How to integrate Hackernews MCP with Mastra AI

This guide walks you through connecting Hackernews to Mastra AI using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Hackernews agent that can summarize today's top hacker news stories, find recent posts about ai startups, show comments from this frontpage post through natural language commands. This guide will help you understand how to give your Mastra AI agent real control over a Hackernews account through Composio's Hackernews MCP server. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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Hackernews

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Hacker News is a tech-focused news aggregator by Y Combinator featuring user-driven stories and discussions on startups and programming. It's a go-to source for trending tech news and thoughtful community insights.

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Introduction

This guide will help you understand how to give your Mastra AI agent real control over a Hackernews account through Composio's Hackernews MCP server.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

Also integrate Hackernews with

OpenAI Agents SDK Claude Agent SDK Claude Code Claude Cowork Codex OpenClaw Hermes CLI Google ADK LangChain Vercel AI SDK LlamaIndex CrewAI

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:

Set up your environment so Mastra, OpenAI, and Composio work together
Create a Tool Router session in Composio that exposes Hackernews tools
Connect Mastra's MCP client to the Composio generated MCP URL
Fetch Hackernews tool definitions and attach them as a toolset
Build a Mastra agent that can reason, call tools, and return structured results
Run an interactive CLI where you can chat with your Hackernews agent

What is Mastra AI?

Mastra AI is a TypeScript framework for building AI agents with tool support. It provides a clean API for creating agents that can use external services through MCP.

Key features include:

MCP Client: Built-in support for Model Context Protocol servers
Toolsets: Organize tools into logical groups
Step Callbacks: Monitor and debug agent execution
OpenAI Integration: Works with OpenAI models via @ai-sdk/openai

What is the Hackernews MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Hackernews MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to the Hacker News platform. It provides structured and secure access to top tech stories, user profiles, and community discussions, so your agent can fetch trending posts, search for news, analyze user activity, and surface the latest updates on your behalf.

Frontpage highlights and trending tech stories: Instantly get the current frontpage posts so your agent can summarize or monitor what's hot in tech right now.
Smart post search and discovery: Search Hacker News posts by keyword, filter results, and explore relevant discussions tailored to your interests.
Real-time updates on new posts: Let your agent fetch the latest or today's posts, keeping you in the loop on breaking news and emerging trends.
In-depth post and comment analysis: Retrieve detailed information about any specific Hacker News item, including stories and comment threads, for deeper insights.
User profile lookup and insights: Access details about any Hacker News user, helping you analyze activity, contributions, or community reputation.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Composio SDK?

Composio's Composio SDK helps agents find the right tools for a task at runtime. You can plug in multiple toolkits (like Gmail, HubSpot, and GitHub), and the agent will identify the relevant app and action to complete multi-step workflows. This can reduce token usage and improve the reliability of tool calls. Read more here: Getting started with Composio SDK

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Composio SDK works

The Composio SDK follows a three-phase workflow:

Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Step by step09 STEPS

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

Node.js 18 or higher
A Composio account with an active API key
An OpenAI API key
Basic familiarity with TypeScript

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

OpenAI API Key

Go to the OpenAI dashboard and create an API key.
You need credits or a connected billing setup to use the models.
Store the key somewhere safe.

Composio API Key

Log in to the Composio dashboard.
Go to Settings and copy your API key.
This key lets your Mastra agent talk to Composio and reach Hackernews through MCP.

Install dependencies

bash

npm install @composio/core @mastra/core @mastra/mcp @ai-sdk/openai dotenv

Install the required packages.

What's happening:

@composio/core is the Composio SDK for creating MCP sessions
@mastra/core provides the Agent class
@mastra/mcp is Mastra's MCP client
@ai-sdk/openai is the model wrapper for OpenAI
dotenv loads environment variables from .env

Set up environment variables

bash

COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
COMPOSIO_USER_ID=your_user_id_here
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates your requests to Composio
COMPOSIO_USER_ID tells Composio which user this session belongs to
OPENAI_API_KEY lets the Mastra agent call OpenAI models

Import libraries and validate environment

typescript

import "dotenv/config";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
import { Agent } from "@mastra/core/agent";
import { MCPClient } from "@mastra/mcp";
import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import * as readline from "readline";

import type { AiMessageType } from "@mastra/core/agent";

const openaiAPIKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const composioAPIKey = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const composioUserID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!openaiAPIKey) throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set");
if (!composioAPIKey) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set");
if (!composioUserID) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set");

const composio = new Composio({
  apiKey: composioAPIKey as string,
});

What's happening:

dotenv/config auto loads your .env so process.env.* is available
openai gives you a Mastra compatible model wrapper
Agent is the Mastra agent that will call tools and produce answers
MCPClient connects Mastra to your Composio MCP server
Composio is used to create a Tool Router session

Create a Tool Router session for Hackernews

typescript

async function main() {
  const session = await composio.create(
    composioUserID as string,
    {
      toolkits: ["hackernews"],
    },
  );

  const composioMCPUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log("Hackernews MCP URL:", composioMCPUrl);

What's happening:

create spins up a short-lived MCP HTTP endpoint for this user
The toolkits array contains "hackernews" for Hackernews access
session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that Mastra's MCPClient will connect to

Configure Mastra MCP client and fetch tools

typescript

const mcpClient = new MCPClient({
    id: composioUserID as string,
    servers: {
      nasdaq: {
        url: new URL(composioMCPUrl),
        requestInit: {
          headers: session.mcp.headers,
        },
      },
    },
    timeout: 30_000,
  });

console.log("Fetching MCP tools from Composio...");
const composioTools = await mcpClient.getTools();
console.log("Number of tools:", Object.keys(composioTools).length);

What's happening:

MCPClient takes an id for this client and a list of MCP servers
The headers property includes the x-api-key for authentication
getTools fetches the tool definitions exposed by the Hackernews toolkit

Create the Mastra agent

typescript

const agent = new Agent({
    name: "hackernews-mastra-agent",
    instructions: "You are an AI agent with Hackernews tools via Composio.",
    model: "openai/gpt-5",
  });

What's happening:

Agent is the core Mastra agent
name is just an identifier for logging and debugging
instructions guide the agent to use tools instead of only answering in natural language
model uses openai("gpt-5") to configure the underlying LLM

Set up interactive chat interface

typescript

let messages: AiMessageType[] = [];

console.log("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n");

const rl = readline.createInterface({
  input: process.stdin,
  output: process.stdout,
  prompt: "> ",
});

rl.prompt();

rl.on("line", async (userInput: string) => {
  const trimmedInput = userInput.trim();

  if (["exit", "quit", "bye"].includes(trimmedInput.toLowerCase())) {
    console.log("\nGoodbye!");
    rl.close();
    process.exit(0);
  }

  if (!trimmedInput) {
    rl.prompt();
    return;
  }

  messages.push({
    id: crypto.randomUUID(),
    role: "user",
    content: trimmedInput,
  });

  console.log("\nAgent is thinking...\n");

  try {
    const response = await agent.generate(messages, {
      toolsets: {
        hackernews: composioTools,
      },
      maxSteps: 8,
    });

    const { text } = response;

    if (text && text.trim().length > 0) {
      console.log(`Agent: ${text}\n`);
        messages.push({
          id: crypto.randomUUID(),
          role: "assistant",
          content: text,
        });
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.error("\nError:", error);
    }

    rl.prompt();
  });

  rl.on("close", async () => {
    console.log("\nSession ended.");
    await mcpClient.disconnect();
    process.exit(0);
  });
}

main().catch((err) => {
  console.error("Fatal error:", err);
  process.exit(1);
});

What's happening:

messages keeps the full conversation history in Mastra's expected format
agent.generate runs the agent with conversation history and Hackernews toolsets
maxSteps limits how many tool calls the agent can take in a single run
onStepFinish is a hook that prints intermediate steps for debugging

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Hackernews and Mastra AI:

typescript

import "dotenv/config";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
import { Agent } from "@mastra/core/agent";
import { MCPClient } from "@mastra/mcp";
import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import * as readline from "readline";

import type { AiMessageType } from "@mastra/core/agent";

const openaiAPIKey = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const composioAPIKey = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const composioUserID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!openaiAPIKey) throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set");
if (!composioAPIKey) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set");
if (!composioUserID) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set");

const composio = new Composio({ apiKey: composioAPIKey as string });

async function main() {
  const session = await composio.create(composioUserID as string, {
    toolkits: ["hackernews"],
  });

  const composioMCPUrl = session.mcp.url;

  const mcpClient = new MCPClient({
    id: composioUserID as string,
    servers: {
      hackernews: {
        url: new URL(composioMCPUrl),
        requestInit: {
          headers: session.mcp.headers,
        },
      },
    },
    timeout: 30_000,
  });

  const composioTools = await mcpClient.getTools();

  const agent = new Agent({
    name: "hackernews-mastra-agent",
    instructions: "You are an AI agent with Hackernews tools via Composio.",
    model: "openai/gpt-5",
  });

  let messages: AiMessageType[] = [];

  const rl = readline.createInterface({
    input: process.stdin,
    output: process.stdout,
    prompt: "> ",
  });

  rl.prompt();

  rl.on("line", async (input: string) => {
    const trimmed = input.trim();
    if (["exit", "quit"].includes(trimmed.toLowerCase())) {
      rl.close();
      return;
    }

    messages.push({ id: crypto.randomUUID(), role: "user", content: trimmed });

    const { text } = await agent.generate(messages, {
      toolsets: { hackernews: composioTools },
      maxSteps: 8,
    });

    if (text) {
      console.log(`Agent: ${text}\n`);
      messages.push({ id: crypto.randomUUID(), role: "assistant", content: text });
    }

    rl.prompt();
  });

  rl.on("close", async () => {
    await mcpClient.disconnect();
    process.exit(0);
  });
}

main();

Conclusion

You've built a Mastra AI agent that can interact with Hackernews through Composio's Tool Router. You can extend this further by:

Adding other toolkits like Gmail, Slack, or GitHub
Building a web-based chat interface around this agent
Using multiple MCP endpoints to enable cross-app workflows

TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every Hackernews action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Get Ask HN Story IDs

Get up to 200 latest Ask HN story IDs from Hacker News.

Get Best HackerNews Stories

Get up to 500 best story IDs from HackerNews ranked by score.

Get Hacker News Item

Tool to get a Hacker News item by its unique ID from the Firebase API.

Get Hackernews Item

Get a specific item from Hacker News using its ID.

Get Job Story IDs

Get up to 200 latest job story IDs from Hacker News.

Get Latest Hackernews Posts

Get the latest posts from Hacker News based on optional filters.

Get Max Item ID

Tool to get the current largest item ID from Hacker News.

Get New Hacker News Stories

Get up to 500 newest story IDs from Hacker News.

Get Show HN Stories

Tool to retrieve up to 200 latest Show HN story IDs from Hacker News.

Get Top HackerNews Stories

Get up to 500 top story IDs from HackerNews including jobs.

Get Hacker News Updates

Get recently changed items and user profiles from Hacker News.

Get Hacker News User

Retrieve a Hacker News user's public profile by their username.

Get HackerNews User by Username

Tool to get a user profile by their case-sensitive username from the HackerNews Firebase API.

Search Hackernews Posts

Search Hacker News posts using full-text search powered by Algolia.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Hackernews MCP Agent with another framework

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Hackernews MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Use Hackernews MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code

Use Hackernews MCP with Claude Code

Claude Cowork

Use Hackernews MCP with Claude Cowork

Codex

Use Hackernews MCP with Codex

OpenClaw

Use Hackernews MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes

Use Hackernews MCP with Hermes

CLI

Use Hackernews MCP with CLI

Google ADK

Use Hackernews MCP with Google ADK

LangChain

Use Hackernews MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

Use Hackernews MCP with Vercel AI SDK

LlamaIndex

Use Hackernews MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI

Use Hackernews MCP with CrewAI

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Ably

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Hackernews MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Hackernews tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Hackernews and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. Mastra AI fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Hackernews tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Hackernews scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Hackernews data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

Start with Hackernews.It takes 30 seconds.

Managed auth, hosted MCP servers, and every Hackernews tool your agent needs.Free to start.

Start building

Customer stories

Teams ship real agents on Composio

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Karan skipped his own birthday party to fix our critical issue. It was 10pm and he diverted his Waymo to help us instead. This really sets the bar — it shows the commitment you need when users rely on your software.

Harsha Gaddipati

Co-founder, Slashy

A lot of students tell us that the moment their connected tools start talking to each other inside Opennote feels almost magical. The agent just knows them, and it's immensely helped keep new users on the platform.

Abhi Arya

Co-founder, Opennote

We chose Composio over Pipedream because it delivered depth where it mattered — niche tools and tricky edge cases other platforms simply ignored. That gave us confidence to scale without compromising.

Nirman Dave

CEO, Zams

As a solo builder, shipping fast is life or death. The only way I can outcompete incumbents is by outmanoeuvring them. Getting bogged down managing agent auth would have been a death sentence.

Ryan Yu

Founder, Extra Thursday

Before Composio, adding tool integrations was slow and resource-intensive. Each one could take weeks of engineering time, and maintaining them meant constantly keeping up with API changes.

Tomisin Jenrola

Founder & CEO, SwarmZero

With hands-on help from their founder, we integrated Gmail and Google Drive in just 30 minutes. This level of personal support and commitment is exactly what startups should strive for.

Jerome Leclanche

Co-Founder, Ingram Technologies

How to integrate Hackernews MCP with Mastra AI

Connect Hackernews without auth hassles

Introduction

Also integrate Hackernews with

TL;DR

What is Mastra AI?

What is the Hackernews MCP server, and what's possible with it?

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Composio SDK?

How the Composio SDK works

Step-by-step Guide

Prerequisites

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

Install dependencies

Set up environment variables

Import libraries and validate environment

Create a Tool Router session for Hackernews

Configure Mastra MCP client and fetch tools

Create the Mastra agent

Set up interactive chat interface

Complete Code

Conclusion

Supported Tools

How to build Hackernews MCP Agent with another framework

OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code

Claude Cowork

Codex

OpenClaw

Hermes

CLI

Google ADK

LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

LlamaIndex

CrewAI

Explore Other Toolkits

Supabase

Codeinterpreter

GitHub

Ably

Frequently asked questions

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Hackernews MCP?+

Can I use Tool Router MCP with Mastra AI?+

Can I manage the permissions and scopes for Hackernews while using Tool Router?+

How safe is my data with Composio Tool Router?+

Start with Hackernews.It takes 30 seconds.

Teams ship real agents on Composio