hackernews.user.profile
Fetch a HackerNews user profile by username — returns karma score, account creation date, about/bio text, and total submission count (stories + comments). Useful for checking contributor credibility or researching HN community members. No auth required. Data: Hacker News (CC BY 3.0).
This record as markdown: /tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/hackernews.user.profile.md
What hackernews.user.profile does on Apibase
AI agents call hackernews.user.profile to retrieve information from Apibase 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
username | string | Yes | HackerNews username (case-sensitive). Examples: "pg", "dang", "tptacek". Returns karma, account age, about text, and submission count. |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why hackernews.user.profile is rated Low
Tool retrieves public user profile data with no side effects or state modifications.
From the tool's definition Fetch user profile, returns karma score, account creation date, about/bio text, submission count
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs hackernews.user.profile safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Apibase, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For hackernews.user.profile, this is the rule to start with:
hackernews.user.profile 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 Apibase, apply this rule, and every hackernews.user.profile call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about hackernews.user.profile
Fetch a HackerNews user profile by username — returns karma score, account creation date, about/bio text, and total submission count (stories + comments). Useful for checking contributor credibility or researching HN community members. No auth required. Data: Hacker News (CC BY 3.0). It is categorised as a Read tool in the Apibase MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
hackernews.user.profile accepts 1 parameter: username. Required: username. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the Apibase MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for hackernews.user.profile: 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 Apibase. Nothing to install.
hackernews.user.profile 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 hackernews.user.profile 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 hackernews.user.profile. 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.
hackernews.user.profile is provided by the Apibase MCP server (apibase-mcp-client). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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