Search the web, fact-check claims, compare items, or conduct deep research. Actions:
AI agents call web_research to retrieve information from Claude Flow without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
The tool retrieves and queries external web data with no side effects mentioned. However, severity is elevated to medium rather than low because web search can expose sensitive information, cause unintended information disclosure, or be used for reconnaissance in an agent context where external data fetching is uncontrolled.
From the tool's definition Tool description states 'Search the web, fact-check claims, compare items, or conduct deep research'—all read-only operations that retrieve information without modification.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Search the web, fact-check claims, compare items, or conduct deep research. Actions:. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Claude Flow MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Claude Flow MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for web_research: 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 Claude Flow. Nothing to install.
web_research 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 web_research 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 web_research. 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.
web_research is provided by the Claude Flow MCP server (claude-flow). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.