award_badge
Award a badge by hand to a participant (an alias when the server pseudonymizes), as one of the roles its manual criterion names (roleId when the person holds several). The badge must be enabled and have a manual criterion. Moodle issues it at once when the manual award is enough, else once the re...
This record as markdown: /tools/falkenslab-moodle-mcp/award-badge.md
What award_badge does on Moodle
AI agents use award_badge to create or update resources in Moodle, usually the action step of a workflow, after the agent has gathered context. Every call changes real data in your Moodle environment.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
user | string | — | The participant's alias, as the reading tools give it when the server pseudonymizes |
roleId | integer | — | The role to award it as |
userId | integer | — | The participant's user id, when the server shows names |
badgeId | integer | Yes | The badge's id, as list_badges gives it |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why award_badge is rated Medium
An AI agent can call award_badge faster than any human can review: one bad instruction and it creates or modifies resources in Moodle by the hundred, each call as confident as the last.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs award_badge safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Moodle, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For award_badge, this is the rule to start with:
award_badge stays usable, but capped: an agent stuck in a loop can't make hundreds of changes a minute. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect Moodle, apply this rule, and every award_badge call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about award_badge
Award a badge by hand to a participant (an alias when the server pseudonymizes), as one of the roles its manual criterion names (roleId when the person holds several). The badge must be enabled and have a manual criterion. Moodle issues it at once when the manual award is enough, else once the rest of its criteria are met. The participant is told: confirm with the person first. Returns the badge. It is categorised as a Write tool in the Moodle MCP Server, which means it can create or modify data. Consider rate limits to prevent runaway writes.
award_badge accepts 4 parameters: user, roleId, userId, badgeId. Required: badgeId. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the Moodle MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for award_badge: 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 Moodle. Nothing to install.
award_badge is a Write tool with medium risk. Write tools should be rate-limited to prevent accidental bulk modifications.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the award_badge 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 award_badge. 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.
award_badge is provided by the Moodle MCP server (@falkenslab/moodle-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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