Tool allowlist
A tool allowlist is a security control that restricts an AI agent, or the gateway mediating its access, to a named, pre-approved set of tools it may call, rejecting any tool call outside that set even if the underlying server exposes more. This matters because an MCP or similar agent-tool server can expose far more capability than a given task needs, change its exposed tools over time, or be manipulated into offering a malicious tool under a trusted-sounding name; an allowlist means that even a compromised or misconfigured server can't silently widen what an agent is able to do. It's a narrower, more auditable alternative to trusting an agent's own judgment or a server's self-reported tool list at call time.
By AdminKit team, Netbase JSC · Updated