bhl.literature.search
Search the Biodiversity Heritage Library catalog by keyword across title, author, subject, and publisher fields. BHL is the world's largest open-access library of biodiversity literature — 60M+ pages of digitized natural-history books, journals, and manuscripts from 1469 to the present, all publi...
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What bhl.literature.search does on Apibase
AI agents call bhl.literature.search to retrieve information from Apibase 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 | integer | — | Page number for pagination (default 1) |
limit | integer | — | Number of results per page (1–50, default 10) |
query | string | Yes | Keyword to search for — matches title, author, subject, and publisher fields (e.g. "Darwin birds Galapagos") |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why bhl.literature.search is rated Low
Searches a public-access library catalog with no side effects or data modification capabilities.
From the tool's definition Search the Biodiversity Heritage Library catalog by keyword, returns item IDs, titles, authors, URLs.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs bhl.literature.search safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Apibase, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For bhl.literature.search, this is the rule to start with:
bhl.literature.search 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 Apibase, apply this rule, and every bhl.literature.search call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about bhl.literature.search
Search the Biodiversity Heritage Library catalog by keyword across title, author, subject, and publisher fields. BHL is the world's largest open-access library of biodiversity literature — 60M+ pages of digitized natural-history books, journals, and manuscripts from 1469 to the present, all public domain. Returns item and title IDs, full title, authors, publisher, publication date, genre, and direct URLs to the digitized item and bibliography page. Use bhl.literature.fulltext to search within the scanned text of publications. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Apibase MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
bhl.literature.search accepts 3 parameters: page, limit, query. Required: query. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the Apibase MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for bhl.literature.search: 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 Apibase. Nothing to install.
bhl.literature.search 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 bhl.literature.search 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 bhl.literature.search. 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.
bhl.literature.search is provided by the Apibase MCP server (apibase-mcp-client). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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