list_policies

What list_policies does on AWS

AI agents call list_policies to retrieve information from AWS without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.

Why list_policies is rated Low

The 'list_policies' tool retrieves or enumerates IAM policies. Despite the empty description creating some ambiguity, the tool name itself is explicitly a 'list' operation, which is a read-only action with no modification or deletion of data. Context from sibling tools (attach_user_policy, attach_group_policy) confirms this is part of an IAM management suite.

From the tool's definition Tool name 'list_policies' and its AWS service context indicate a query operation. The naming convention follows standard AWS read patterns (list_*). No description provided to confirm side effects.

The rule that runs list_policies safely

PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and AWS, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For list_policies, this is the rule to start with:

{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "list_policies": {}
  }
}

Questions about list_policies