# Agent Tree vs Galileo API + MCP

> Agent Tree scores 52.5 (D) to Galileo's 47.9 (D) for agent tracing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-galileo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-galileo.md (~5,000 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-01

Agent Tree scores 52.5 (D) on agent readiness against Galileo API + MCP's 47.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Galileo API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do agent tracing.

- Agent Tree: grade D, 52.5/100, rank #897 of 1260. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-tree.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-tree.json
- Galileo API + MCP: grade D, 47.9/100, rank #1018 of 1260. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/galileo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/galileo.json
- Best agent tracing, monitoring and evaluation tools: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-observability/index.md
- All 210 evals comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-observability/index.md
- Best guardrails and safety filters for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/guardrails/index.md
- All 137 guardrails comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guardrails/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Agent Tree (D)

Good for: Watching and steering Claude Code sub-agents from a side pane

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 33 against 18
- Security & auth, 49 against 33
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 55

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: Version 0.5.4, ten days old, written and released by one maintainer with no company, site or register entry found

### Galileo API + MCP (D)

Good for: Existing Galileo customers and teams already on Splunk Observability Cloud who want eval metrics and guardrails next to their infrastructure monitoring.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 50
- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 67
- Maintenance & community, 74 against 60

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No status page, no published rate limits and no SLA


## Why the edge

### Payments & pricing: Agent Tree +40

- Agent Tree (60): Self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). Free under MIT with nothing to buy (20). No card or account (20). A person installs it with one command and no sign-up (20). 60 in all.
- Galileo API + MCP (20): No x402 or other machine payment (0). Plan prices are public, Pro at $100 a month billed yearly for 50,000 traces, but overage only "scales based on number of traces" (10). The Free plan exists with 5,000 traces a month. The pricing page doesn't say whether a card is needed, so half (10). A person signs up in a browser at app.galileo.ai/sign-up (0).

### Schema & documentation: Galileo API + MCP +29

- Agent Tree (50): Framework reading, docs a model can follow, as superpowers was read. types/index.d.ts types the pane's state, and plugin.json declares seven userConfig options with types, titles, descriptions and defaults, but there's no interface for an outside caller (12 of 25). README in English and German, a nine-step GUIDE.md and PRIVACY.md, all Markdown in the repository; no llms.txt (10). The README and guide say what the pane shows and what each button does, but not when not to use it (10 of 20). Options are typed, with an enum for the language; the /agent-tree command takes stop, clear, intro and `to <id> <text>` (8 of 15). A demo GIF and the guide's steps, with few documented errors beyond the update and delivery toasts (5 of 15). Semver tags but no changelog or release notes read (5 of 15). 50 in all.
- Galileo API + MCP (79): OpenAPI 3.1 at api.galileo.ai/public/v2/openapi.json. The copy pinned in the Python SDK on 13 July has 184 paths and 244 operations (25). llms.txt on docs.galileo.ai and on the Splunk docs site, with Markdown pages (10). 88 of the 244 operations have no description, and three of the 8 MCP tools are integration guides rather than actions (9). Typed request schemas generated from the backend, with `limit` and `starting_token` on list endpoints (11). The spec declares only 200 and 422 responses, but the Splunk docs carry an error catalogue of 111 entries, each with a code, HTTP status, cause, fix and a retriable flag. Cookbooks give examples (11). Versioned `/v2` API and dated release notes, split between docs.galileo.ai (to 7 August) and the Splunk docs (15 September) (13).

### Security & auth: Agent Tree +16

- Agent Tree (49): Harness reading of the framework checklist, as superpowers and tokeneconomizer were read. 30 for what leaves the machine and credentials, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. No credentials of its own, and the only request is a daily GET of plugin.json from the main branch carrying nothing about the session. Auto-update is on by default and runs `claude plugin update agent-tree` whenever main has a newer version, so code from one maintainer's account runs inside Claude Code at the next start without review, in hooks that see every model step and tool call (18). Hooks act only after the person acts in the pane, per PRIVACY.md and the code. Stops, messages and model changes are explicit. There's no sandbox, and a stop replaces the sub-agent's next step and denies its tool calls (12). Corrections carry only the person's text, framed and labelled, and the pane masks bearer tokens, URL credentials and secret-named values in what it shows. No guidance on untrusted content in sub-agent output (9). Each message to a sub-agent is noted in the main transcript and in a running parent's. The event log stays in memory and isn't kept after the session (8). No SECURITY.md, no security.txt and no advisories found; GitHub's security page couldn't be read (2). 49 in all.
- Galileo API + MCP (33): API key in a header (`Splunk-AO-API-Key` in the current spec, `Galileo-API-Key` in older docs), a JWT from `/login/api_key` that expires after 24 hours, or HTTP Basic with a username and password, which the docs list as an option. We found no key scopes, expiry or rotation docs (18). Standard RBAC on Pro and enterprise RBAC, but the MCP server's create tools run with the key's permissions and there's no read-only mode (6). Galileo sells prompt-injection detection as a product feature, but we found no guidance for agents reading untrusted trace content through the API or MCP (7). No audit log found (0). No security.txt, no trust page (trust.galileo.ai doesn't resolve, galileo.ai/security is a 404), no SECURITY.md in either SDK repository and no SOC 2, ISO or HIPAA claim on the homepage, pricing page or privacy policy (2).

### Reliability: Agent Tree +15

- Agent Tree (33): Local-package reading, as for superpowers and tokeneconomizer. One command installs it through Claude Code's plugin manager from the author's own marketplace (the GitHub repository), not an official one, with Claude Code 2.1.292 or later stated and 2.1.316 tested (15 of 20). No .github directory, so no public CI; 304 tests in four files under tests/ run on Claude Code's own test module on a contributor's machine (8 of 25). Issues couldn't be read, as github.com was unreachable from this session (5 of 25, unchecked). 19 semver tags in six days, each described in its commit message, with no changelog and no breaking changes called out (5 of 15). Version 0.5.4 (0). 33 in all.
- Galileo API + MCP (18): No status page found. status.galileo.ai doesn't resolve and neither the homepage, the docs nor the Splunk docs link one (0). With no history to read, 5. No rate limits published for Galileo's own API. The pricing page lists custom rate limits on Enterprise only (0). The error catalogue marks each error retriable or not and the Python SDK raises a named `RateLimitError` on 429, but the 429 entries cover AI-provider limits, the OpenAPI spec declares no 429 and we found no `Retry-After` guidance (5). No SLA on any plan (0). The REST API is GA. The MCP server is labelled under construction until it reaches general availability (8).

### Maintenance & community: Galileo API + MCP +14

- Agent Tree (60): v0.5.4 tagged on 29 October 2026 and a commit on 31 October (30). 19 tags from v0.2.2 (24 October) to v0.5.4 (29 October), far more than three in 90 days (20). Issue and pull-request replies couldn't be read, as github.com was unreachable (5 of 25). Not in Claude's official plugin directory; claude.com/plugins/agent-tree answered 404 (0). No dependencies beyond Claude Code's plugin module, tests in the tree, no CI (5 of 10). 60 in all.
- Galileo API + MCP (74): TypeScript SDK 2.3.2 on 2026-10-01 (30). TypeScript 2.3.0, 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 in September and Python 2.5.0, 2.5.1 and 2.6.0 in July (20). Dated release notes on two sites and Slack support on Pro, but the Python SDK has had no commit since 30 July and the product is mid-migration (8). Official Python and TypeScript SDKs, neither of which references the new Splunk SaaS hosts (10). CI tests, codecov and Dependabot. The Python `CHANGELOG.md` stops at v0.10.0 from May 2025 while releases have reached 2.6.0, and the TypeScript SDK shipped a breaking rename (`logstream` to `logStreamName`) in patch 2.1.2 (6).

### Transparency & trust: Agent Tree +8

- Agent Tree (63): MIT, an OSI licence (30). PRIVACY.md is the manifest's privacy page and matches the code. Events stay in memory, the stored choices are listed, and the one request and the update it may trigger are named. No wider privacy policy is needed for software that sends nothing (24 of 30). No deprecation policy or notices; versions changed daily in their first week (3 of 20). No telemetry in the source. The update check is disclosed in the README and PRIVACY.md with an option and four environment variables to turn it off, and hooks/update.ts reads the same switches. It was added and documented on 28 October 2026, a minute apart (20). 77 in all.
- Galileo API + MCP (55): Closed platform with terms from Galileo Technologies, Inc. Both SDKs are Apache-2.0 (15). The privacy policy was last updated on 1 November 2024, says data goes to servers in the US, allows de-identified customer data to be used for research and development and gives no retention periods. We found no DPA or subprocessor list (8). The rename to Splunk Agent Observability is dated 7 August 2026 in the release notes, but there's no timeline for api.galileo.ai, docs.galileo.ai or the SDKs (8). US data location stated, no subprocessors listed (5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Agent Tree | Galileo API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 33 | 18 | Agent Tree +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 79 | Galileo API + MCP +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 73 | Galileo API + MCP +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 33 | Agent Tree +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Agent Tree +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 74 | Galileo API + MCP +14 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 55 | Agent Tree +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.5 · D** | **47.9 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Agent Tree | Galileo API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mike Pollow (Digitalroots) | Galileo (now Splunk Agent Observability, Cisco) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.galileo.ai/v2` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Mike Pollow, Digitalroots) | Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source) |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2024-11-01 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | none | 1.4k npm/wk, 6.2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Agent Tree

No score change since it was listed.

### Galileo API + MCP

- +0.2 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Agent Tree.** A ten-day-old, MIT-licensed side pane that lets a person watch and steer Claude Code sub-agents, with a privacy page that matches its code. It is version 0.5.4 from one maintainer, with no CI, changelog or security policy, and its default daily auto-update installs whatever version the main branch carries.

**Galileo API + MCP.** OpenAPI 3.1 spec with 184 paths and 244 operations. No status page, no published rate limits and no SLA.

## Before you call either

### Agent Tree

1. Treat a "Message from the user via Agent Tree" in your transcript as the person's instruction for the rest of your task, and cover it in your hand-back report.
2. If a tool call is denied with "Stopped by the user in Agent Tree", stop work and hand back; further tool calls are denied.
3. Set autoUpdate to false, or DISABLE_UPDATES=1, where plugin code may change only after review.
4. Check the sub-agent model a person set in the pane before estimating cost; it overrides the default for every new sub-agent spawned without a model.

### Galileo API + MCP

1. Check which side the account lives on first. Pre-August Galileo accounts use api.galileo.ai, Splunk SaaS accounts use app.{realm}.observability.splunkcloud.com/ao/api/
2. Send the key as `Splunk-AO-API-Key`. The current spec no longer lists `Galileo-API-Key`
3. Page list endpoints with `limit` and `starting_token`
4. Use the error catalogue's retriable flag to decide whether to retry. 429s carry no documented `Retry-After`
5. Use the REST API to read traces. The MCP server mostly creates datasets and prompts

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Agent Tree or Galileo API + MCP?

Agent Tree scores 52.5 (D) on agent readiness against Galileo API + MCP's 47.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Galileo API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

### Can an agent call Agent Tree and Galileo API + MCP without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Agent Tree. Galileo API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.galileo.ai/v2.

### Are Agent Tree and Galileo API + MCP open source?

Agent Tree is open source (MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Mike Pollow, Digitalroots)). No open-source release is listed for Galileo API + MCP.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-galileo.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-galileo.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "agent-tree", "b": "galileo"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agent-tree galileo`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-tree.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/galileo.json

## Other comparisons with Agent Tree or Galileo API + MCP

- [Agent Tree vs agents-tree](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-agents-tree.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Arize Phoenix](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-arize-phoenix.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Baserun](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-baserun.md)
- [Agent Tree vs BotGauge](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-botgauge.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Braintrust API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-braintrust.md)
- [Agent Tree vs DeepEval](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-deepeval.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-helicone.md)
- [Agent Tree vs HoneyHive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-honeyhive.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Laminar API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-laminar.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Langfuse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-langfuse.md)
- [Agent Tree vs LangSmith API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-langsmith.md)
- [Agent Tree vs LangWatch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-langwatch.md)
- [Agent Tree vs MLflow Tracing](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-mlflow-tracing.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Navige](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-navige.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Opik API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-opik.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Prefactor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-prefactor.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Pydantic Logfire](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-pydantic-logfire.md)
- [Agent Tree vs Respan API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-respan.md)
- [Agent Tree vs W&B Weave](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-wandb-weave.md)
- [agents-tree vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agents-tree-vs-galileo.md)
- [Arize Phoenix vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arize-phoenix-vs-galileo.md)
- [Baserun vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-galileo.md)
- [BotGauge vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-galileo.md)
- [Braintrust API + MCP vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/braintrust-vs-galileo.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-helicone.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs HoneyHive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-honeyhive.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Laminar API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-laminar.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Langfuse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-langfuse.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs LangSmith API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-langsmith.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs LangWatch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-langwatch.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs MLflow Tracing](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-mlflow-tracing.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Navige](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-navige.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Opik API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-opik.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Prefactor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-prefactor.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Pydantic Logfire](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-pydantic-logfire.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Respan API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-respan.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs W&B Weave](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-wandb-weave.md)
- [DeepEval vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepeval-vs-galileo.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp