List popular/common FRED series IDs with descriptions
AI agents call list_popular to retrieve information from FRED MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool retrieves and displays a static list of popular economic time series identifiers along with their descriptions. It performs no mutations, executions, or destructive operations. The action is purely informational, reading from a curated dataset of commonly-used FRED series. This aligns with the 'Read' category as it queries and retrieves data with no side effects.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'list_popular' and description 'List popular/common FRED series IDs with descriptions' indicate retrieval and listing of data without modification or execution of operations.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
List popular/common FRED series IDs with descriptions. It is categorised as a Read tool in the FRED MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the FRED MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for list_popular: 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 FRED MCP Server. Nothing to install.
list_popular 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 list_popular 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 list_popular. 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.
list_popular is provided by the FRED MCP Server MCP server (shawndrake2/mcp-fred). 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.
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