news.ycombinator.com

Hacker News

by webmcp-today · v2 · updated 8/10/2026

*://news.ycombinator.com/*

Read Hacker News through its official public API, plus comment, vote, and submit as the logged-in user. Write tokens (hmac, vote auth, fnid) are extracted from HN's own HTML pages; a page-shape change fails loudly. Write tools require an active news.ycombinator.com login session.

What changed in v2: Adds official public API read tools: hn_get_item and hn_list_children. Existing writes use HTML token extraction and form/query targets.

This package also reads from https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com. No cookies or site credentials are included.

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Installing saves v2 in your browser, not on your account. The extension registers its tools whenever you're on a matching page, and you stay on v2 until you update.

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Tools (5)

hn_get_itemread-only

Get a Hacker News story, comment, job, poll, or poll option by numeric ID through HN's official public API. Returns metadata, HTML text, direct child-comment IDs, and poll relationships when present.

Show input schema and execution

{
  "inputSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "itemId": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Numeric HN item ID, from an /item?id=... URL or another HN tool result"
      }
    },
    "required": [
      "itemId"
    ],
    "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "execution": {
    "mode": "api",
    "endpoint": "item"
  }
}

hn_list_childrenread-only

List the direct child comment IDs of a Hacker News story or comment, in HN display order. Call hn_get_item for each child to read it; an empty kids list means no direct replies.

Show input schema and execution

{
  "inputSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "itemId": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Numeric ID of the story or comment whose direct replies to list"
      }
    },
    "required": [
      "itemId"
    ],
    "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "execution": {
    "mode": "api",
    "endpoint": "children"
  }
}

hn_comment

Post a comment on a Hacker News story, or reply to a comment, as the logged-in user. The item ID is the number in /item?id=... URLs. A successful post returns the thread page HTML.

Show input schema and execution

{
  "inputSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "text": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Comment body (plain text; blank lines split paragraphs, links auto-link)"
      },
      "itemId": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Numeric ID of the story or comment to reply to, from /item?id=..."
      }
    },
    "required": [
      "itemId",
      "text"
    ],
    "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "execution": {
    "mode": "api",
    "endpoint": "comment"
  }
}

hn_vote

Upvote (or retract an upvote on) a Hacker News story or comment, as the logged-in user. The item ID is the number in /item?id=... URLs. Fails loudly if the item is not votable (own post, expired, logged out).

Show input schema and execution

{
  "inputSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "how": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "up = upvote, un = retract a previous upvote",
        "enum": [
          "up",
          "un"
        ]
      },
      "itemId": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Numeric ID of the story or comment to vote on, from /item?id=..."
      }
    },
    "required": [
      "itemId",
      "how"
    ],
    "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "execution": {
    "mode": "api",
    "endpoint": "vote"
  }
}

hn_submit

Submit a new story to Hacker News as the logged-in user: a link post (title + url) or a text post like Ask HN (title + text). Provide exactly one of url or text. Duplicate URLs are resubmitted to the existing thread by HN.

Show input schema and execution

{
  "inputSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "url": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Link to submit; omit for a text post. Provide exactly one of url or text"
      },
      "text": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Body for a text post (Ask HN etc.); omit for a link post. Provide exactly one of url or text"
      },
      "title": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Submission title (HN limit: 80 chars)"
      }
    },
    "required": [
      "title"
    ],
    "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "execution": {
    "mode": "api",
    "endpoint": "submit"
  }
}