search_by_investigator
AI agents call search_by_investigator to retrieve information from NIH Reporter MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool performs a read-only query operation against the NIH Reporter API to retrieve information about investigators and their associated projects. The NIH Reporter data is public scientific/grant information with no side effects. The tool name and server context clearly indicate search/retrieval functionality. No data modification, deletion, code execution, or financial transaction is involved.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'search_by_investigator' combined with server purpose of providing 'programmatic access to the NIH Reporter API for searching and retrieving detailed information' and sibling tools like 'search_projects' and 'get_project_details' indicate this…
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
search_by_investigator. It is categorised as a Read tool in the NIH Reporter MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the NIH Reporter MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_by_investigator: 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 NIH Reporter MCP Server. Nothing to install.
search_by_investigator 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 search_by_investigator 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 search_by_investigator. 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.
search_by_investigator is provided by the NIH Reporter MCP Server MCP server (jhalsey87/mcp_nih_reporter). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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