AI agents invoke focus_presentation to trigger actions in Propresenter. What it does depends on the arguments the agent supplies, and its effects often reach beyond the immediate call — builds kicked off, notifications sent, workflows started.
Focusing a presentation in ProPresenter is an external operation that changes the application's state (which presentation is in focus), but does not display/trigger content. It triggers an action in an external application (ProPresenter 7), making it Execute rather than Read or Write. Severity is low as it only changes focus state without displaying content.
From the tool's definition Focus a presentation without triggering it
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access focus_presentation gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and Propresenter, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for focus_presentation:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"focus_presentation": {
"limits": [
{
"counter": "focus_presentation_rate",
"window": "minute",
"max": 10,
"scope": "grant"
}
]
}
}
}focus_presentation stays usable, but rate-capped — a runaway agent can't fire it dozens of times a minute. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
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Focus a presentation without triggering it. It is categorised as a Execute tool in the Propresenter MCP Server, which means it can trigger actions or run processes. Use rate limits and argument validation.
Register the Propresenter MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for focus_presentation: 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 Propresenter. Nothing to install.
focus_presentation is a Execute tool with high risk. Execute tools should be rate-limited and have argument validation enabled.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the focus_presentation 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 focus_presentation. 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.
focus_presentation is provided by the Propresenter MCP server (@alxpark/propresenter-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Start from Propresenter, add the rest of your stack, and see everything your agents can call. Then put policy on all of it.
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177 Propresenter tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.