getAirQuality
Returns the Air Quality Index plus CO, NO2, O3, SO2, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations for a location. Requires a city or lat/lon; state and country disambiguate city names.
This record as markdown: /tools/com-api-ninjas-mcp/getairquality.md
What getAirQuality does on API Ninjas
AI agents call getAirQuality to retrieve information from API Ninjas without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
lat | string | Yes | Latitude of desired location. |
lon | string | Yes | Longitude of desired location. |
city | string | Yes | City name. |
state | string | — | US state (for United States cities only). |
country | string | — | Country name. |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why getAirQuality is rated Low
Even though getAirQuality only reads data, uncontrolled read access leaks sensitive information and racks up API costs: an agent caught in a retry loop can make thousands of calls a minute without anyone noticing.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs getAirQuality safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and API Ninjas, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For getAirQuality, this is the rule to start with:
getAirQuality is read-only, so it stays allowed. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect API Ninjas, apply this rule, and every getAirQuality call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about getAirQuality
Returns the Air Quality Index plus CO, NO2, O3, SO2, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations for a location. Requires a city or lat/lon; state and country disambiguate city names. It is categorised as a Read tool in the API Ninjas MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
getAirQuality accepts 5 parameters: lat, lon, city, state, country. Required: lat, lon, city. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the API Ninjas MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for getAirQuality: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches API Ninjas. Nothing to install.
getAirQuality is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the getAirQuality rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for getAirQuality. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
getAirQuality is provided by the API Ninjas MCP server (https://mcp.api-ninjas.com/mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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