diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 30a50473..e60a96fb 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Status of the `main` branch. Changes prior to the next official version change w
 * General:
   - Fix: Parallel agents auto-registering projects could overwrite each other's changes to the global
     project list in `serena_config.yml`
+  - Fix: `read_only` restriction in project definition was not applied to base tool set when in single-project context (#1938)
 
 * Language Servers:
   - Fix: Dart's `$/analyzerStatus` notifications were logged as unhandled-method warnings during analysis (#1855)
diff --git a/src/serena/agent.py b/src/serena/agent.py
index 175f338b..4a2d843f 100644
--- a/src/serena/agent.py
+++ b/src/serena/agent.py
@@ -794,6 +794,7 @@ class SerenaAgent:
         # of tools that will be exposed to the client.
         # Furthermore, we disable tools that are only relevant for project activation.
         # So if the project exists, we apply all the aforementioned exclusions.
+        apply_read_only = False
         if is_single_project:
             assert project is not None
             log.info(
@@ -807,9 +808,12 @@ class SerenaAgent:
                 )
             )
             tool_inclusion_definitions.append(project.project_config)
+            apply_read_only = project.project_config.read_only
 
         # compute the resulting tool set
         base_toolset = ToolSet.default().apply(*tool_inclusion_definitions)
+        if apply_read_only:
+            base_toolset = base_toolset.without_editing_tools()
         log.info(f"Number of exposed tools: {len(base_toolset)}")
         return base_toolset