get-unread-emails · Gmail MCP Server MCP: Risk & Policy

WHAT IT DOES

What get-unread-emails does on Gmail MCP Server

AI agents call get-unread-emails to retrieve information from Gmail MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.

WHY IT NEEDS A POLICY

Why get-unread-emails needs a policy

This tool retrieves and lists unread emails without modifying, deleting, executing code, or performing financial operations. It is a pure query operation that only reads data from the Gmail mailbox. The severity is low because even if misused by an AI agent, the worst outcome is unauthorized information disclosure of email contents, which is a data privacy issue but not immediately destructive or operational damage.

From the tool's definition Tool name: 'get-unread-emails'; description: 'Retrieve unread emails'. The verb 'retrieve' combined with the action of querying/fetching email data indicates a read operation with no side effects.

Attacks that exploit this kind of access

Questions about get-unread-emails

What does the get-unread-emails tool do? +

Retrieve unread emails. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Gmail MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.

How do I enforce a policy on get-unread-emails? +

Register the Gmail MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for get-unread-emails: 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 Gmail MCP Server. Nothing to install.

What risk level is get-unread-emails? +

get-unread-emails is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.

Can I rate-limit get-unread-emails? +

Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the get-unread-emails 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.

How do I block get-unread-emails completely? +

Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for get-unread-emails. 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.

What MCP server provides get-unread-emails? +

get-unread-emails is provided by the Gmail MCP Server MCP server (jmonsellier/gmail-mcp-server). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.