Get the inheritance and implementation hierarchy for the specified symbol by its numeric ID.
AI agents call knowledge_get_hierarchy to retrieve information from Knowledge MCP without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool queries existing data (symbol hierarchy information) without creating, modifying, or deleting anything. It is a read-only operation on a knowledge base, comparable to inspecting code structure. The blast radius of misuse is minimal—an agent could only over-retrieve information about code hierarchies, causing no harm beyond resource consumption.
From the tool's definition The tool 'get the inheritance and implementation hierarchy for the specified symbol' performs a retrieval/query operation on a knowledge base.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Get the inheritance and implementation hierarchy for the specified symbol by its numeric ID. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Knowledge MCP MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Knowledge MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for knowledge_get_hierarchy: 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 Knowledge MCP. Nothing to install.
knowledge_get_hierarchy 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 knowledge_get_hierarchy 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 knowledge_get_hierarchy. 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.
knowledge_get_hierarchy is provided by the Knowledge MCP server (paulthesecond/knowledgebase-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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