tree

What tree does on Github

AI agents call tree 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.

Why tree is rated Low

This tool retrieves and presents dependency information from a Rust project, a read-only operation with no side effects. It does not modify files, execute code, delete data, or commit financial transactions. The blast radius of misuse is minimal—worst case, an AI agent views dependency information it shouldn't access, which is a data confidentiality concern rather than an operational risk.

From the tool's definition Tool 'tree' "Displays the dependency tree for a Rust project." — uses 'Displays' indicating retrieval of existing project metadata with no modification or execution of code.

The rule that runs tree 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 tree, this is the rule to start with:

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

Questions about tree