AI agents call list_skills to retrieve information from Openstudio without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
The tool appears to list or retrieve information about available skills, which is a read-only operation with no side effects. While the description is empty (lowering confidence slightly), the name strongly suggests a query operation that retrieves data about the server's capabilities rather than executing commands, writing data, or triggering modifications. This is the least risky category of tool interaction.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'list_skills' indicates a query or retrieval operation that returns available capabilities without modifying any state.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access list_skills gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and Openstudio, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for list_skills:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"list_skills": {}
}
}list_skills is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
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list_skills. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Openstudio MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Openstudio MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for list_skills: 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 Openstudio. Nothing to install.
list_skills 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 list_skills 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 list_skills. 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.
list_skills is provided by the Openstudio MCP server (natlabrockies/openstudio-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Start from Openstudio, add the rest of your stack, and see everything your agents can call. Then put policy on all of it.
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146 Openstudio tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.