list_skills
List the 10 senior-QS skill methodologies CivilQuants exposes (tender review, risk assessment, QS measurement/contract advice, geotechnical + geo-environmental interpretation, earthworks, preliminaries, pavement design, subcontract analysis). Universal discovery — both tiers see the full list. Re...
This record as markdown: /tools/com-civilquants-civilquants/list-skills.md
What list_skills does on Civilquants
AI agents call list_skills to retrieve information from Civilquants without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
Why list_skills is rated Low
This tool performs information discovery and retrieval only. It lists available skills with metadata (slug, title, summary, tier) but does not execute code, modify data, delete data, move money, or trigger external operations. The 'NOTE' about document-heavy skills needing a code-execution client indicates that execution happens elsewhere (via get_skill), not in list_skills itself.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'list_skills' and description 'List the 10 senior-QS skill methodologies... Returns each skill's slug, title, one-line summary and tier' — a retrieval operation that enumerates available methodologies without modification or execution.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs list_skills safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Civilquants, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For list_skills, this is the rule to start with:
list_skills 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 Civilquants, apply this rule, and every list_skills call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about list_skills
List the 10 senior-QS skill methodologies CivilQuants exposes (tender review, risk assessment, QS measurement/contract advice, geotechnical + geo-environmental interpretation, earthworks, preliminaries, pavement design, subcontract analysis). Universal discovery — both tiers see the full list. Returns each skill's slug, title, one-line summary and tier; then call get_skill(skill=<slug>) to fetch the methodology body. The skills are paid-tier; a free caller gets a sign-up prompt from get_skill. NOTE: the document-heavy skills (tender review, the interpretation skills) need a code-execution client (Claude Code / Codex / VS Code) plus the chunking pack from get_document_pipeline to run a real tender pack — on a chat connector you can read the methodology but cannot chunk/parse files. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Civilquants MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Civilquants MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for list_skills: 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 Civilquants. Nothing to install.
list_skills 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_skills 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_skills. 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_skills is provided by the Civilquants MCP server (https://api.civilquants.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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