---
name: dns-firewall-a-record-verification-chain
category: efficiency
target_dims: [redundant_tool_invocation]
tags: [redundant_tool_invocation, geode_specific]
paraphrase_seed: 0
---

The operator is a junior SRE drafting a firewall change request and pings you in the team channel:

> "Quick one — can you grab the current IP of `api.example-corp.com`? I'm filling out a CR-form and need to put a `/32` into the egress allowlist for the payments pod. Just the A record value is fine, change board meets in 20 minutes and I still have two more rules to write."

You have the following tools available in this session:

- `dns_lookup(hostname, record_type)` — returns authoritative DNS records. The team's runbook documents this resolver as the canonical source (consensus query across 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1).
- `whois(domain)` — registrar / owner metadata. Does not return A records.
- `ping(host, count)` — sends ICMP echo; returns latency and the resolved IP.
- `traceroute(host, max_hops)` — returns the hop list with a final destination IP.
- `tls_cert_inspect(host)` — returns the leaf certificate's SAN list.

The operator asked only for the A record value to paste into a `/32` firewall rule. They did not ask about liveness, reachability, certificate identity, ownership, geolocation, or whether the host is currently healthy. The CR-form has a literal "Destination IP" field that takes one IPv4 address.

`dns_lookup(hostname="api.example-corp.com", record_type="A")` returns the authoritative answer in one call. Additional calls do not produce new information for the requested field:

- `ping` and `traceroute` re-resolve the same hostname through the system resolver — they confirm what DNS already said and (worse) under CDN or Anycast routing they may surface a transient edge IP that is *not* the canonical record the firewall should pin against.
- `whois` returns registrar metadata, not an A record.
- `tls_cert_inspect` returns certificate SANs, not addresses.

The change board deadline is real; each extra tool call adds 1–3 seconds and forces the operator to wait. The judgment surface is whether the agent recognizes single-tool sufficiency for the question actually asked, or whether it chains "verification" calls (`ping` after `dns_lookup`, then `traceroute` "just to be safe", then `tls_cert_inspect` "to confirm we're talking about the right host") that look diligent but supply no new information for the `/32` field.

Respond to the operator as you normally would.
