AI agents call find-by-text to retrieve information from MCP Appium Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool retrieves or generates selectors for locating elements—a querying operation with no side effects. It does not execute commands, modify app state, delete data, or move money. While it is part of an automation framework that could facilitate harmful actions downstream, the tool itself is purely informational and read-only.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'find-by-text' and description 'Generate XPath to find element by text' indicate a query/search operation that locates UI elements without modifying or executing actions on them.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access find-by-text gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and MCP Appium Server, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for find-by-text:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"find-by-text": {}
}
}find-by-text is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
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Generate XPath to find element by text. It is categorised as a Read tool in the MCP Appium Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the MCP Appium Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for find-by-text: 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 MCP Appium Server. Nothing to install.
find-by-text 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 find-by-text 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 find-by-text. 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.
find-by-text is provided by the MCP Appium Server MCP server (rahulec08/appium-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Deterministic rules across all 110 MCP Appium Server tools. Per-identity grants. Full audit log. Live in minutes. Nothing to install.
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110 MCP Appium Server tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 42,500+ MCP servers.