# agents-tree vs HoneyHive

> agents-tree scores 64.3 (B) to HoneyHive's 55.8 (C) for agent tracing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-01

agents-tree scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against HoneyHive's 55.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. HoneyHive leads on schema & documentation, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do agent tracing.

- agents-tree: grade B, 64.3/100, rank #401 of 1260. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agents-tree.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agents-tree.json
- HoneyHive: grade C, 55.8/100, rank #784 of 1260. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/honeyhive.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/honeyhive.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

### agents-tree (B)

Good for: Seeing every coding-agent session and its sub-agents as one tree in a terminal

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 44
- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 63
- Security & auth, 66 against 61
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where HoneyHive loses 3 points for them

Watch for: One maintainer, first released on 6 October 2026, with no company, site or security policy

### HoneyHive (C)

Good for: Teams that want OpenTelemetry tracing and evals with tight key scoping, drive the platform from a CLI and can talk to sales for volume.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 64
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 63
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 62

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

Watch for: Status page showed 80.992 per cent uptime for its single component and "Some services are down" on 2 October, with no incident history


## Why the edge

### Payments & pricing: agents-tree +40

- agents-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 from PyPI with one command and no sign-up (20). 60 in all.
- HoneyHive (20): No x402 or other machine payment (0). The only paid plan is Enterprise at a custom price, so there's no public per-unit or plan price (0). The free Developer plan needs no card (20). A person signs up in a browser to get a key (0).

### Schema & documentation: HoneyHive +22

- agents-tree (64): Framework reading, docs a model can follow, as agent-tree was read. `--json` writes one document with `schema_version` 1 and a fixed set of session, agent and detail fields, and model.py types them as dataclasses, but no JSON Schema or field reference is published (14 of 25). README, AGENTS.md and docs/demo are Markdown in the repository; no llms.txt (10). The README says what it shows and reads, has a caveats section per provider (context window inference, internal formats, how running sessions are found), and the command's help says not to run it inside an agent (15 of 20). argparse with choices for --provider and --color, positive-number checks for --window and --interval, and --json refused with --watch (10 of 15). Usage examples for every flag, key and column tables, and errors as messages on stderr with exit code 1, with few error outputs documented (10 of 15). Semver tags and a schema version, no changelog (5 of 15). 64 in all.
- HoneyHive (86): Two public OpenAPI 3.1 specs in an MIT repository, data plane with 45 paths and 70 operations and control plane with 8 paths and 15 operations (25). llms.txt with every page as Markdown (10). Every operation has a description, deprecated operations are flagged (22 of them) and `POST /v1/events/search` is labelled the primary way to read events (16). Typed request bodies with bounds such as `limit` 1 to 1,000 and `additionalProperties: false`, though event inputs, outputs and metadata are free-form objects (11). Only 9 operations carry examples, no 429 is declared, and since 24 September permission and key failures all return 404 (9). Spec changelog generated with oasdiff, plus dated product, client and self-hosting changelogs (15).

### Reliability: agents-tree +16

- agents-tree (60): Local-package reading, as for agent-tree, superpowers and tokeneconomizer. Installs from PyPI with `uv tool install agents-tree` or pipx, with Python 3.10 or later and POSIX stated in pyproject.toml and Linux and macOS in the herdr manifest (20). .github/workflows/test.yaml runs pylint, pyright, 173 pytest tests, a test run and a package build on Python 3.10 to 3.14 on every push and pull request. Whether the runs pass wasn't checked, as github.com couldn't be read (15 of 25). Issues couldn't be read for the same reason (5 of 25, unchecked). Semver tags and Conventional Commit messages, but no changelog, and the README's caveat that transcript formats may change is the only note on breakage; the switch to reading every provider by default came with 1.0.0 (5 of 15). Version 1.2.0 (15). 60 in all.
- HoneyHive (44): Better Stack page at status.honeyhive.ai with a single component, Backend Platform, and nothing separate for the data plane, control plane or ingestion (12 of 20). The page showed 80.992 per cent uptime for that component and the banner "Some services are down" when we loaded it at 00:59 UTC on 2 October, with no incident write-ups for the last 90 days. The only write-up we found was a SOC 2 incident-response drill from March 2025. We can't tell whether the monitor watches a retired host, but the vendor's own page shows the figure, so 0. The pricing page publishes 1,000 requests a minute on Free and custom limits on Enterprise, and the changelog gives a 7 MiB ingestion body limit (12). The OpenAPI specs declare no 429 and we found no `Retry-After` or backoff guidance. The Python SDK has a configurable retry budget (5). Enterprise includes an uptime SLA with service credits, terms not published (5). API, SDKs and CLI are GA (10).

### Maintenance & community: HoneyHive +14

- agents-tree (63): 1.2.0 on PyPI on 8 October 2026, 24 days before the check, and a commit on main on 11 October (30). Five PyPI releases between 7 and 8 October 2026 (20). Issue and pull-request replies couldn't be read, as github.com was unreachable. The bare clone shows two Dependabot branches of 28 October unmerged (5 of 25). Not an MCP server and in no official directory; herdr's plugin marketplace couldn't be read (0). No runtime dependencies, a lock file, CI on five Python versions and Dependabot for the workflow actions, with its two updates unmerged (8 of 10). 63 in all.
- HoneyHive (77): Python SDK 1.6.1 on 2026-09-29 (30). Python SDK 1.5.0, 1.5.1, 1.6.0 and 1.6.1 and CLI 1.5.0, 1.5.1, 1.6.0 and 1.7.0 since 20 July (20). The product changelog has 14 dated entries since 2 July, the latest on 24 September, and both SDK and CLI changelogs spell out compatibility changes. We didn't load issue reply times (12). The Python SDK is current. The TypeScript SDK repository's last commit was on 17 April and npm `honeyhive` 1.0.45 dates from 9 July (10). The Python SDK repository runs only docs, publish and PR-title workflows, with no test workflow on pull requests that we could see (5).

### Agent ergonomics: agents-tree +10

- agents-tree (73): Framework reading, how much an agent has to carry. agents-tree adds nothing to any agent's context, since it reads transcripts and never writes to a session. Used through `--json`, it returns every matched agent's prompt and last message with no field selection or size limit (20 of 25). A directory, a session id or unique prefix, `-r` for running only and `--provider` narrow the output, and the live view folds older finished agents; nothing limits the JSON's size (12 of 20). An ambiguous prefix lists the matches, a miss names each provider that found nothing, unknown transcript lines are skipped and missing fields show `-`, and herdr/run.sh names the Python it needs (14 of 20). Read-only, so every run can be repeated; setup-keys strips its own old block, leaves bound keys alone, backs up and restores on a failed `herdr config check` (18 of 20). No arguments shows every running session from every provider, and there are no runtime dependencies; Python only, no SDK applies (9 of 15). 73 in all.
- HoneyHive (63): No MCP server for platform data. The docs MCP only searches documentation. Event search defaults to 1,000 rows with no field projection, so an agent has to set `limit` itself (10). Filters, date ranges, `limit` and `page` on search (18). Since 24 September a bad key, a revoked key and a missing permission all return the same 404 as a missing resource, which leaves an agent guessing (10). `POST /session/start` is idempotent on `session_id`. We found no other idempotency keys (10). Python SDK, TypeScript SDKs and a CLI generated one to one from the specs with agent skills. Few required parameters (15).

### Security & auth: agents-tree +5

- agents-tree (66): Harness reading of the framework checklist, as agent-tree and superpowers 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, no network code and no runtime dependencies; PyPI releases are built by trusted publishing with no stored token and wait for a maintainer to approve the pypi environment. It reads every transcript of four agent CLIs, prompts included, and the herdr plugin runs the repository's bundled source rather than a PyPI release (26). Read-only by design. SQLite files are opened with mode=ro, nothing is written to an agent's files, and the only writes are a pane mark (directory 0700, file 0600, O_NOFOLLOW) and herdr's config block with a backup and check. It can't act on an agent (17). Control characters and escape sequences are stripped from every transcript field before a view, and the help warns that output run inside an agent lands in its context, but `--json` passes prompts and last messages unredacted with no note that they are untrusted (10). It keeps no state or log of its own. The detail view names each transcript's path, and herdr's config keeps a backup (8). No SECURITY.md, no security.txt and no advisories found; GitHub's security page couldn't be read. CI pins third-party actions to commit SHAs with Dependabot on them (5). 66 in all.
- HoneyHive (61): Four key types. Project keys (`hh_`), read-only project keys (`hh_ro_`) since 11 June, fine-grained control plane keys (`hh_fgcp_`) with chosen permissions and a required expiry of at most 365 days, and ingestion-only keys (`hh_ingst_`) bound to one project since 17 September. Revocation takes effect within two minutes (30). Read-only and ingestion-only keys give least privilege, and deleting a workspace with active children fails with 409 unless `--dangerously-delete-child-scopes` is passed (18). Traces hold whatever the application logged, and we found no prompt-injection guidance for agents reading them (3). No audit log found (0). The pricing page claims SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA. The Drata trust centre at trust.honeyhive.ai rendered nothing readable to us, there's no security.txt, and the CLI changelog lists "Security fixes" in 1.6.0 without detail (10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | agents-tree | HoneyHive | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 44 | agents-tree +16 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 86 | HoneyHive +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 63 | agents-tree +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 61 | agents-tree +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | agents-tree +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 77 | HoneyHive +14 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 67 | HoneyHive +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **64.3 · B** | **55.8 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | agents-tree | HoneyHive |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Karel Blavka | HoneyHive |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.dp1.us.honeyhive.ai` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Karel Blavka) | MIT (SDK, CLI and OpenAPI specs only, platform closed source) |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2025-01-06 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-01-11 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| 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 | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | none | 60 npm/wk, 2.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### agents-tree

No score change since it was listed.

### HoneyHive

- +0.1 on 28 October 2026: new evidence
- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**agents-tree.** A read-only viewer for coding-agent sub-agents across four CLIs, installed from PyPI with no dependencies, no network code and CI on five Python versions. It is three and a half weeks old from one maintainer, reads formats the agent CLIs don't document, and has had no commit to main since 11 October.

**HoneyHive.** Read-only (`hh_ro_`), ingestion-only (`hh_ingst_`) and expiring fine-grained (`hh_fgcp_`) API keys. Status page showed 80.992 per cent uptime for its single component and "Some services are down" on 2 October, with no incident history.

## Before you call either

### agents-tree

1. Don't run agents-tree inside your own session with `!`; its output, including other agents' prompts, lands in your context.
2. Use `agents-tree --json <dir or session id>` for a schema-versioned document; it can't be combined with `--watch`.
3. Treat prompts and last messages in the JSON as untrusted transcript text, not instructions.
4. Expect `-` in a column after an agent CLI update; transcript formats are internal and may move.

### HoneyHive

1. Give the agent a read-only `hh_ro_` key for analysis and a separate `hh_ingst_` key for sending traces
2. Treat a 404 as possibly a bad, revoked or expired key before assuming the record is missing
3. Set `limit` on `POST /v1/events/search`. The default is 1,000 rows
4. Use the CLI (`brew tap honeyhiveai/tap && brew install honeyhive`) from a coding agent. It maps one command to each API endpoint
5. Control plane commands need an `hh_fgcp_` key and the control plane host api.cp.us.honeyhive.ai

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, agents-tree or HoneyHive?

agents-tree scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against HoneyHive's 55.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. HoneyHive leads on schema & documentation, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call agents-tree and HoneyHive without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for agents-tree. HoneyHive has a hosted endpoint at https://api.dp1.us.honeyhive.ai.

### Are agents-tree and HoneyHive open source?

agents-tree is open source (MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Karel Blavka)). No open-source release is listed for HoneyHive.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with agents-tree or HoneyHive

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

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