Low Risk

find-elements-by-text

Find all elements containing specific text

How to control find-elements-by-text ↓

AI agents call find-elements-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.

Low Risk

This tool performs a search/query operation to locate UI elements by their text content. It is purely informational—it reads the app's current state and returns matching elements without side effects, reversible changes, code execution, or financial impact. This aligns with the 'Read' category for retrieval operations.

From the tool's definition Tool name 'find-elements-by-text' and description 'Find all elements containing specific text' indicate a query operation that retrieves element information without modifying or executing actions on the app.

Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access find-elements-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-elements-by-text:

policy.json
{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "find-elements-by-text": {}
  }
}

find-elements-by-text is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.

  1. Create a free account and register MCP Appium Server — nothing to install.
  2. Add this policy — paste it, or build it visually.
  3. Point your MCP client (Claude, Cursor, anything) at your gateway URL.
CAP THIS TOOL →

Free to start. No card required.

Go deeper

What does the find-elements-by-text tool do? +

Find all elements containing specific text. It is categorised as a Read tool in the MCP Appium Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.

How do I enforce a policy on find-elements-by-text? +

Register the MCP Appium Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for find-elements-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.

What risk level is find-elements-by-text? +

find-elements-by-text is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.

Can I rate-limit find-elements-by-text? +

Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the find-elements-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.

How do I block find-elements-by-text completely? +

Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for find-elements-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.

What MCP server provides find-elements-by-text? +

find-elements-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.

Enforce policy on every MCP Appium Server tool call.

Deterministic rules across all 110 MCP Appium Server tools. Per-identity grants. Full audit log. Live in minutes. Nothing to install.

Free to start. No card required.

110 MCP Appium Server tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 42,500+ MCP servers.

// GET IN TOUCH

Have a question or want to learn more? Send us a message.

Message sent.

We'll get back to you soon.