list_allowed_directories

What list_allowed_directories does on Cowork Bench

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

Why list_allowed_directories is rated Low

This tool performs a read-only query to retrieve directory access permissions. It retrieves information about what the server can access but does not create, modify, delete, or execute anything. The blast radius is minimal—the AI learns about permitted directories but cannot harm data or systems with this knowledge alone. This is a pure information retrieval operation with no capability to alter state.

From the tool's definition Tool name 'list_allowed_directories' and description 'Returns the list of directories that this server is allowed to access' indicates a query operation that retrieves configuration/permission data with no side effects.

The rule that runs list_allowed_directories safely

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

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

Questions about list_allowed_directories