Retrieves and formats current market status and next open/close times.
AI agents call get_market_clock to retrieve information from Alpaca MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool retrieves market timing information (current status, next open/close times) with no side effects. It is a read-only operation that queries public market data. Given the broader server context involves financial trading operations, even read access warrants attention, but this specific tool poses minimal risk as it only provides market clock information used for informational purposes.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'get_market_clock' and description 'Retrieves and formats current market status and next open/close times' indicate a query operation that fetches market status information without modifying data or executing transactions.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Retrieves and formats current market status and next open/close times. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Alpaca MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Alpaca MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for get_market_clock: 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 Alpaca MCP Server. Nothing to install.
get_market_clock 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 get_market_clock 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 get_market_clock. 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.
get_market_clock is provided by the Alpaca MCP Server MCP server (metachain-org/alpaca-mcp-server). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Every MCP server has a record like this.
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