Export properly formatted citations for PMC articles in various bibliographic formats including RIS, NBIB, MEDLINE, and BibTeX for use in reference managers.
AI agents call pmc_citation_exporter to retrieve information from Entrez MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
The pmc_citation_exporter tool retrieves and reformats existing citation metadata for export. It has no side effects on data, does not execute code, cannot destroy data, and involves no financial operations. This is a straightforward read operation that queries and presents bibliographic data in different formats.
From the tool's definition Tool exports citations in standard bibliographic formats (RIS, NBIB, MEDLINE, BibTeX) from PMC articles—no data is modified, deleted, or executed. Description explicitly states this is for 'reference managers,' a read-only retrieval operation.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Export properly formatted citations for PMC articles in various bibliographic formats including RIS, NBIB, MEDLINE, and BibTeX for use in reference managers. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Entrez MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Entrez MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for pmc_citation_exporter: 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 Entrez MCP Server. Nothing to install.
pmc_citation_exporter 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 pmc_citation_exporter 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 pmc_citation_exporter. 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.
pmc_citation_exporter is provided by the Entrez MCP Server MCP server (leongxj123/entrez-mcp-server). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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