search_orgs
Find GitHub organizations by name, location, or other organization metadata. Ideal for discovering companies, open source foundations, or teams.
This record as markdown: /tools/github/search-orgs.md
What search_orgs does on GitHub
AI agents call search_orgs to retrieve information from GitHub 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
page | number | — | Page number for pagination (min 1) |
sort | string | — | Sort field by category |
order | string | — | Sort order |
query | string | — | Organization search query. Examples: 'microsoft', 'location:california', 'created:>=2025-01-01'. Search is automatically scoped to type:org. |
perPage | number | — | Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why search_orgs is rated Low
This tool retrieves and queries publicly available organization metadata without side effects. It performs a search operation similar to GitHub's public organization discovery interface. No data is created, modified, deleted, or executed—only queried. This is a standard Read category tool with low severity since the blast radius of misuse is minimal (discovering organization information that is already public).
From the tool's definition Tool description states 'Find GitHub organizations by name, location, or other organization metadata' - this is a search/discovery operation with no modification or execution capability.
Risk signalsAccepts freeform code/query input (query)
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs search_orgs safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and GitHub, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For search_orgs, this is the rule to start with:
search_orgs 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 GitHub, apply this rule, and every search_orgs call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about search_orgs
Find GitHub organizations by name, location, or other organization metadata. Ideal for discovering companies, open source foundations, or teams. It is categorised as a Read tool in the GitHub MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
search_orgs accepts 5 parameters: page, sort, order, query, perPage. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the GitHub MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_orgs: 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 GitHub. Nothing to install.
search_orgs 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 search_orgs 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 search_orgs. 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.
search_orgs is provided by the GitHub MCP server (oci:ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server:1.3.0). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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