mcp-news-server
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The MCP News Server is a clean, minimal MCP wrapper around the Hacker News API, designed to showcase the Modular Contract Protocol (MCP) structure, typed contracts, and LLM-compatible interface.
📰 MCP News Server
A clean, minimal MCP wrapper around the Hacker News API — built to showcase the Modular Contract Protocol (MCP) structure, typed contracts, and LLM-compatible interface.
🌐 Live Demo
🟢 Deployed at: https://mcp-news-server.onrender.com
Try It Now
🚀 What is This?
This project demonstrates how to transform an existing REST API into an MCP-compliant server. It wraps the Hacker News API using modular components:
- Contracts defined with
zodandzod-openapifor typed and documented inputs/outputs - Resolvers for business logic
- Handlers for HTTP routing
- OpenAPI integration for LLM function calling
My goal with this wrapper is to learn and demonstrate the full MCP process, and prepare APIs for the MCP marketplace — where tools and agents can discover and use them programmatically.
💡 Why Use MCP Instead of Raw REST Calls?
Traditional REST APIs:
- ❌ No contracts
- ❌ Inconsistent formats
- ❌ Not LLM friendly
MCP APIs:
- ✅ Contract-driven (with Zod)
- ✅ Composable and self-descriptive
- ✅ LLM-ready (via OpenAPI and function schemas)
🔧 Tech Stack
- Node.js + Express
- TypeScript
- Zod +
zod-openapi - Axios
- Deployed on Render
📁 Project Structure
src/
├── contracts/ # Zod + OpenAPI metadata
├── resolvers/ # Business logic
├── handlers/ # Express routes
├── utils/ # Hacker News client
├── docs/openapi.ts # OpenAPI spec generator (zod-openapi)
├── setup/zod-openapi-init.ts # Shared zod setup with OpenAPI support
└── server.ts # Main entry point
🗂️ Endpoints
1. GET /api/listTopStories
Returns a list of top Hacker News story IDs.
Example:
curl https://mcp-news-server.onrender.com/api/listTopStories
Response:
[38643, 38642, 38641]
2. GET /api/getStory/:id
Returns full story data for a given story ID.
Example:
curl https://mcp-news-server.onrender.com/api/getStory/8863
Response:
{
"id": 8863,
"title": "My YC app: Dropbox - Throw away your USB drive",
"url": "http://www.getdropbox.com/u/2/screencast.html",
"score": 111,
"by": "dhouston",
"time": 1175714200,
"type": "story"
}
🧠 How LLMs Can Use This
Each MCP endpoint is:
- Strictly typed
- Schema-bound with Zod
- Self-documenting via OpenAPI
This makes it ideal for:
- LLM agents (OpenAI, Claude)
- LangChain tools
- ai-agent-flow pipelines
🤖 Function Calling Example (OpenAI / Claude)
{
"name": "getStory",
"description": "Retrieve story details by ID from Hacker News",
"parameters": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"id": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The numeric ID of the Hacker News story"
}
},
"required": ["id"]
}
}
➡️ Point to:
GET https://mcp-news-server.onrender.com/api/getStory/:id
📄 OpenAPI Schema
curl https://mcp-news-server.onrender.com/openapi.json
This endpoint can be used in:
- Swagger UI
- API clients (Postman, Insomnia)
- LLM frameworks for function discovery
🛠️ Local Setup
git clone https://github.com/rajeshdh/mcp-news-server
cd mcp-news-server
npm install
npm run dev
✨ What You Can Build with This
- A summarizer tool for top HN stories
- A GPT agent that fetches and ranks HN stories
- A fact-checking or news validation agent
- Your own open MCP marketplace entry!
📜 License
MIT
