Get top stories from Hacker News (Firebase API). Returns title, score, URL, author, comment count. Optional: limit (default 30).
AI agents call intel_hacker_news to retrieve information from Threat Intelligence MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool queries public Hacker News data and returns read-only information. It has no capability to modify data, execute code, delete content, or perform any side effects. The retrieval of news stories is a pure data fetch operation with no blast radius risk even if an AI agent misuses it by requesting irrelevant stories, as it cannot harm systems or data.
From the tool's definition Tool retrieves 'top stories from Hacker News' and returns 'title, score, URL, author, comment count' with an optional limit parameter. No modification, deletion, or execution capability is described.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access intel_hacker_news gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and Threat Intelligence MCP Server, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for intel_hacker_news:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"intel_hacker_news": {}
}
}intel_hacker_news is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
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Get top stories from Hacker News (Firebase API). Returns title, score, URL, author, comment count. Optional: limit (default 30). It is categorised as a Read tool in the Threat Intelligence MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Threat Intelligence MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for intel_hacker_news: 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 Threat Intelligence MCP Server. Nothing to install.
intel_hacker_news 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 intel_hacker_news 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 intel_hacker_news. 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.
intel_hacker_news is provided by the Threat Intelligence MCP Server MCP server (marc-shade/world-intel-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Start from Threat Intelligence MCP Server, add the rest of your stack, and see everything your agents can call. Then put policy on all of it.
Free to start. No card required.
113 Threat Intelligence MCP Server tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.