What is Hackernews_mcp copilot-instructions.md?

Project instructions for developing an MCP server that provides Hacker News access. MCP is a way for an AI agent to connect to external tools, while TDD means writing tests before the implementation.

Use them when changing or testing this TypeScript Hacker News MCP server, especially when adding APIs, handling errors, or validating integrations.

They give the project’s required technology, quality rules, testing sequence, documentation expectations, and development commands in one place.

How sam3690/Hackernews_mcp configures GitHub Copilot

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to sam3690/Hackernews_mcp. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sam3690/Hackernews_mcp/main/.github/copilot-instructions.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sam3690/Hackernews_mcp

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/sam3690/hackernews_mcp/copilot-instructions/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/sam3690/hackernews_mcp/copilot-instructions)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/sam3690/hackernews_mcp/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/sam3690/hackernews_mcp/copilot-instructions/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/sam3690/hackernews_mcp/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/sam3690/hackernews_mcp/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 592 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 592 The same file — it is already loaded in full.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00592	$0.00592
Opus 5.5	$0.00237	$0.00237
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00118	$0.00118
Haiku 4.5	$0.00059	$0.00059

Measured 2mo ago against content hash f2645d59525a, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Hackernews_mcp copilot-instructions.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2mo ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.github/copilot-instructions.md · 62 lines

What it actually says

# hn-mcp-server Development Guidelines

Auto-generated from all feature plans. Last updated: 2025-10-12

**⚠️ IMPORTANT**: All development MUST comply with the project constitution at `.specify/memory/constitution.md`

## Constitution Quick Reference

Before starting any work, review these non-negotiable principles:

1. **Code Quality First**: Zero technical debt, full type safety, linting clean
2. **Test-First Development**: TDD mandatory - tests → approval → fail → implement → pass → refactor
3. **UX Consistency**: Follow MCP naming conventions, consistent parameters, clear error messages
4. **Latest Dependencies**: Always use Context7 MCP to retrieve latest docs before using libraries
5. **Documentation-Driven**: Specs written first, API docs complete, examples provided
6. **Integration Testing**: Real API tests, contract validation, error scenario coverage
7. **Observability**: Structured logging, error context, performance metrics, debug mode

## Active Technologies
- TypeScript 5.7+ with Node.js 20 LTS (strict mode enabled) (001-hackernews-mcp-server)

## Project Structure
```
src/
tests/
```

## Commands
npm test [ONLY COMMANDS FOR ACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES][ONLY COMMANDS FOR ACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES] npm run lint

## Code Style
TypeScript 5.7+ with Node.js 20 LTS (strict mode enabled): Follow standard conventions

**Note**: All code style rules must align with "Code Quality First" principle in constitution.

## Recent Changes
- 001-hackernews-mcp-server: Added TypeScript 5.7+ with Node.js 20 LTS (strict mode enabled)

## Development Workflow (Constitution-Aligned)

1. **Before Starting**: Read feature spec, check constitution compliance requirements
2. **Research Phase**: Use Context7 MCP to retrieve latest docs for any external libraries
3. **Test Phase**: Write tests first, get approval, verify they fail
4. **Implementation**: Write code following quality standards, with observability
5. **Validation**: Run all quality gates (linter, types, tests, coverage)
6. **Documentation**: Update API docs, examples, CHANGELOG
7. **Review**: Complete constitution compliance checklist

## Quality Gates (All Must Pass)

- [ ] Linter clean (zero warnings/errors)
- [ ] Type checker passing (strict mode)
- [ ] Tests passing (unit + integration + contract)
- [ ] Coverage ≥80% (no decrease from baseline)
- [ ] Documentation complete
- [ ] Security audit clean (npm audit / pip-audit)
- [ ] Constitution compliance checklist completed

<!-- MANUAL ADDITIONS START -->
<!-- MANUAL ADDITIONS END -->

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

2mo ago First seen · 62 lines · 592 tokens per session scan A f2645d59525a

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Hackernews_mcp copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository sam3690/Hackernews_mcp (0 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 592 tokens to every session, about $0.0024 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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Hackernews_mcp: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot