Head to head · Agent tracing · October 2026 research run

agents-tree vs Respan API + MCP

Respan API + MCP scores 65.7 (B) on agent readiness against agents-tree's 64.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. agents-tree leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do agent tracing.

Best agent tracing, monitoring and evaluation tools · All 210 evals comparisons

Which one, for what

agents-tree B

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

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 73 against 66
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

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

Respan API + MCP B

Best for Teams that want a gateway and tracing in one integration and an agent that can manage prompts, datasets and evaluators over MCP.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 73 against 60
  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 64
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 63

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

67 MCP tools load by default, with delete tools and no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Payments & pricing agents-tree +30

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.

Respan API + MCP 30

No x402 or other machine payment (0). Overage prices published without login, $8 per 100,000 logs and $1 per 1,000 scores on Team (20). The Free plan has 100,000 logs and unlimited seats. The pricing page doesn't say whether a card is needed, so half (10). Keys can be minted by API, but only with an existing Admin key, so a person still signs up in a browser first (0).

Schema & documentation Respan API + MCP +25

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.

Respan API + MCP 89

OpenAPI 3.1 at respan.ai/docs/openapi.json with 40 or more paths, and every MCP tool takes a zod schema (25). llms.txt, per-section llms.txt and .md for every page (10). MCP descriptions say when to use a tool and when not to. list_logs tells the model to filter server-side rather than fetch everything and to call get_log_detail for full data, and delete_dataset says it can't be undone (17). Typed inputs with operator enums, but page_size bounds sit in the description rather than the schema and filter values are any (11). Worked JSON examples in descriptions, and the spec documents 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 424, 429 and 503 responses (14). Weekly dated changelog. API paths mix /api/ and /api/v1/ with no version policy (12).

Maintenance & community Respan API + MCP +22

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.

Respan API + MCP 85

Packages published from the Apache-2.0 monorepo on 2026-09-30 (30). 195 commits and well over three package publishes since 3 July, and 13 dated changelog entries since 7 July (20). The MCP repository last changed on 15 September. We didn't load issue reply times. Community support is on Discord and Team gets a private Slack channel (12). Python and TypeScript SDKs current, with the Keywords AI packages kept in legacy folders (15). CI and an OpenAI Python compatibility workflow run in public (8).

Reliability Respan API + MCP +13

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.

Respan API + MCP 73

Better Stack page at status.respan.ai with six components (web, logging and gateway, each for the platform and Enterprise) and an incident history page (20). The last 90 days show two incidents, both in late September. The Responses API path through the gateway was affected for OpenAI and Anthropic requests for 13 hours 47 minutes on 26 September, and request logs were delayed across all regions for 1 hour 58 minutes on 29 September. The uptime bars still read 100 per cent for every component (10, one major). Gateway and ingestion limits published per plan, 412 a minute on Free and 8,400 and 4,200 on Team (15). The OpenAPI spec declares 429 on several operations. We found no Retry-After or backoff guidance (10). The pricing page lists a 99.99 per cent uptime SLA on Enterprise, with terms not published (8). Gateway, logging and MCP are GA (10).

Agent ergonomics agents-tree +7

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.

Respan API + MCP 66

The platform MCP server registers 67 tools in its source, about 24,000 characters of descriptions before schemas (5). The Respan-Enabled-Tools header trims the list server-side (8 back). list_logs pages 1 to 50 rows (default 20), returns summary fields unless include_fields asks for more, and defaults to the last hour (20). API errors pass through with status and body, and invalid filters return a typed validation_error naming the field (15). No readOnlyHint or destructiveHint on any tool, although delete_dataset, delete_evaluator, delete_experiment, delete_workflow and remove_dataset_logs are among them, and no idempotency keys found (3). Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and agent skills, with few required parameters (15).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runagents-treeRespan API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%206073Respan API + MCP +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26489Respan API + MCP +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.27366agents-tree +7
Security & auth14%17.56666even
Payments & pricing10%12.56030agents-tree +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86385Respan API + MCP +22
Transparency & trust7%8.86259agents-tree +3
Negative events≤150-2
TotalB 64.3/100B 65.7/100

Facts side by side

Factagents-treeRespan API + MCP
KindAgent frameworkHTTP API
VendorKarel BlavkaRespan (formerly Keywords AI)
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.respan.ai/api
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Karel Blavka)Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source)
Tools exposednone67
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-082026-09-30
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read2026-02-25
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-02-25
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readyes
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readyes
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readyes
Popularitynone270 npm/wk, 13k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (2)

How the scores have moved

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.

Respan API + MCP

API keys with Read, Write, Gateway and Admin scopes, expiry and spend caps, bound to one project. 67 MCP tools load by default, with delete tools and no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations.

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.

Respan API + MCP

  1. Create a key with only the Read scope for agents that analyse logs. New keys get Read, Write and Gateway by default
  2. Set Respan-Enabled-Tools to a short list such as list_traces,get_trace_tree,list_logs. All 67 tools load otherwise
  3. Pass filters to list_logs rather than paging through everything. The default window is the last hour
  4. Call list_organizations first when results look empty over OAuth. Every tool acts on the active organisation only
  5. Append .md to any docs URL for clean Markdown

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, agents-tree or Respan API + MCP?

Respan API + MCP scores 65.7 (B) on agent readiness against agents-tree's 64.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. agents-tree leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

Can an agent call agents-tree and Respan API + MCP without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for agents-tree. Respan API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.respan.ai/api.

Are agents-tree and Respan API + MCP open source?

agents-tree is open source (MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Karel Blavka)). No open-source release is listed for Respan API + MCP.

Other comparisons with agents-tree or Respan API + MCP

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.