hn_comments
Get comments for a story (by story ID or index from last story list)
This record as markdown: /tools/imprvhub-mcp-claude-hackernews/hn-comments.md
What hn_comments does on Hacker News MCP
AI agents call hn_comments to retrieve information from Hacker News MCP 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
story_id | number | — | The ID of the story to get comments for |
story_index | number | — | The index (1-based) of the story from the last fetched list |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why hn_comments is rated Low
This tool retrieves and displays comments from Hacker News stories without any ability to create, modify, delete, or execute operations. It has no side effects and presents minimal risk - the worst case scenario is an AI might retrieve excessive comments or spam requests, which are trivially mitigated by rate limiting. This is a standard read operation.
From the tool's definition Tool is described as 'Get comments for a story' - a retrieval operation with no modification of data. The verb 'Get' and the context of accessing Hacker News content (part of a suite of tools like hn_best, hn_latest, hn_story, hn_top that are all read…
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs hn_comments safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Hacker News MCP, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For hn_comments, this is the rule to start with:
hn_comments 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 Hacker News MCP, apply this rule, and every hn_comments call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about hn_comments
Get comments for a story (by story ID or index from last story list). It is categorised as a Read tool in the Hacker News MCP MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
hn_comments accepts 2 parameters: story_id, story_index. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the Hacker News MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for hn_comments: 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 Hacker News MCP. Nothing to install.
hn_comments 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 hn_comments 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 hn_comments. 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.
hn_comments is provided by the Hacker News MCP server (imprvhub/mcp-claude-hackernews). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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