AI agents call discover_apps to retrieve information from Mcp Mac without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
discover_apps retrieves information about what AppleScript capabilities exist in a macOS application. This is a read-only discovery operation that queries available capabilities without side effects, data modification, or code execution. No data is created, deleted, or modified, and no external operations are triggered beyond inspecting application metadata.
From the tool's definition Tool description states 'Discover AppleScript capabilities' and 'finder_get_current_folder', 'finder_get_selection', 'contacts_search_people', 'calendar_get_calendars' are sibling tools that query or retrieve data.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Discover AppleScript capabilities of a macOS application. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Mcp Mac MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Mcp Mac MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for discover_apps: 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 Mac. Nothing to install.
discover_apps 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 discover_apps 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 discover_apps. 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.
discover_apps is provided by the Mcp Mac MCP server (samicokar/mcp-mac). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Every MCP server has a record like this.
Type a name, get the same breakdown: verified identity, auth posture, risk grade, capabilities, recommended policy.
Teams ship this data inside their own products. See what a licence covers →