# Agent Tree vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP

> Agent Tree scores 52.5 (D) to Helicone AI Gateway's 47 (D) for agent tracing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-helicone
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-helicone.md (~4,600 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 Helicone AI Gateway + MCP's 47 (D), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Helicone AI Gateway + MCP leads on reliability, schema & documentation, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. 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
- Helicone AI Gateway + MCP: grade D, 47/100, rank #1033 of 1260. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/helicone.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/helicone.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

## Which one, for what

### Agent Tree (D)

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

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where Helicone AI Gateway + MCP loses 10 points for them

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

### Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (D)

Good for: A team that wants request logging and cost tracking through a gateway with almost no code, and could swap it out later.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 50 against 33
- Schema & documentation, 69 against 50
- Maintenance & community, 66 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 63

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Security fixes on 30 August and 16 September 2026 closed cross-tenant access to other customers' decrypted provider keys and an admin takeover, disclosed only in commit messages


## Why the edge

### Payments & pricing: Agent Tree +30

- 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.
- Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (30): No x402 or other machine payment (0). Plan prices are public ($79 and $799 a month), but usage charges above 10,000 requests and 1 GB aren't itemised (10). Hobby is free with no card (20). A person has to sign up in a browser to get a key. Self-hosting is free but isn't an agent route (0).

### Schema & documentation: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +19

- 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.
- Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (69): OpenAPI for the AI Gateway and a Swagger file for the REST API, both in the docs (25). llms.txt at docs.helicone.ai (10). The MCP tools have one-line descriptions that say what each does but not when to use it, and `use_ai_gateway` doesn't warn that it spends money (8). Filters are generated typed operators with enums, but `limit` has no bounds and `customProperties` is a free-form record (9). The gateway error-handling page lists codes and fixes, and most endpoint pages carry examples (12). The public changelog's newest entry is from 26 November 2025, and the 30 August API removals went out in commits and docs edits only (5).

### Reliability: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +17

- 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.
- Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (50): Better Stack page at status.helicone.ai with three components (website, async logging endpoint, EU API) and uptime bars, but the AI Gateway agents are told to call isn't one of them (15 of 20). No incident write-ups at all. The bars show the async logging endpoint at 98.147 per cent and the EU API at 96.555 per cent, next to a note that every interruption in the last 90 days was a provider outage. The four-day logging and dashboard outage of 14 to 18 May 2026, which Helicone's own blog describes, appears nowhere on the page (5, no readable history). Ingestion and API rate limits published per plan on the pricing page (15). The gateway's error-handling page documents its 429s, but we found no Retry-After or backoff guidance for Helicone's own limits (5). No SLA found (0). Gateway and logging are GA (10).

### Transparency & trust: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +7

- 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.
- Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (70): Apache-2.0 (30). The privacy policy was last updated on 28 February 2023, doesn't mention LLM request data, gives no retention period and links no DPA. Retention per plan is on the pricing page. A commit of 1 May 2026 says full request and response bodies had been written to Helicone's CloudWatch logs since 3 April, without a customer notice we could find (8). Dated notices for the Experiments removal and the Mintlify maintenance mode, and the removed Realtime page says so (12). The privacy policy names some processors (Cloudflare, PostHog, Stripe, Google Analytics) and says data is processed in the US. No full subprocessor list (10).

### Maintenance & community: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +6

- 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.
- Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (66): No tagged release since 2025-08-21 and no changelog entry since 26 November 2025, but the hosted service took deploys on 13 and 16 September 2026 carrying security fixes (30, counted as the last published API change). More than three deploy tags in 90 days, none with release notes (15). 56 open issues. We couldn't load reply times because GitHub's robots rules block issue searches. The product is in maintenance mode by its own notice (8). `@helicone/mcp` 0.1.6 was last published on 2025-11-04 (8). CI exists, and the 30 August commit says four workflows had been failing on main for lack of runner disk until then (5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Agent Tree | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 33 | 50 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 69 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 70 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 50 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Agent Tree +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 66 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 70 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -10 | |
| **Total** | | **52.5 · D** | **47 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Agent Tree | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mike Pollow (Digitalroots) | Helicone (Mintlify) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://ai-gateway.helicone.ai` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Mike Pollow, Digitalroots) | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 3 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-09-16 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2024-09-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2023-02-28 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 6.2k stars, 4.3k npm/wk, 4.2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Agent Tree

No score change since it was listed.

### Helicone AI Gateway + MCP

- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.2 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.

**Helicone AI Gateway + MCP.** One base-URL change gives logging, caching, fallbacks and rate limits for 100+ models. Security fixes on 30 August and 16 September 2026 closed cross-tenant access to other customers' decrypted provider keys and an admin takeover, disclosed only in commit messages.

## 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.

### Helicone AI Gateway + MCP

1. Bring your own provider keys. Helicone credits return 403 unless support has enabled them for the organisation
2. Rotate any provider keys stored in Helicone before 30 August 2026
3. Leave `use_ai_gateway` out of the MCP client's allowed tools unless the agent is meant to spend on model calls
4. Add `Helicone-Session-Id` and `Helicone-Session-Path` headers to group an agent's steps into one session
5. Use the EU host (eu.helicone.ai) if the account was created there

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Agent Tree or Helicone AI Gateway + MCP?

Agent Tree scores 52.5 (D) on agent readiness against Helicone AI Gateway + MCP's 47 (D), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Helicone AI Gateway + MCP leads on reliability, schema & documentation, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call Agent Tree and Helicone AI Gateway + MCP without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Agent Tree. Helicone AI Gateway + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://ai-gateway.helicone.ai.

### Are Agent Tree and Helicone AI Gateway + MCP open source?

Yes. Agent Tree is open source (MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Mike Pollow, Digitalroots)). Helicone AI Gateway + MCP is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

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