List all available Cortex skills — bundled with the package (always available) plus any user-added skills.
AI agents call cortex_list_skills 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 and lists information about available skills without creating, modifying, deleting, or executing any code or operations. It has no side effects and no blast radius if misused by an AI agent — it only returns information that is already available on the system.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'cortex_list_skills' and description 'List all available Cortex skills' indicate retrieval of existing data with no modification, deletion, or execution. The action is read-only enumeration.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
List all available Cortex skills — bundled with the package (always available) plus any user-added skills. 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_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 Cortex MCP. Nothing to install.
cortex_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 cortex_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 cortex_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.
cortex_list_skills 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.
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