List all connected agents and their roles.
AI agents call cortex_list_agents to retrieve information from Cortex MCP without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool retrieves information about connected agents and their roles without creating, modifying, deleting, or executing any operations. It is a pure read operation with minimal blast radius—even if misused, it only exposes metadata about system participants.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'cortex_list_agents' and description 'List all connected agents and their roles' indicate a query/retrieval operation with no modification or execution capability.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
List all connected agents and their roles. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Cortex MCP MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Cortex MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for cortex_list_agents: 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 Cortex MCP. Nothing to install.
cortex_list_agents 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 cortex_list_agents 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 cortex_list_agents. 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.
cortex_list_agents is provided by the Cortex MCP server (neuralnexustech/cortex-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Every MCP server has a record like this.
Type a name, get the same breakdown: verified identity, auth posture, risk grade, capabilities, recommended policy.
Teams ship this data inside their own products. See what a licence covers →