get_activities_overview
Moodle's activities overview of a course, as the person sees it: per activity, its columns (due date, submissions, what needs grading, attempts, the person's own grade, forum subscriptions…), by type or for every type in the course. For a teacher, the quickest way to see what's waiting to be grad...
This record as markdown: /tools/falkenslab-moodle-mcp/get-activities-overview.md
What get_activities_overview does on Moodle
AI agents call get_activities_overview to retrieve information from Moodle 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
type | string | — | One activity type (assign, quiz, forum…; "resource" for every resource type); every type when missing |
courseId | integer | Yes | The course's id, from list_courses |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why get_activities_overview is rated Low
Even though get_activities_overview 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 signalsBulk/mass operation — affects multiple targets
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs get_activities_overview 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 get_activities_overview, this is the rule to start with:
get_activities_overview 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 Moodle, apply this rule, and every get_activities_overview call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about get_activities_overview
Moodle's activities overview of a course, as the person sees it: per activity, its columns (due date, submissions, what needs grading, attempts, the person's own grade, forum subscriptions…), by type or for every type in the course. For a teacher, the quickest way to see what's waiting to be graded (alert "Needs grading"); for a student, what's due and their results. Moodle 5 and later. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Moodle MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
get_activities_overview accepts 2 parameters: type, courseId. Required: courseId. 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 get_activities_overview: 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.
get_activities_overview 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 get_activities_overview 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 get_activities_overview. 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.
get_activities_overview 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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