forward-email · Outlook Assistant MCP: Risk & Policy

WHAT IT DOES

What forward-email does on Outlook Assistant

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

WHY IT NEEDS A POLICY

Why forward-email needs a policy

Forwarding an email is a write action that creates a new message and sends it to additional recipients. While it involves outbound communication, it does not delete data, execute arbitrary code, or move money. The severity is medium because misuse could send sensitive information to unintended recipients or spam, but the action remains reversible (the forwarded message can be managed post-send).

From the tool's definition Tool description states: 'Forwards an email to one or more recipients' — this creates a new message artifact and modifies email distribution, a reversible write operation.

Attacks that exploit this kind of access

Recommended rule Ready

Verdict

forward-email Rate-limited

forward-email 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": {
    "forward-email": {
      "limits": [
        {
          "counter": "forward-email_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 Outlook Assistant, so you can run agents against it safely.

FAQ

Questions about forward-email

What does the forward-email tool do? +

Forwards an email to one or more recipients. It is categorised as a Write tool in the Outlook Assistant MCP Server, which means it can create or modify data. Consider rate limits to prevent runaway writes.

How do I enforce a policy on forward-email? +

Register the Outlook Assistant MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for forward-email: 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 Outlook Assistant. Nothing to install.

What risk level is forward-email? +

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

Can I rate-limit forward-email? +

Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the forward-email 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 forward-email completely? +

Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for forward-email. 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 forward-email? +

forward-email is provided by the Outlook Assistant MCP server (titanzero/outlook-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.