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Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

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Re: Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

#11

The application-level visibility point matches my experience. I removed an MCP server a while back because its tool descriptions quietly told the agent to prefer it as the primary search tool over the built-in one. Not a vulnerability, no leaked secrets, just the vendor steering agent behavior in a way you only notice if you read the raw tool definitions. Does mcp-xray flag that kind of prompt-level steering in tool…

That's a great example. It's exactly the kind of behavior we think deserves more attention. It's not a traditional vulnerability but it can significantly influence an agent's decision-making.

Today, mcp-xray (https://github.com/traceforce/mcp-xray) can be used to dynamically (not just statically) test against your MCPs. It can detect security vulnerabilities such as code execution, SSRF, path traversal, authorization bypass, input injection, DoS etc. You can find us at demo labs during DEF CON this year. That said, we think behavioral influence is an important problem and it's an area we're interested in exploring next.

Re: Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

#12
post #11

The application-level visibility point matches my experience. I removed an MCP server a while back because its tool descriptions quietly told the agent to prefer it as the primary search tool over the built-in one. Not a vulnerability, no leaked secrets, just the vendor steering agent behavior in a way you only notice if you read the raw tool definitions. Does mcp-xray flag that kind of prompt-level steering in tool…

That's a great example. It's exactly the kind of behavior we think deserves more attention. It's not a traditional vulnerability but it can significantly influence an agent's decision-making. Today, mcp-xray ( https://github.com/traceforce/mcp-xray ) can be used to dynamically (not just statically) test against your MCPs. It can detect security vulnerabilities such as code execution, SSRF, path traversal, authorizati…

I work at Speakeasy where we do a similar thing with the AI control plane (https://www.speakeasy.com/product/ai-control-plane), and we just rolled out on-device agents for the same reason.

I think the point a few people are making is right that its not sufficient to be the best at one layer like the device endpoint. AI governance needs to be coordinated over a number of surfaces. We started with an MCP gateway and drilled down to on-device agents. I imagine you might end up doing the same the other way around.

Re: Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

#13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great example. It's exactly the kind of behavior we think deserves more attention. It's not a traditional vulnerability but it can significantly influence an agent's decision-making. Today, mcp-xray ( https://github.com/traceforce/mcp-xray ) can be used to dynamically (not just statically) test against your MCPs. It can detect security vulnerabilities such as code execution, SSRF, path traversal, authorizati…

I work at Speakeasy where we do a similar thing with the AI control plane ( https://www.speakeasy.com/product/ai-control-plane ), and we just rolled out on-device agents for the same reason. I think the point a few people are making is right that its not sufficient to be the best at one layer like the device endpoint. AI governance needs to be coordinated over a number of surfaces. We started with an MCP gateway and…

Yes you are spot on! On-device agents can only do so much. We integrate with popular gateways such as Kong to bring MCP controls. We primarily manage the registries for MCPs with vulnerabilities that gateway companies don't do today.

Re: Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

#16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great example. It's exactly the kind of behavior we think deserves more attention. It's not a traditional vulnerability but it can significantly influence an agent's decision-making. Today, mcp-xray ( https://github.com/traceforce/mcp-xray ) can be used to dynamically (not just statically) test against your MCPs. It can detect security vulnerabilities such as code execution, SSRF, path traversal, authorizati…

I work at Speakeasy where we do a similar thing with the AI control plane ( https://www.speakeasy.com/product/ai-control-plane ), and we just rolled out on-device agents for the same reason. I think the point a few people are making is right that its not sufficient to be the best at one layer like the device endpoint. AI governance needs to be coordinated over a number of surfaces. We started with an MCP gateway and…

oh and to add on this, MCP gateways work mostly with remote MCPs only. For the stdio ones, we still need local agents to take care of the controls.

Re: Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

#17
The tricky part here is not just spotting AI apps running on endpoints, but understanding how those AI tools interact with multiple cloud MCPs in real time - and what risks emerge from those connections. We built LynxTrac's endpoint security to track deep app behavior and config changes, including registry and network activity, but connecting that to AI-driven MCP calls was a missing piece.

Traceforce's approach to building a live connectivity graph between AI apps and MCPs is exactly the kind of visibility traditional EDRs miss. We've seen that standard EDR alerts can't flag API key leakage or risky AI-generated commands without that context. For instance, LynxTrac's file integrity monitoring and CVE scanning catch suspicious changes, but without a way to tie AI actions to those changes, it's hard to tell if an AI assistant just triggered a destructive script.

I'm curious how your pentesting tool handles the frequent updates in AI app behaviors and MCP APIs without overwhelming false positives? We've struggled with tuning automated alerts that map to MITRE ATT&CK tactics in an environment where AI tooling itself evolves weekly. Also, how do you balance local content inspection for privacy while enabling enough control to block risky AI commands before they hit production?

Your "warn and acknowledge" flow sounds smart - it aligns with what we see customers want: guardrails, not blockers, so devs don't feel slowed down. We recently added AI-driven incident summaries to LynxTrac to help teams triage alerts faster without digging through logs. Wondering if you've tried AI-assisted analysis on your MCP pentest results to speed up identifying real risks?

Would be great to hear more about how you maintain coverage on changing AI/MCP combos without constant manual tuning. If you're curious, I can share how we balance automation and manual policy updates to keep noise low while catching real threats.

Re: Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

#18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at Speakeasy where we do a similar thing with the AI control plane ( https://www.speakeasy.com/product/ai-control-plane ), and we just rolled out on-device agents for the same reason. I think the point a few people are making is right that its not sufficient to be the best at one layer like the device endpoint. AI governance needs to be coordinated over a number of surfaces. We started with an MCP gateway and…

oh and to add on this, MCP gateways work mostly with remote MCPs only. For the stdio ones, we still need local agents to take care of the controls.

Wrote a bit more about our remote MCP approach here

https://x.com/sagar_batchu/status/2077800956817743927?s=46&t...

Re: Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

#19
post #17

The tricky part here is not just spotting AI apps running on endpoints, but understanding how those AI tools interact with multiple cloud MCPs in real time - and what risks emerge from those connections. We built LynxTrac's endpoint security to track deep app behavior and config changes, including registry and network activity, but connecting that to AI-driven MCP calls was a missing piece. Traceforce's approach to b…

I'm curious how your pentesting tool handles the frequent updates in AI app behaviors and MCP APIs without overwhelming false positives?

---> Our pentest tool has a "secret" step called verification. We run a second agent to verify all the findings are "real". We have a built some pretty complex backend harness on top of our open-source mcp-xray to automate testing. If you are at the DEF CON this year, come to our demo labs and we can chat more.

Would be great to hear more about how you maintain coverage on changing AI/MCP combos without constant manual tuning. ---> It's very hard to be honest. We use agents everywhere but manual tuning is still needed.

Re: Launch HN: Traceforce (YC S26) – Company-wide security monitoring for AI apps

#20
post #17

The tricky part here is not just spotting AI apps running on endpoints, but understanding how those AI tools interact with multiple cloud MCPs in real time - and what risks emerge from those connections. We built LynxTrac's endpoint security to track deep app behavior and config changes, including registry and network activity, but connecting that to AI-driven MCP calls was a missing piece. Traceforce's approach to b…

How many times can you drop your company's name is a supposed comment? Maybe reach out directly and spare us the fake commentary?
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