List all known agents with presence (online if seen < 60s ago) and current activity.
AI agents call list_agents to retrieve information from Mcp Switchboard without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool queries and returns information about agent presence and activity without creating, modifying, executing code, or deleting anything. It is a straightforward read operation on shared state. Severity is low because listing agent metadata poses minimal risk even if misused by an agent—it cannot directly harm systems or data. The low severity reflects typical information disclosure impact.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'list_agents' and description 'List all known agents with presence... and current activity' explicitly perform data retrieval with no modifications or side effects.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
List all known agents with presence (online if seen < 60s ago) and current activity. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Mcp Switchboard MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Mcp Switchboard MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for list_agents: 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 Mcp Switchboard. Nothing to install.
list_agents 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 list_agents 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 list_agents. 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.
list_agents is provided by the Mcp Switchboard MCP server (jemplayer82/mcp-switchboard). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Every MCP server has a record like this.
Type a name, get the same breakdown: verified identity, auth posture, risk grade, capabilities, recommended policy.
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