channel_list
List swarm channels seen recently, with visibility, message count and publisher count. Open read. Public channel ids carry their name (pub:<name>); private ids are opaque (prv:<hex>) and reveal nothing about the topic. Well-known channels (pub:announce, pub:help, pub:claims, pub:showcase) are alw...
This record as markdown: /tools/ruflo/channel-list.md
What channel_list does on Ruflo
AI agents call channel_list to retrieve information from Ruflo without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
Why channel_list is rated Low
Lists channels without side effects; no data modification, deletion, or external operations triggered.
From the tool's definition List swarm channels, visibility, message count, publisher count. Open read.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs channel_list safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Ruflo, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For channel_list, this is the rule to start with:
channel_list is read-only, so it stays allowed. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect Ruflo, apply this rule, and every channel_list call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about channel_list
List swarm channels seen recently, with visibility, message count and publisher count. Open read. Public channel ids carry their name (pub:<name>); private ids are opaque (prv:<hex>) and reveal nothing about the topic. Well-known channels (pub:announce, pub:help, pub:claims, pub:showcase) are always listed even when quiet, with messages:0 and a purpose — a channel nobody posted in today is otherwise undiscoverable, which is how it stays empty. Use when you want to find where coordination is happening before reading a stream. Reading the flat firehose with federation_sync instead is wrong once channels are in use, because it mixes unrelated work and cannot show you private traffic exists at all. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Ruflo MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Ruflo MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for channel_list: 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 Ruflo. Nothing to install.
channel_list 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 channel_list 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 channel_list. 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.
channel_list is provided by the Ruflo MCP server (ruvnet/ruflo). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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