lookup_hn
Get Hacker News top stories or a specific story by id (title, points, comments, author). Use for trend monitoring or HN-launch analysis. Pass 'top' for the front page. Example call: {"story_or_top": "top"} Cost: $0.005–$0.05 USDC on Base per call.
This record as markdown: /tools/io-github-colinhughes2121-gocreative-agent-api/lookup-hn.md
What lookup_hn does on GoCreative Agent API
AI agents call lookup_hn to retrieve information from GoCreative Agent API 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_or_top | string | Yes |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why lookup_hn is rated Low
This tool retrieves public Hacker News data (story metadata: title, points, comments, author). It has no write, execute, or destructive capabilities. The cost structure ($0.005–$0.05 per call) reflects a read-only API lookup. Even if an AI agent misuses it, the blast radius is minimal — it can only fetch publicly available information. Classified as Read with low severity.
From the tool's definition Tool description states 'Get Hacker News top stories or a specific story by id (title, points, comments, author)' — purely retrieval operations with no modification capability. Example call passes 'top' for front page, indicating query-only behavior.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs lookup_hn safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and GoCreative Agent API, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For lookup_hn, this is the rule to start with:
lookup_hn 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 GoCreative Agent API, apply this rule, and every lookup_hn call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about lookup_hn
Get Hacker News top stories or a specific story by id (title, points, comments, author). Use for trend monitoring or HN-launch analysis. Pass 'top' for the front page. Example call: {"story_or_top": "top"} Cost: $0.005–$0.05 USDC on Base per call. It is categorised as a Read tool in the GoCreative Agent API MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
lookup_hn accepts 1 parameter: story_or_top. Required: story_or_top. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the GoCreative Agent API MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for lookup_hn: 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 GoCreative Agent API. Nothing to install.
lookup_hn 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 lookup_hn 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 lookup_hn. 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.
lookup_hn is provided by the GoCreative Agent API MCP server (https://api.gocreativeai.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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