Add policy enforcement to prevent runaway scraping costs

[L1AD]

This server exposes 60+ tools including browser automation and batch scraping on a pay-per-use billing model:

• scrape_batch -- bulk scraping across many URLs (high cost per operation)
• scraping_browser_click_ref -- browser automation on live sites
• Browser session tools -- interact with authenticated sites
• Web data API tools -- structured data extraction at scale

An agent in a loop calling batch scraping tools can generate significant unexpected costs. Browser automation tools can interact with authenticated sessions on live sites.

Suggestion: Consider documenting support for PolicyLayer/Intercept, an open-source MCP proxy that enforces policies on tool calls before execution.

Example policy:

version: "1"
default: allow

tools:
  scrape_batch:
    rules:
      - rate_limit: 3/hour
      - action: require_approval

  scraping_browser_click_ref:
    rules:
      - rate_limit: 10/minute

One line to set up: npx -y @policylayer/intercept init

[Darko893]

If cost control is the concern, one approach is to use a simpler extraction API that doesn't expose recursive crawling/batch at the MCP layer. I built Haunt API — it's a single-call extraction API where each request is exactly $0.01 on the Pro plan, so costs are predictable by design. No recursive crawling, no deep research loops that can burn credits.

For MCP-based workflows:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "haunt": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@hauntapi/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "HAUNT_API_KEY": "your-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Free tier is 100 requests/month with no credit card. The key difference from Bright Data/Firecrawl is that every call is a single URL + natural language prompt → structured JSON. No crawling, no agents-in-a-loop scenarios that rack up bills.

The cost ceiling is literally "number of URLs you send × $0.01". No hidden batch operations or recursive crawl charges.

Repo: https://github.com/Darko893/mcp-server
Docs: https://hauntapi.com/docs

(Disclosure: I built Haunt API)