Search for issues and pull requests
AI agents call gh_search_issues to retrieve information from GitHub CLI 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 operation to retrieve and filter issues and pull requests from a repository. Search operations are read-only activities with no side effects on the repository or its data. While the user can search across GitHub, this is a standard query capability that only returns information without creating, modifying, or deleting anything.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'gh_search_issues' and description 'Search for issues and pull requests' indicate a query/search operation that retrieves data without modifying state.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Search for issues and pull requests. It is categorised as a Read tool in the GitHub CLI MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the GitHub CLI MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for gh_search_issues: 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 GitHub CLI MCP Server. Nothing to install.
gh_search_issues 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 gh_search_issues 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 gh_search_issues. 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.
gh_search_issues is provided by the GitHub CLI MCP Server MCP server (munch-group/gh-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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