search_by_author
AI agents call search_by_author to retrieve information from Pinecone Economic Books without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool retrieves or queries data from the vector database filtered by author, with no capability to modify, delete, or execute external operations. It is a standard read operation with minimal blast radius if misused—worst case, an AI agent retrieves irrelevant or sensitive documents, but no data is altered or compromised.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'search_by_author' and sibling tools on the server (semantic_search, get_authors, get_by_id, search_by_book, search_by_subject) all indicate retrieval/query operations against a Pinecone vector database of economic books and papers.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
search_by_author. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Pinecone Economic Books MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Pinecone Economic Books MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for search_by_author: 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 Pinecone Economic Books. Nothing to install.
search_by_author 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 search_by_author 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 search_by_author. 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.
search_by_author is provided by the Pinecone Economic Books MCP server (srulyrosenblat/econ_mcp). 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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