hn_top

Get the top-ranked stories from Hacker News

SERVERHacker News MCP SOURCEimprvhub/mcp-claude-hackernews

Low RISK CLASS

Category Read

Parameters 10 required

Recommended Allowedsee the rule below

Registry record Grade A, identity unverified Pull the record →

This record as markdown: /tools/imprvhub-mcp-claude-hackernews/hn-top.md

WHAT IT DOES

What hn_top does on Hacker News MCP

AI agents call hn_top 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
`limit`	number	—	Number of stories to fetch (1-50, default: 10)

Parameters from the server's own tool schema.

RISK

Why hn_top is rated Low

This tool retrieves publicly available Hacker News data without modifying, deleting, or executing anything. The operation is read-only with no blast radius if misused by an AI agent — at worst, it returns content that is already public. No authentication, destructive, financial, or code execution risk is present.

From the tool's definition Tool description states 'Get the top-ranked stories from Hacker News' — a retrieval operation with no side effects. Sibling tools (hn_best, hn_comments, hn_latest, hn_story) are all read-only query operations.

Attacks that exploit this kind of access

RECOMMENDED RULE

The rule that runs hn_top 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_top, this is the rule to start with:

hn_top Allowed

hn_top is read-only, so it stays allowed. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.

View as policy code

policy.json

{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "hn_top": {}
  }
}

ALLOW ONLY THIS TOOL → Instant setup, no code required.

The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect Hacker News MCP, apply this rule, and every hn_top call is checked against it from then on.

FAQ

Questions about hn_top

What does the hn_top tool do? +

Get the top-ranked stories from Hacker News. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Hacker News MCP MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.

What parameters does hn_top accept? +

hn_top accepts 1 parameter: limit. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.

How do I enforce a policy on hn_top? +

Register the Hacker News MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for hn_top: 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.

What risk level is hn_top? +

hn_top is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.

Can I rate-limit hn_top? +

Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the hn_top 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.

How do I block hn_top completely? +

Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for hn_top. 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.

What MCP server provides hn_top? +

hn_top 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.

KEEP EXPLORING

More on Hacker News, and thousands of servers like it.

This server

All 5 Hacker News tools →

Across the catalogue

The MCP Attack Database →

Guides

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