Analyze the comment tree of a post for engagement patterns and statistics
AI agents call search_comments to retrieve information from HackerNews 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 and examines comment data from an existing post to compute statistics. It does not create, modify, delete, or execute external operations. The ability to search and analyze public content represents a Read operation with minimal risk (low severity) since HackerNews comment data is publicly available and analysis poses no security or privacy concerns beyond those inherent to accessing public…
From the tool's definition Tool description states it 'Analyze[s] the comment tree of a post' which is a retrieval and analysis operation with no data modification.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access search_comments gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and HackerNews MCP Server, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for search_comments:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"search_comments": {}
}
}search_comments is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
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Analyze the comment tree of a post for engagement patterns and statistics. It is categorised as a Read tool in the HackerNews MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the HackerNews MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_comments: 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 HackerNews MCP Server. Nothing to install.
search_comments 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 search_comments 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 search_comments. 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.
search_comments is provided by the HackerNews MCP Server MCP server (traves-theberge/hackernews-mcp-typescript). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Start from HackerNews 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.
6 HackerNews MCP Server tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.