kill_process
Terminate a process by PID. Uses SIGTERM by default (graceful). SIGKILL requires confirmed=true. System processes are protected.
This record as markdown: /tools/7majesty-m-terminal-guardian-mcp/kill-process.md
What kill_process does on Terminal Guardian
AI agents call kill_process to permanently remove resources in Terminal Guardian, typically in cleanup and lifecycle workflows. It does its job in a single call, and there is no undo.
Why kill_process is rated Critical
Killing a process is irreversible — once terminated, any unsaved state, in-flight work, or transient data is lost and cannot be recovered. SIGKILL is especially destructive as it bypasses graceful shutdown handlers. Even SIGTERM can cause data loss or service disruption. The blast radius is high because misuse could terminate critical application or infrastructure processes, causing outages.
From the tool's definition Terminate a process by PID... SIGKILL requires confirmed=true. System processes are protected.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs kill_process safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Terminal Guardian, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For kill_process, this is the rule to start with:
kill_process is removed from the agent's tool list entirely, so the agent never calls it. The rest of the server keeps working.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect Terminal Guardian, apply this rule, and every kill_process call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about kill_process
Terminate a process by PID. Uses SIGTERM by default (graceful). SIGKILL requires confirmed=true. System processes are protected. It is categorised as a Destructive tool in the Terminal Guardian MCP Server, which means it can permanently delete or destroy data. Block by default and require explicit approval.
Register the Terminal Guardian MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for kill_process: 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 Terminal Guardian. Nothing to install.
kill_process is a Destructive tool with critical risk. Critical-risk tools should be blocked by default and only enabled with explicit human approval.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the kill_process 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 kill_process. 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.
kill_process is provided by the Terminal Guardian MCP server (7majesty-m/terminal-guardian-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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