktop:
Update the following:
On MacOS: `~/Library/Application\ Sup
8e9a6255b81aOBSERVED · 2026-10-07Connect
Built from this server's own package name, version and transport as found in its source — not copied from anyone's documentation, so it cannot drift against a page we do not control.
claude mcp add mcp-hn -- uvx mcp-hn
{
"mcpServers": {
"mcp-hn": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"mcp-hn"
]
}
}
}Exposed tools (4)
4 read · 0 write · 0 destructive.
| Tool | Risk | Description |
|---|---|---|
get_stories | read | Get stories from Hacker News. The options are `top`, `new`, `ask_hn`, `show_hn` for types of stories. This doesn |
get_story_info | read | Get detailed story info from Hacker News, including the comments |
get_user_info | read | Get user info from Hacker News, including the stories they |
search_stories | read | Search stories from Hacker News. It is generally recommended to use simpler queries to get a broader set of results (less than 5 words). Very targetted queries may not return any results. |
Trust audit
SAFEgrade B · trust 89/100 Nothing in the source contradicts what it says it does. Grade A is reserved for packages that have also passed the behavioural sandbox.
| Layer | What it checks | Result |
|---|---|---|
| L0 | Provenance & inventory | PASS |
| L1 | Static analysis of the code | PASS |
| L2 | Instruction surface (what it tells the agent) | PASS |
| L3 | Class-specific surface | PASS |
| L4 | Behavioural (sandbox) | SKIPPED |
What the source does
- Filesystem
- none-observed
- Network
- declared (5 observation(s))
- Shell
- none-observed
- Dependencies
- pinned
- Secrets in source
- none-found
Findings (0)
No findings outside the package's declared scope.
Gates applied: no_behavioural_pass.
8e9a6255b81afull audit observations/trust-audit/mcp-server/erithwik__hacker-news-1.json · Report an issue / request a re-scanAudit history
Every audit this server has had. A grade with a past is a grade somebody is still checking.
| Date | Source | Verdict | Grade | Score | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-07 | 8e9a6255b81a | SAFE | B | 89 | first audit |
Questions
What is the Hacker News MCP server?
MCP Server for Hackernews
What tools does Hacker News expose?
4 in total: 4 read-only, 0 that write, and 0 that can delete or overwrite. Every one is listed on this page with its risk.
Is Hacker News safe to connect to an agent?
The audit found nothing in the source that contradicts what it says it does, and graded it B (89/100). Grade A is held back for packages that have also passed a sandboxed behavioural run, which is why a clean server reads B.
What credentials does Hacker News need?
No credential environment variables were found in its source, so it appears to need none.
How does Hacker News run?
It speaks stdio, so it runs as a local process your client starts. It is published on PyPI as mcp-hn.
How current is this page?
The grade is for one exact copy of the source (8e9a6255b81a), read on 2026-10-07. The repository is watched and re-audited when it changes.