Retrieves the base64-encoded contents of the specified media file. Returns the base64 string or false if not found.
AI agents call retrieveMediaFile to retrieve information from Anki without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool performs a data retrieval operation with no side effects. It queries and returns media file contents in base64 format without creating, modifying, deleting, or executing anything. This is a straightforward Read operation with minimal security risk unless the media files contain sensitive information, but the tool itself poses no inherent risk of misuse.
From the tool's definition The tool description explicitly states it 'Retrieves the base64-encoded contents of the specified media file' and returns data without modifying or deleting anything. The verb 'Retrieves' is characteristic of Read operations.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access retrieveMediaFile gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and Anki, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for retrieveMediaFile:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"retrieveMediaFile": {}
}
}retrieveMediaFile is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
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Retrieves the base64-encoded contents of the specified media file. Returns the base64 string or false if not found. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Anki MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Anki MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for retrieveMediaFile: 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 Anki. Nothing to install.
retrieveMediaFile 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 retrieveMediaFile 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 retrieveMediaFile. 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.
retrieveMediaFile is provided by the Anki MCP server (ujisati/anki-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Start from Anki, add the rest of your stack, and see everything your agents can call. Then put policy on all of it.
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40 Anki tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.