search_people
Search people by name, email, company, title. Returns all statuses. Filter by contactCategory to separate real targets (Lead/Prospect) from known-but-not-a-target relationships (Introducer). Use viewMode:"leader" to read the whole team's records instead of only your own.
This record as markdown: /tools/adrata-starfield-mcp/search-people.md
What search_people does on Starfield
AI agents call search_people to retrieve information from Starfield without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
page | number | — | Page number |
limit | number | — | Results per page (default 25) |
query | string | — | |
status | string | — | LEAD, PROSPECT, CUSTOMER, ACTIVE |
viewMode | string | — | seller = your own records (default). leader = the whole team's records; requires workspace admin. |
companyId | string | — | |
contactCategory | string | — | Lead/Prospect appear in pipeline; Introducer is a known relationship that is deliberately excluded from pipeline. |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why search_people is rated Low
Even though search_people only reads data, uncontrolled read access leaks sensitive information and racks up API costs: an agent caught in a retry loop can make thousands of calls a minute without anyone noticing.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs search_people safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Starfield, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For search_people, this is the rule to start with:
search_people is read-only, so it stays allowed. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect Starfield, apply this rule, and every search_people call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about search_people
Search people by name, email, company, title. Returns all statuses. Filter by contactCategory to separate real targets (Lead/Prospect) from known-but-not-a-target relationships (Introducer). Use viewMode:"leader" to read the whole team's records instead of only your own. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Starfield MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
search_people accepts 7 parameters: page, limit, query, status, viewMode, companyId, contactCategory. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the Starfield MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_people: 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 Starfield. Nothing to install.
search_people 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_people 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_people. 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_people is provided by the Starfield MCP server (@adrata/starfield-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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