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Hacker News for AI agents

Hacker News is Y Combinator's tech news aggregator, featuring user-submitted stories and discussion on startups and programming. People use it to stay current on a topic without checking multiple sources by hand. Connect it once through Arc0, and your agent, or Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor, can use it through one MCP endpoint, limited to what each user approved.

Connect Hacker NewsSee the 14 actions ↓
LifestyleNo authMCP + RESTnews.ycombinator.com
AUDIT LOG · HACKER NEWSPOLICY: acme-support
09:41:07 · claude · u_8f2read
hacker_news.search_posts
Search Hackernews Posts✓ allowed · 212ms
09:41:08 · claude · u_8f2read
hacker_news.get_item
Get Hacker News Item✓ allowed · 164ms
EVERY HACKER NEWS CALL, ON THE RECORD
01 · USE CASES

What agents do in Hacker News.

01

Pull today's top stories

Fetch the current top stories to summarize what the tech community is discussing today.

02

Search for a topic

Search recent posts for a keyword to find discussion of a specific product or trend.

03

Look up a specific item

Fetch a specific story or comment by its item ID to quote it accurately.

02 · ACTIONS

14 Hacker News actions, graded by risk.

Every Hacker News action is tagged read, write or destructive, so one policy covers the whole app and new actions inherit the right default.

read

14

Look things up. Allowed by default.

  • hacker_news.get_item
    Get Hacker News Item
  • hacker_news.get_user
    Get Hacker News User
  • hacker_news.get_updates
    Get Hacker News Updates
  • hacker_news.search_posts
    Search Hackernews Posts
  • hacker_news.get_ask_stories
    Get Ask HN Story IDs
  • hacker_news.get_job_stories
    Get Job Story IDs
  • hacker_news.get_max_item_id
    Get Max Item ID
  • hacker_news.get_new_stories
    Get New Hacker News Stories
  • hacker_news.get_top_stories
    Get Top HackerNews Stories
  • hacker_news.get_best_stories
    Get Best HackerNews Stories
  • hacker_news.get_item_with_id
    Get Hackernews Item
  • hacker_news.get_latest_posts
    Get Latest Hackernews Posts
  • hacker_news.get_show_stories
    Get Show HN Stories
  • hacker_news.get_user_by_username
    Get HackerNews User by Username

write

0

Create and change things. Allow, or ask the user first.

  • No write actions.

destructive

0

Delete, cancel or archive. Ask first, or deny outright.

  • No destructive actions.
03 · HOW IT WORKS

Hacker News in three steps.

  1. 01Your users connect Hacker NewsThey add their Hacker News no auth on Arc0 Connect, under your brand. It goes straight into the vault.
  2. 02You set the rulesReads run, and writes like “updates” can wait for the user to approve.
  3. 03Any agent can actYour agent calls Hacker News through the Arc0 SDK or MCP, and so can Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. Every call lands on the audit log.
POLICY.TS
await arc0.policies.set('hacker_news', {
  read: 'allow',
  write: 'ask',        
  destructive: 'deny',  
})

# Claude Code: the same connection, one URL
$ claude mcp add --transport http arc0 \
    https://mcp.arc0.ai/u/u_8f2
04 · AUTH AND DATA

How Hacker News connects.

Hacker News needs no credentials. Arc0 still applies your policies and records every call, so public tools get the same controls as private ones.

The same Hacker News connection serves your agent over MCP and your own backend over REST and the proxy, so a user connects once. How Arc0 handles credentials →

AUTH
No auth
CREDENTIALS
Per-tenant encrypted vault
MODEL SEES
Results only, never credentials
AUDIT LOG
Every call, on every plan
05 · WORKS WITH

Use Hacker News from any agent.

Claude
ChatGPT
Cursor
Codex
VS Code
OpenAI Agents SDK
Claude Agent SDK
Vercel AI SDK
Mastra
LangGraph
06 · RELATED

More lifestyle apps.

AccuWeather41 actionsAllTrails5 actionsSpotify88 actionsEpic Games28 actionsRAWG Video Games Database27 actionsDungeon Fighter Online25 actionsMindbody14 actionsLumify10 actions
ALL LIFESTYLE APPS →
07 · FAQ

Hacker News and Arc0, answered.

Q01

Can I use Hacker News with Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor?

Yes. Connect Hacker News to Arc0 once, then add your Arc0 MCP URL to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code or any other remote-MCP client. Each assistant only gets the Hacker News actions you allow.

Q02

How do users connect Hacker News?

Hacker News needs no credentials. Arc0 still applies your policies and records every call, so public tools get the same controls as private ones.

Q03

Which Hacker News actions can my agent take?

14 in total: 14 read, 0 write and 0 destructive. Your policies decide which of them each agent may call.

Q04

Can I make my agent read-only in Hacker News?

Yes. Allow read actions and deny writes in the Hacker News policy. Your agent can still look things up, and any write it attempts is blocked and logged.

Q05

Can my own backend call Hacker News too?

Yes. The same Hacker News connection is available over REST and through the Arc0 proxy, so your product and your agent share one connection per user.

Get started

Plug Hacker News into your agent.

Your users connect Hacker News once, under your brand. Your agent gets 14 actions behind your policies, with every call on the record.

Connect Hacker NewsBrowse all apps →

Free to build · MCP + REST · Audit log on every plan