🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio
📡 hn-tech-signal-mcp
MCP server for global tech & AI signal intelligence — aggregates HackerNews, arXiv, Lobste.rs and GitHub into a structured briefing. No API key required.
Demo
Overview
hn-tech-signal-mcp turns any AI assistant into a proactive tech intelligence analyst. The server aggregates four signal layers — research frontier, developer discourse, curated signal, and open-source practice — into a single, structured briefing.
No authentication required. All four data sources are public APIs. Optional: set GITHUB_TOKEN for higher GitHub rate limits (5,000 req/h vs. 60 req/h unauthenticated).
Anchor demo query: "Give me a tech signal digest on AI today — what is happening in research, developer discourse and open source?"
Signal Architecture
FRONTIER arXiv API → Latest AI/ML papers (cs.AI, cs.LG, cs.CL, cs.CV)
DISCOURSE HackerNews → Top/best stories + Algolia full-text search
Lobste.rs → Curated, lower-noise tech signal
PRACTICE GitHub Search → What engineers are actually building right now
Think of the four layers as a radar: arXiv shows what's coming over the horizon, HN and Lobste.rs show what practitioners are discussing, and GitHub shows what teams are actually shipping.
Features
- 🔬 Research frontier – Latest arXiv papers by category (cs.AI, cs.LG, cs.CL, and more)
- 🔍 arXiv full-text search – Find papers by keyword, title, or author
- 🗣️ HackerNews top/best/new – With optional AI-keyword filter
- 🔎 HackerNews search – Full history via Algolia, with date range filter
- 🔧 Lobste.rs hottest – Curated developer signal, filterable by tag
- 🛠️ GitHub trending AI repos – Search by topic, stars, sort by activity or popularity
- 📋 Tech signal digest – One-call cross-source briefing in Markdown
- ☁️ Dual transport – stdio for Claude Desktop, Streamable HTTP for cloud deployment
| # | Tool | Source | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hn_top_stories | HackerNews | Top/best/new stories, with optional AI filter |
| 2 | hn_search | HN Algolia | Full-text search across all HN history |
| 3 | arxiv_latest | arXiv | Latest papers by category (cs.AI etc.) |
| 4 | arxiv_search | arXiv | Search papers by keyword/title/author |
| 5 | lobsters_hot | Lobste.rs | Curated tech stories, filterable by tag |
| 6 | github_trending_ai | GitHub | Trending AI repos by topic and stars |
| 7 | tech_signal_digest | All sources | Aggregated Markdown briefing |
Prerequisites
- Python 3.11+
uvorpip- No API key required
- Optional:
GITHUB_TOKENfor higher GitHub rate limits
Installation
# Recommended: uvx (no install step needed)
uvx hn-tech-signal-mcp
# Alternative: pip
pip install hn-tech-signal-mcp
Quickstart
# Start the server (stdio mode for Claude Desktop)
uvx hn-tech-signal-mcp
# With optional GitHub token for higher rate limits
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_yourtoken uvx hn-tech-signal-mcp
Try immediately in Claude Desktop:
"Give me a tech signal digest on AI today" "What are the latest cs.AI papers from the last 48 hours?" "What is HackerNews discussing about MCP this week?" "Show me trending GitHub repos for the topic 'ai-agents'"
Configuration
Environment Variables
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
GITHUB_TOKEN | – | Optional. GitHub personal access token. Without it: 60 req/h. With it: 5,000 req/h. The token is only sent to api.github.com, never to other upstreams. |
MCP_TRANSPORT | stdio | Transport: stdio or streamable_http |
MCP_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | Bind host for HTTP transport. Non-loopback values require MCP_BEARER_TOKEN. |
MCP_PORT | 8000 | Port for HTTP transport |
MCP_BEARER_TOKEN | – | Required when MCP_HOST is not loopback. Shared secret to gate the HTTP endpoint. |
Claude Desktop Configuration
{
"mcpServers": {
"hn-tech-signal": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["hn-tech-signal-mcp"],
"env": {
"GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_yourtoken_optional"
}
}
}
}
Config file locations:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json - Windows:
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
After restarting Claude Desktop, all 7 tools are available.
Cloud Deployment (Streamable HTTP)
For use via claude.ai in the browser (e.g. on managed workstations):
Render.com (recommended):
- Push/fork the repository to GitHub
- On render.com: New Web Service → connect GitHub repo
- Optionally set
GITHUB_TOKENin the Render dashboard - In claude.ai under Settings → MCP Servers, add:
https://your-app.onrender.com/mcp
# Local HTTP mode (binds 127.0.0.1 by default)
MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable_http MCP_PORT=8000 python -m hn_tech_signal_mcp.server
# Public bind (requires bearer token, intended behind a reverse proxy that terminates TLS)
MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable_http \
MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 \
MCP_BEARER_TOKEN="$(openssl rand -hex 32)" \
python -m hn_tech_signal_mcp.server
Hardening: the server refuses to bind to non-loopback hosts unless
MCP_BEARER_TOKENis set. Run cloud deployments behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy (Render, Fly, Caddy, …) and treatMCP_BEARER_TOKENas the shared client secret your proxy enforces.
Architecture
┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────┐
│ Claude / AI │────▶│ HN Tech Signal MCP │────▶│ HackerNews Firebase │
│ (MCP Host) │◀────│ (MCP Server) │────▶│ HN Algolia Search │
└─────────────────┘ │ │────▶│ arXiv.org (Atom API) │
│ 7 Tools │────▶│ Lobste.rs JSON API │
│ Stdio | Streamable HTTP │────▶│ GitHub Search API │
└─────────────────────────────────┘ └───────────────────────┘
Project Structure
hn-tech-signal-mcp/
├── src/
│ └── hn_tech_signal_mcp/
│ ├── __init__.py
│ └── server.py # All 7 tools
├── tests/
│ ├── __init__.py
│ └── test_server.py # 21 unit + 5 live tests
├── pyproject.toml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md # This file (English)
└── README.de.md # German version
Testing
# Unit tests (no network required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"
# Live integration tests (requires network)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "live"
Example Use Cases
KI-Fachgruppe / AI Working Group
"Give me a tech signal digest on AI today"
→ tech_signal_digest(focus="AI")
"What are the top 5 arXiv papers on LLM agents this week?"
→ arxiv_search(query="LLM agents", category_filter="cs.AI", limit=5)
"What is HackerNews discussing about model context protocol?"
→ hn_search(query="model context protocol", days_back=30)
Research Monitoring
"Show me the latest NLP papers from arXiv"
→ arxiv_latest(category="cs.CL", limit=10)
"Search arXiv for papers on retrieval-augmented generation"
→ arxiv_search(query="retrieval augmented generation RAG", limit=10)
Open Source Intelligence
"What AI agent frameworks are trending on GitHub?"
→ github_trending_ai(topic="ai-agents", sort="updated", limit=10)
"Show me the most starred MCP-related repos"
→ github_trending_ai(topic="mcp", sort="stars", min_stars=50)
[→ More use cases by audience →](EXAMPLES.md)
arXiv Category Reference
| Category | Full Name | Key Topics |
|---|---|---|
cs.AI | Artificial Intelligence | Agents, planning, knowledge representation |
cs.LG | Machine Learning | Training, optimisation, generalisation |
cs.CL | Computation & Language | NLP, LLMs, translation, summarisation |
cs.CV | Computer Vision | Image recognition, generation, multimodal |
cs.RO | Robotics | Embodied AI, navigation |
stat.ML | Statistics ML | Probabilistic methods, Bayesian ML |
Rate Limits
| Source | Auth Required | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| HackerNews Firebase | No | Very generous (Firebase) |
| HN Algolia Search | No | ~10,000 req/hour |
| arXiv | No | ~3 req/second (be respectful) |
| Lobste.rs | No | Reasonable use |
| GitHub Search | No | 60 req/hour |
| GitHub Search | GITHUB_TOKEN | 5,000 req/hour |
Known Limitations
- GitHub rate limit: 60 req/h without token. Set
GITHUB_TOKENfor production use. - arXiv: Papers may take up to 24h to appear after submission. Weekends/holidays have delayed batches.
- HackerNews: Top/best story lists update every few minutes. Very new stories may have low scores.
- Lobste.rs: Smaller community than HN; tech-focused but may not cover all AI topics.
- tech_signal_digest: Makes ~4 concurrent requests; if one source is slow it may delay the full response.
Synergies with Other MCP Servers
hn-tech-signal-mcp combines well with:
| Combination | Use Case |
|---|---|
+ news-monitor-mcp | Global research + Swiss institutional media coverage |
+ fedlex-mcp | Tech discourse + Swiss regulatory context |
+ global-education-mcp | AI research trends + education policy data |
+ swiss-statistics-mcp | Tech landscape + Swiss economic/structural data |
Safety & Limits
- Read-only: All tools perform HTTP GET requests only — no posts, comments, votes, or writes are issued upstream.
- No personal data: The server queries public tech aggregators. No PII is collected; author handles in public posts/papers are returned as-is from upstream and never enriched or cross-referenced.
- Rate limits: See the Rate Limits table. arXiv's ≤3 req/sec guidance is respected by default; GitHub search is capped at 60 req/h without a
GITHUB_TOKEN. A request timeout is enforced per call. - No bulk harvesting: This server is built for interactive, conversational use — not for scraping or mirroring. Do not use it to bypass upstream pagination or ToS limits.
- Terms of service: Data is subject to the ToS of each source — HackerNews, arXiv API, Lobste.rs, GitHub.
- No guarantees: Community project, not affiliated with HackerNews / Y Combinator, arXiv / Cornell, Lobste.rs, or GitHub. Availability depends on upstream APIs.
Changelog
See CHANGELOG.md
License
MIT License — see LICENSE
Author
Hayal Oezkan · malkreide
Credits & Related Projects
- HackerNews API: hacker-news.firebaseio.com — Y Combinator / Firebase
- arXiv API: export.arxiv.org — Cornell University / arXiv.org
- Lobste.rs API: lobste.rs — community-run
- GitHub API: api.github.com — GitHub / Microsoft
- Protocol: Model Context Protocol — Anthropic / Linux Foundation
- Related: news-monitor-mcp — Swiss institutional media monitoring
- Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio
Installation
Run via uv's uvx — no clone or manual install needed. Add to your MCP client config (mcpServers for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf; use a top-level servers key for VS Code in .vscode/mcp.json):
{
"mcpServers": {
"hn-tech-signal-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"hn-tech-signal-mcp"
]
}
}
}