prior_art · Patentorney MCP: Risk & Policy

WHAT IT DOES

What prior_art does on Patentorney

AI agents use prior_art to create or update resources in Patentorney — usually the action step of a workflow, after the agent has gathered context. Every call changes real data in your Patentorney environment.

WHY IT NEEDS A POLICY

Why prior_art needs a policy

This tool manages prior art references and Information Disclosure Statements (IDS) in a patent application. It supports add, update, and remove operations (Write/Destructive) as well as read operations (get, list, ids_list, ids_check). 'remove' could be considered destructive, but in the context of a document drafting system, changes are typically reversible (managed in structured YAML/LaTeX drafts).

From the tool's definition Prior art & IDS: add|get|update|remove|list|ids_add|ids_list|ids_check

Attacks that exploit this kind of access

Recommended rule Ready

Verdict

prior_art Rate-limited

prior_art stays usable, but capped — an agent stuck in a loop can't make hundreds of changes a minute. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.

View as policy code

policy.json

{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "prior_art": {
      "limits": [
        {
          "counter": "prior_art_rate",
          "window": "minute",
          "max": 30,
          "scope": "grant"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

LIMIT THIS TOOL →

Instant setup, no code required.

PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: every tool call is checked against your rule before it reaches Patentorney, so you can run agents against it safely.

FAQ

Questions about prior_art

What does the prior_art tool do? +

How do I enforce a policy on prior_art? +

Register the Patentorney MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for prior_art: 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 Patentorney. Nothing to install.

What risk level is prior_art? +

prior_art is a Write tool with medium risk. Write tools should be rate-limited to prevent accidental bulk modifications.

Can I rate-limit prior_art? +

Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the prior_art 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 prior_art completely? +

Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for prior_art. 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 prior_art? +

prior_art is provided by the Patentorney MCP server (retospect/patentorney-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.