High Risk →

publish

Runs dotnet publish for deployment and returns structured output with output path and diagnostics.

How to control publish ↓

What publish does on Http

AI agents invoke publish to trigger actions in Http. 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.

High Risk

Why publish needs a policy

The tool actively executes a dotnet CLI command (dotnet publish), which compiles source code, writes deployment artifacts to disk, and may trigger deployment pipelines. This is an Execute-category action. Severity is high because misuse could deploy malicious or broken builds, overwrite production artifacts, or trigger unintended deployments.

From the tool's definition 'Runs dotnet publish for deployment' — executes a build/publish pipeline command with side effects including compiling code, writing output artifacts, and triggering deployment-related operations.

Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access publish gives an agent:

How to control publish

PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and Http, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for publish:

policy.json
{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "publish": {
      "limits": [
        {
          "counter": "publish_rate",
          "window": "minute",
          "max": 10,
          "scope": "grant"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

publish 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.

  1. Create a free account and register Http — nothing to install.
  2. Add this policy — paste it, or build it visually.
  3. Point your MCP client (Claude, Cursor, anything) at your gateway URL.
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Related tools and policies

Go deeper

Questions about publish

What does the publish tool do? +

Runs dotnet publish for deployment and returns structured output with output path and diagnostics. It is categorised as a Execute tool in the Http MCP Server, which means it can trigger actions or run processes. Use rate limits and argument validation.

How do I enforce a policy on publish? +

Register the Http MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for publish: 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 Http. Nothing to install.

What risk level is publish? +

publish is a Execute tool with high risk. Execute tools should be rate-limited and have argument validation enabled.

Can I rate-limit publish? +

Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the publish 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.

How do I block publish completely? +

Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for publish. 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.

What MCP server provides publish? +

publish is provided by the Http MCP server (@paretools/http). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.

Enforce policy on every Http tool call.

Start from Http, add the rest of your stack, and see everything your agents can call. Then put policy on all of it.

Free to start. No card required.

202 Http tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.

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