search_projects
AI agents call search_projects 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 search/query operation against the NIH Reporter API to retrieve information about research projects. It has no side effects—it retrieves public or semi-public research metadata without modifying, deleting, or executing any operations.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'search_projects' combined with server description indicating 'searching and retrieving detailed information on NIH-funded research projects' and sibling tools like 'search_projects_light', 'search_by_investigator', and 'get_project_details' all…
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
search_projects. 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_projects: 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_projects 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_projects 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_projects. 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_projects 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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