Display comprehensive specification progress overview. Instructions Call when resuming work on a spec or checking overall completion status. Shows which phases are complete and task implementation progress. After viewing status, read tasks.md directly to see all tasks and their status markers ([ ...
AI agents call spec-status to retrieve information from Spec Workflow 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 displays status information about specification progress without modifying, creating, or deleting any data. It is purely informational, reading existing state to show completion phases and task progress. No data mutation, execution, or irreversible action occurs.
From the tool's definition Tool description states 'Display comprehensive specification progress overview' and 'Shows which phases are complete and task implementation progress.' The instruction 'After viewing status, read tasks.md directly' indicates this is a query/retrieval…
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access spec-status gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and Spec Workflow MCP, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for spec-status:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"spec-status": {}
}
}spec-status is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
Free to start. No card required.
Display comprehensive specification progress overview. Instructions Call when resuming work on a spec or checking overall completion status. Shows which phases are complete and task implementation progress. After viewing status, read tasks.md directly to see all tasks and their status markers ([ ] pending, [-] in-progress, [x] completed). It is categorised as a Read tool in the Spec Workflow MCP MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Spec Workflow MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for spec-status: 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 Spec Workflow MCP. Nothing to install.
spec-status 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 spec-status 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 spec-status. 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.
spec-status is provided by the Spec Workflow MCP server (pimzino/spec-workflow-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Deterministic rules across all 4 Spec Workflow MCP tools. Per-identity grants. Full audit log. Live in minutes. Nothing to install.
Free to start. No card required.
4 Spec Workflow MCP tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 42,500+ MCP servers.