diff --git a/src/scribe/mcp/server.py b/src/scribe/mcp/server.py
index 9b7cd43..9bec58e 100644
--- a/src/scribe/mcp/server.py
+++ b/src/scribe/mcp/server.py
@@ -282,6 +282,20 @@ operator. "Works for one user" is not done.
 # Tools a read-only API key may call. Anything not listed is treated as a
 # write for read keys (default-deny), so a newly-added tool is locked down
 # until explicitly classified here.
+#
+# The list stays EXPLICIT rather than being derived from the name. A read key is
+# what you hand to something you don't fully trust — a dashboard, a CI job, a
+# shared integration — and a boundary inferred from a naming convention grants
+# access to whatever a future author happens to call `get_*`. Enumerating it is
+# the point; staleness is the cost, and test_mcp_auth covers that (a read-shaped
+# tool must appear here or in _DELIBERATELY_WRITE_SCOPED below, so adding one
+# forces a decision instead of silently denying it).
+#
+# Membership means "reads the operator's data and mutates none of it". Several
+# getters record a retrieval event via record_pulled; that is telemetry about
+# the read itself, not a change to what was read, and it must keep working for a
+# read key or the corpus's surfaced:pulled ratio silently under-counts whichever
+# consumers hold one.
 _READ_ONLY_TOOLS = frozenset({
     "get_note", "get_project", "get_rule", "get_rulebook",
     "get_task", "get_milestone", "get_recent", "enter_project",
@@ -292,8 +306,30 @@ _READ_ONLY_TOOLS = frozenset({
     # Reports on the snippet corpus. Reads only — the merge it suggests is a
     # separate, explicitly-called write.
     "find_duplicate_snippets",
+    # Snippets and processes are notes with a kind. A key that may read a note
+    # but not a snippet inverts the sensitivity ordering: it exposes the
+    # free-text records and withholds the structured ones (#2496).
+    "get_snippet", "list_snippets",
+    "get_process", "list_processes",
+    # Design systems: read, resolve (inheritance + mode), render, and compare
+    # against recorded snippets. All four compute from stored records and write
+    # nothing — the drift report is a report, and applying it is a separate
+    # explicit call.
+    "get_design_system", "list_design_systems", "resolve_design_system",
+    "get_design_system_stylesheet", "list_design_tokens",
+    "check_snippets_against_design_system", "list_starter_role_groups",
+    # Which repos map to which project. Read-only by nature; bind_repo /
+    # unbind_repo are the writes.
+    "list_repo_bindings",
 })
 
+# Read-SHAPED tools that must NOT be reachable with a read key — a getter that
+# creates on miss, a list that has a side effect. Empty today, and deliberately
+# kept as a declared escape hatch rather than left implicit: without it, the
+# completeness test would push a future `get_or_create_*` into the allow-list
+# above, which is exactly the wrong way to make a test pass.
+_DELIBERATELY_WRITE_SCOPED: frozenset[str] = frozenset()
+
 
 async def _buffer_request_body(receive):
     """Drain the ASGI request body and return (body_bytes, replay_receive).
diff --git a/tests/test_mcp_auth.py b/tests/test_mcp_auth.py
index 3a8203d..6c3a32c 100644
--- a/tests/test_mcp_auth.py
+++ b/tests/test_mcp_auth.py
@@ -92,3 +92,68 @@ def test_body_calls_write_tool_classifies_correctly():
         json.dumps({"method": "tools/list"}).encode()
     ) is False
     assert _body_calls_write_tool(b"not json") is False
+
+
+def test_every_read_shaped_tool_is_explicitly_classified():
+    """A read-shaped tool must be classified, not left to default-deny.
+
+    `_READ_ONLY_TOOLS` is hand-maintained, and default-deny means a getter
+    omitted from it fails CLOSED — safe, but silent. That is how a read key
+    ended up able to `get_note` and not `get_snippet`, both pure reads of the
+    same table, while design systems were unreachable entirely (#2496). The
+    `find_duplicate_snippets` entry was the tell: someone classified the report
+    and missed the getters beside it.
+
+    This is the same shape as #2476 (record_pulled on three of four getters) —
+    a hand-written enumeration that missed the members added after it. The fix
+    there and here is the same: derive the CANDIDATES, keep the DECISION
+    explicit. Deriving the decision itself would be worse than a stale list —
+    it would make a security boundary follow a naming convention, so any future
+    `get_*` grants itself access.
+
+    So: every tool whose name reads like a read must appear in one of the two
+    sets. Adding a getter then forces a choice at review time.
+    """
+    import ast
+    import pathlib
+
+    from scribe.mcp.server import _DELIBERATELY_WRITE_SCOPED, _READ_ONLY_TOOLS
+
+    tools_dir = (pathlib.Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+                 / "src" / "scribe" / "mcp" / "tools")
+    read_shaped = {
+        node.name
+        for path in tools_dir.glob("*.py") if path.name != "__init__.py"
+        for node in ast.parse(path.read_text()).body
+        if isinstance(node, (ast.AsyncFunctionDef, ast.FunctionDef))
+        and node.name.startswith(("get_", "list_", "search", "resolve_",
+                                  "check_", "find_"))
+    }
+    assert read_shaped, "found no read-shaped tools — the tools package moved"
+
+    unclassified = sorted(read_shaped - _READ_ONLY_TOOLS
+                          - _DELIBERATELY_WRITE_SCOPED)
+    assert not unclassified, (
+        f"these read-shaped tools are classified by neither set: {unclassified}. "
+        f"They currently fail closed for read-only keys, silently. Add each to "
+        f"_READ_ONLY_TOOLS if it mutates nothing, or to "
+        f"_DELIBERATELY_WRITE_SCOPED with a comment saying what it writes."
+    )
+
+    # The reverse: a name in either set that no longer exists is a rename or a
+    # deletion, and a stale grant is worth surfacing even though it grants
+    # access to nothing. `enter_project` is the one read tool without a read
+    # prefix, so it is checked against the full tool set, not `read_shaped`.
+    all_tools = {
+        node.name
+        for path in tools_dir.glob("*.py") if path.name != "__init__.py"
+        for node in ast.parse(path.read_text()).body
+        if isinstance(node, (ast.AsyncFunctionDef, ast.FunctionDef))
+        and not node.name.startswith("_") and node.name != "register"
+    }
+    phantom = sorted((_READ_ONLY_TOOLS | _DELIBERATELY_WRITE_SCOPED) - all_tools)
+    assert not phantom, (
+        f"these names are classified but are not tools: {phantom}. They were "
+        f"renamed or removed — drop them, and check whatever replaced them got "
+        f"classified."
+    )