Summary
Read Hacker News (stories, comments, users, top/new/best/ask/show/job lists) from any AI agent via the official Firebase API. 8 tools, no auth.
Guided setup
Connect Hacker News to Microsoft Copilot in 2 minutes
Start a free trial on AnythingMCP Cloud, connect Hacker News in the guided setup, then add your MCP URL to Microsoft Copilot. No code and no server to run.
No credit card · 7-day trial · Self-host alternative available
Try asking
Example prompts for Hacker News
Click any prompt to copy it. Paste into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot or OpenClaw to run it against this connector.
Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.
💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Hacker News, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key — done. No Docker, no
git clone, no local server.
Hacker News + Microsoft Copilot
Read Hacker News (stories, comments, users, top/new/best/ask/show/job lists) from any AI agent via the official Firebase API. 8 tools, no auth.
Prerequisites
See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:
(none — public API)
Step 1 — Get credentials
This connector wraps the official Hacker News API hosted on Firebase (hacker-news.firebaseio.com).
Setup: nothing. The API is public, read-only, and unauthenticated.
No write access: the official API is READ-ONLY. There is no way to post stories, comments, or vote via this connector — those require a session cookie obtained by submitting an HTML login form to news.ycombinator.com, which is out of scope for an MCP adapter.
Two-step pattern: list endpoints return arrays of integer IDs only (e.g. top 500 story IDs). You must then fetch each ID via hackernews_get_item to get the actual title/url/text/score. Plan accordingly — fetching 500 top stories means 501 requests.
…(continued in the in-app connector instructions)
Step 2 — Install the adapter
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d
Step 3 — Add the connector in Microsoft Copilot
Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (
https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide showsYOUR_SERVER_ID.
Microsoft Copilot uses MCP servers through agents built in Copilot Studio: you add AnythingMCP to an agent as a tool, then publish the agent to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams. Copilot Studio connects from Microsoft's cloud over Streamable HTTP, which AnythingMCP supports.
- In Copilot Studio, open your agent (or create one), go to Tools and choose Add a tool → New tool → Model Context Protocol.
- Enter a Server name (for example
AnythingMCP), a Server description that says what the connector does, and the Server URLhttps://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID. Copilot Studio uses the description to decide when to call the server. - Under authentication, choose API key, set Type to Header and the header name to
X-API-Key, then select Create. - In Add tool, choose Create a new connection, paste an MCP API key from AnythingMCP (MCP Servers → your server → API keys) and select Add to agent.
- Try it in the agent's Test pane: ask for something that needs the
Hacker Newstools. - Select Publish, then Channels → Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, keep Make agent available in Microsoft Copilot selected and choose Add channel. See agent in Teams installs it for you; in Microsoft 365 Copilot, type @ and pick the agent.
Prefer per-user sign-in? Choose OAuth 2.0 → Dynamic discovery instead of an API key: each user then signs in to AnythingMCP the first time the agent calls it.
Self-hosting? Use your instance's public HTTPS address instead of https://cloud.anythingmcp.com. Copilot Studio connects from Microsoft's cloud, so localhost does not work.
Available tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
hackernews_top_stories | Returns an array of up to 500 item IDs for the current front-page (top) stories |
hackernews_new_stories | Returns an array of up to 500 newest story IDs |
hackernews_best_stories | Returns an array of up to 500 'best' story IDs (HN's algorithmic top) |
hackernews_ask_stories | Returns up to 200 Ask HN story IDs |
hackernews_show_stories | Returns up to 200 Show HN story IDs |
hackernews_job_stories | Returns up to 200 'Who is hiring / job' story IDs |
hackernews_get_item | Fetch a single item (story, comment, job, poll, pollopt) by ID |
hackernews_get_user | Fetch user profile by case-sensitive username: returns id, created, karma, about, submitted (array of recent item IDs) |
FAQ
Which Copilot is this for? Microsoft 365 Copilot at work, through agents built in Copilot Studio. The Microsoft Copilot app for personal accounts has no option to add your own MCP server.
What do I need? A work account with access to Copilot Studio (a license or a trial) to build the agent. People who use it in Microsoft 365 Copilot or Teams need access to the agent: share it with them, or ask an admin to publish it to the organization. If your organization applies data policies to Power Platform connectors, they cover MCP servers too.
The agent doesn't call the tools. Check that the header name is exactly X-API-Key and that the key belongs to the same MCP server as the URL, and make the server description specific: Copilot Studio uses it to decide when to call the server. Publish the agent again after each change; in an open chat, type "start over" to get the new version.
Next steps
- Connector landing page
- Connect to Claude
- Connect to ChatGPT
- Connect to Cursor
- Connect to Gemini
- Connect to Meta Muse
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