Search NASA ADS for astronomy/astrophysics papers.
AI agents call search_papers to retrieve information from NASA ADS MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
The tool retrieves and queries data from the NASA Astrophysics Data System without creating, modifying, deleting, or executing any operations. It is a standard read-only search function that returns information about academic papers. No data is altered, financial transactions occur, or external code is executed. The low severity reflects that misuse would only return unwanted search results, posing minimal risk.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'search_papers' and description 'Search NASA ADS for astronomy/astrophysics papers' indicate a query/retrieval operation with no side effects.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access search_papers gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and NASA ADS MCP Server, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for search_papers:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"search_papers": {}
}
}search_papers is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
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Search NASA ADS for astronomy/astrophysics papers. It is categorised as a Read tool in the NASA ADS MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the NASA ADS MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_papers: 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 NASA ADS MCP Server. Nothing to install.
search_papers 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_papers 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_papers. 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_papers is provided by the NASA ADS MCP Server MCP server (prtc/nasa-ads-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Start from NASA ADS MCP Server, add the rest of your stack, and see everything your agents can call. Then put policy on all of it.
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10 NASA ADS MCP Server tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.