# AgentGate vs Cisco AI Defense Inspection API

> Cisco AI Defense Inspection scores 61.3 (C) to AgentGate's 48.5 (D) for policy enforcement. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-cisco-ai-defense-inspection
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- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentgate-vs-cisco-ai-defense-inspection.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
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- Updated: 2026-10-15

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against AgentGate's 48.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. AgentGate leads on payments & pricing. Both do policy enforcement.

- AgentGate: grade D, 48.5/100, rank #883 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentgate.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentgate.json
- Cisco AI Defense Inspection API: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #507 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cisco-ai-defense-inspection.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cisco-ai-defense-inspection.json
- Best guardrails and safety filters for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/guardrails/index.md
- All 132 guardrails comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guardrails/index.md

## Which one, for what

### AgentGate (D)

Good for: A team that wants a self-hosted check between an agent and its shell, database or webhook tools, with a human approval queue.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 0

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where Cisco AI Defense Inspection API loses 3 points for them

Watch for: Agent endpoints need no key unless `AG_AGENT_KEY` is set, the proxy binds 0.0.0.0:8080, and the dashboard key defaults to `dev-key-123`

### Cisco AI Defense Inspection API (C)

Good for: A company already buying Cisco security through Security Cloud Control that wants its own application to decide what to do with each verdict.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 44
- Schema & documentation, 59 against 47
- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 53
- Security & auth, 81 against 49
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 28
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 56

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

Watch for: No public price, free tier or trial for the Inspection API. Subscriptions are bought through sales and activated with a claim code


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AgentGate | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 44 | 80 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +36 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 59 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 67 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 81 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +32 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 0 | AgentGate +60 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 28 | 80 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +52 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 76 | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **48.5 · D** | **61.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AgentGate | Cisco AI Defense Inspection API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mohit Singh (mohitdebian) | Cisco Systems, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Cisco's General Terms and the AI Defense Offer Description. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-23 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 0 stars | 35 stars, 4k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**AgentGate.** An agent or its host can send each tool call to one REST endpoint, or wrap an MCP server, and get allow, deny or ask from a local classifier and a YAML policy, with an audit log and approval queue. The project is three days old, auth is off by default, and no detection accuracy is published.

**Cisco AI Defense Inspection API.** Per-connection API keys with expiry, revocation and regeneration, published limits of 60,000 calls a minute, weekly dated release notes and a one-year retention statement suit companies already on Cisco Security Cloud Control. Access needs a subscription bought through sales, with no public price or trial for the API, and the developer changelog has one entry from February 2025.

## Before you call either

### AgentGate

1. Create a session with the user's real goal first. The goal-alignment head scores every later call against it
2. Pass earlier tool results in `history_override` with `untrusted: true` for web or email content, or the injection head sees only the action
3. On `ask`, stop and tell the user the `decision_id`. Polling `/v1/decisions/:id` needs the dashboard key
4. Treat `allow_with_checkpoint` as allow and keep the `checkpoint_id` for an undo
5. Expect HTTP 404 with `not_found` for an unknown session and 401 when the owner has set an agent key

### Cisco AI Defense Inspection API

1. Send the key in `X-Cisco-AI-Defense-API-Key` to `POST /api/v1/inspect/chat` on the regional host where the tenant was created. US, Europe and Asia Pacific hosts differ
2. If the connection has a policy, `enabled_rules` in the request is ignored. Pass `enabled_rules` only for connections with no policy
3. The API never blocks anything itself. Read `is_safe` and `action` in the response and enforce the decision in your own code
4. On 429, wait and retry. The organisation has gone over one million tokens in parallel or 60,000 calls a minute
5. Don't request the Toxicity rule. It was removed on 16 September 2026, and the Safety rules such as Hate Speech, Harassment and Profanity replace it

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, AgentGate or Cisco AI Defense Inspection API?

Cisco AI Defense Inspection API scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against AgentGate's 48.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. AgentGate leads on payments & pricing.

### Do AgentGate and Cisco AI Defense Inspection API need an API key?

AgentGate needs no key. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API needs an API key.

### Can an agent call AgentGate and Cisco AI Defense Inspection API without installing anything?

AgentGate runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Cisco AI Defense Inspection API has a hosted endpoint at https://us.api.inspect.aidefense.security.cisco.com/api/v1/inspect/chat.

### Are AgentGate and Cisco AI Defense Inspection API open source?

AgentGate is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Cisco AI Defense Inspection API.


## For agents

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

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