Search for notes in Bear
AI agents call search_notes to retrieve information from Bear 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 query/search operation on Bear notes, which is a non-destructive read operation. It has no side effects and does not create, modify, delete, or execute any external operations. The blast radius of misuse is minimal—at worst, an AI agent could search for sensitive notes, but cannot access their full contents or modify them with this tool alone.
From the tool's definition Tool name is 'search_notes' and description states 'Search for notes in Bear'. Searching is a read-only operation that retrieves data without modifying or deleting anything.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Search for notes in Bear. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Bear MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Bear MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_notes: 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 Bear MCP Server. Nothing to install.
search_notes 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 search_notes 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 search_notes. 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.
search_notes is provided by the Bear MCP Server MCP server (philgetzen/bear-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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