list_guides
List the bicycle.guide registry — every guide's home, status, access, standard, syndication and grounding, plus the distribution roll-up (including guides homed to a property with no rendering surface).
This record as markdown: /tools/com-aiengineerprofessional-guide-registry/list-guides.md
What list_guides does on Guide Registry
AI agents call list_guides to retrieve information from Guide Registry 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
home | string | — | Filter by owning property, e.g. jobframe, peopleanalyst, penwright. |
limit | number | — | Cap the rows returned. Default 100, max 500. |
access | string | — | Filter by access: free | gated. |
domain | string | — | Filter by life-domain — the layer ABOVE the subject shelf: work | life | play. Derived from the guide's category via content/registry/shelves.json. `rollup.by_d |
fields | string | — | Row shape. "compact" returns only slug/title/home/status/access/price_cents/has_artifact/category/domain/personas/canonical_url — no rollup, no registry_meta. " |
series | string | — | Filter by guide series — the operational grouping of guides made to be used together, e.g. competencies, penwright-writing, startup-journey, ladder:hr-business- |
status | string | — | Filter by status: on | draft. |
persona | string | — | Filter by the audience a guide serves, e.g. people-analytics-professional, aspiring-author, executive-performance-leader. A guide can serve several; this matche |
category | string | — | Filter by subject shelf — the reader-facing topic axis, e.g. field, skills, analytics, writing, comp. Matches the primary category OR a cross-shelf tag. |
standard | string | — | Filter by standard: bicycle | life-stage | problem-opportunity. |
guide_type | string | — | Filter by guide CLASS: career (level-based job guides, their own program) | capability | book_profile. Combine with series=ladder:<role> to get one role's whole |
has_artifact | boolean | — | Only guides that do (true) / do not (false) have a new-design artifact. |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why list_guides is rated Low
Even though list_guides 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.
Risk signalsHigh parameter count (13 properties) · Bulk/mass operation — affects multiple targets
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs list_guides safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Guide Registry, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For list_guides, this is the rule to start with:
list_guides 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 Guide Registry, apply this rule, and every list_guides call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about list_guides
List the bicycle.guide registry — every guide's home, status, access, standard, syndication and grounding, plus the distribution roll-up (including guides homed to a property with no rendering surface). It is categorised as a Read tool in the Guide Registry MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
list_guides accepts 12 parameters: home, limit, access, domain, fields, series, status, persona, category, standard, guide_type, has_artifact. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the Guide Registry MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for list_guides: 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 Guide Registry. Nothing to install.
list_guides 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 list_guides 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 list_guides. 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.
list_guides is provided by the Guide Registry MCP server (https://aiengineerprofessional.com/mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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