AI agents call find_citations to retrieve information from Pubmed Search without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This is a search/query operation that retrieves citation data from a database. It locates and returns information about which articles cite a reference work, but does not create, modify, delete, or execute any external operations. The tool is read-only and poses minimal risk if misused by an agent, as the worst outcome would be returning irrelevant or excessive search results.
From the tool's definition Tool name is 'find_citations' and description states it will 'Find articles that cite a given article' — a pure retrieval operation with no modification, deletion, or side effects.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access find_citations gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and Pubmed Search, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for find_citations:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"find_citations": {}
}
}find_citations is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
Free to start. No card required.
Find articles that cite a given article. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Pubmed Search MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Pubmed Search MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for find_citations: 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 Pubmed Search. Nothing to install.
find_citations 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 find_citations 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 find_citations. 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.
find_citations is provided by the Pubmed Search MCP server (u9401066/pubmed-search-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Start from Pubmed Search, add the rest of your stack, and see everything your agents can call. Then put policy on all of it.
Free to start. No card required.
63 Pubmed Search tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.