{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "akeyless", "name": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)", "vendor": "Akeyless", "vendorUrl": "https://www.akeyless.io", "kind": "platform", "category": "secrets", "summary": "SaaS secrets and machine-identity platform with a self-hosted Gateway that brokers access.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akeyless", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akeyless.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akeyless.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/akeyless.json", "repo": "https://github.com/akeylesslabs/akeyless-python", "license": "Apache-2.0 (SDKs), closed platform", "transports": [ "http", "stdio", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.akeyless.io", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "akeyless" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "akeyless" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "POST /auth with an access-id and a credential from an access key, AWS IAM, Azure AD, GCP, Kubernetes, OIDC, SAML, LDAP, JWT, certificate, OCI, Kerberos or Universal Identity, returning a token passed in the body of later calls. The docs say API key auth is for proofs of concept, not production, and the access key is shown once. The MCP servers reuse the CLI profile or explicit auth flags and inherit its RBAC.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Free and Enterprise plans. The free plan has 5 clients, 500 static secrets, 5 dynamic secrets, 5 rotated secrets, 3 targets, 1 OIDC app, 1 SSH and 1 PKI certificate issuer, 5 managed certificates, 1,000 encryption and KMS transactions a day, 5 KMS keys, 5 password manager users with 5 static and 50 shared passwords, 1 Gateway cluster and 3 days of audit log retention, without SAML, OIDC or LDAP auth, zero-knowledge mode, HSM integration or event forwarding. Enterprise is quoted, with clients and transactions counted at the end of each month and overage billed at the end of the 12-month contract. No dollar figures are published (https://www.akeyless.io/pricing/).", "priceSummary": "Freemium", "where": "both", "x402": { "level": "no", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 2, "npmWeekly": 3523, "pypiWeekly": 219234, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.akeyless.io", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.akeyless.io/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://github.com/akeylesslabs/akeyless-go/blob/v5/api/openapi.yaml", "capabilities": [ "secrets.store", "secrets.rotate", "secrets.machine-identity", "secrets.audit", "auth.agent-identity" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "closed-source", "freemium", "free-tier", "mcp", "local", "python", "typescript", "go", "enterprise" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-17", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 73.6, "grade": "BB", "agentReady": true, "rank": 74, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 722, "categoryRank": 5, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 63, "maintenance": 82, "payments": 25, "reliability": 90, "schema": 81, "security": 89, "transparency": 72 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Gateway-brokered SecretlessAI and a runtime-authority MCP server with 4 tools that return results, not credentials. No published prices above the free plan; clients and transactions are metered with overage billed at the end of a 12-month contract.", "bestFor": "Enterprises that want agents to use credentials without holding them, through a Gateway they run, and who will sign a quoted contract.", "strengths": [ "Gateway-brokered SecretlessAI and a runtime-authority MCP server with 4 tools that return results, not credentials", "Runtime Authority intent rules with a kill switch, generally available since 9 September 2026", "SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, PCI DSS and FIPS 140-3 validation listed in the trust centre, plus a bug bounty", "A 99.99% availability SLA on every support tier, with transaction caps published per tier", "OpenAPI 3.0 document for 657 paths in the Go SDK repository, and an llms.txt with about 800 Markdown links" ], "weaknesses": [ "No published prices above the free plan; clients and transactions are metered with overage billed at the end of a 12-month contract", "Errors come back as a single `error` string with no code, and no Retry-After or backoff guidance turned up", "The free plan has no OIDC, SAML or LDAP auth and keeps audit logs for 3 days", "akeyless mcp can return secret values to the model, and neither MCP server has a published tool list, version or registry entry", "No security.txt, and the closed CLI and Gateway are the only way to run the MCP servers" ], "agentNotes": [ "Run akeyless mcp-runtime-authority, not akeyless mcp, for an agent that acts on systems; the first returns results, the second has get_secret and get_password", "Authenticate with a cloud identity, Kubernetes or Universal Identity rather than an access key, which the docs reserve for proofs of concept", "Use CLI 1.130.0 or later for either MCP server, and point the client at your Gateway URL", "Count identities and calls before scaling. The free plan allows 5 clients, and calls over a tier's cap (200 a minute on Silver) are billed as extra clients, not refused", "Pass the token in the JSON body of each POST, and page `/list-items` with `pagination-token`" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "BB", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 73.6 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 63, "maintenance": 82, "payments": 25, "reliability": 90, "schema": 81, "security": 89, "transparency": 71 }, "provenanceScore": 72 }, "connect": { "install": "pip install akeyless # or: npm i akeyless", "http": "TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST https://api.akeyless.io/auth -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d \"{\\\"access-id\\\":\\\"$AKEYLESS_ACCESS_ID\\\",\\\"access-key\\\":\\\"$AKEYLESS_ACCESS_KEY\\\"}\" | jq -r .token)\ncurl -s -X POST https://api.akeyless.io/get-secret-value -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d \"{\\\"names\\\":[\\\"/prod/db-password\\\"],\\\"token\\\":\\\"$TOKEN\\\"}\"", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add akeyless -- akeyless mcp-runtime-authority", "config": { "mcpServers": { "akeyless": { "args": [ "mcp-runtime-authority" ], "command": "akeyless" } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/secrets.store", "tool": "https://letme.dev/akeyless" }, "area": "agent-runtime", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Akeyless Security Ltd.", "domain": "akeyless.io", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.akeyless.io/terms-of-service/", "privacy": "https://www.akeyless.io/privacy-policy/", "statusPage": "https://status.akeyless.io", "changelog": "https://changelog.akeyless.io/cli", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-01", "notes": [ "Website terms (21 March 2026) and privacy policy (5 May 2026) name Akeyless Security Ltd., Ze'ev Jabotinsky St. 7, Ramat Gan, Israel, with a US subsidiary Akeyless Security USA, Inc. The terms cover the website only; the service runs under a separate licence or master services agreement.", "www.akeyless.io/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 when checked on 30 September 2026.", "The .io RDAP servers answered 429 and a robots.txt failure, so the registration date is blank.", "The status page history shows one incident since 3 July 2026, 21 minutes of degraded dynamic secret performance in us-east-2 on 23 September, and a scheduled maintenance window on 19 July.", "The CLI changelog at changelog.akeyless.io dates each release, 1.152.0 on 16 September 2026 being the newest." ], "score": 72 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akeyless.json", "live": { "slug": "akeyless", "probe": { "target": "https://api.akeyless.io", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-09T00:10:20.650263399Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 405, "lastMs": 49, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 50, "p95ms24h": 103, "samples24h": 268, "samples30d": 1986, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-01", "probes": 109, "ok": 109 }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 271, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-06", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 268, "ok": 268 }, { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 2, "ok": 2 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.akeyless.io", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T00:11:56.423589382Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "akeyless", "version": "5.0.39", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T15:57:22.638958691Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "akeyless", "version": "5.0.39", "released": "2026-10-06", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T15:57:19.679296437Z" } ], "githubStars": 2, "npmWeekly": 3587, "pypiWeekly": 192330, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://akeyless.io/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T15:38:50.161949588Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.akeyless.io/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T13:59:59.863503602Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "akeyless.io", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:09:25.717264008Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://changelog.akeyless.io/cli", "kind": "changelog", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:16:06.245599167Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-07T18:03:10.44050169Z", "fingerprint": "f0221e37b77a" }, { "url": "https://www.akeyless.io/pricing/", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:26:04.908061169Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-03T15:36:56.900207187Z", "fingerprint": "23bd00d937d2" }, { "url": "https://www.akeyless.io/privacy-policy/", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:26:07.401360347Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-03T15:36:59.079097768Z", "fingerprint": "ae198dd0fa22" }, { "url": "https://www.akeyless.io/terms-of-service/", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:26:10.020038635Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-03T15:37:02.238780939Z", "fingerprint": "32e16cb5a55b" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T00:11:56.423589382Z" } }, "answer": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Pulumi ESC's 71.1 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pulumi ESC leads on agent ergonomics and payments \u0026 pricing.", "b": { "slug": "pulumi-esc", "name": "Pulumi ESC", "vendor": "Pulumi Corporation", "vendorUrl": "https://www.pulumi.com", "kind": "http-api", "category": "secrets", "summary": "Pulumi ESC is the secrets and configuration service in Pulumi Cloud. Environments hold static secrets, pull from other vaults and issue short-lived cloud credentials over OIDC, read through the Pulumi CLI, a REST API and four SDKs.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pulumi-esc", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pulumi-esc.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pulumi-esc.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pulumi-esc.json", "repo": "https://github.com/pulumi/esc-sdk", "license": "Proprietary service under Pulumi's Terms \u0026 Conditions. The Pulumi CLI, the ESC evaluator and the ESC SDKs are Apache-2.0", "transports": [ "http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.pulumi.com", "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@pulumi/esc-sdk" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "pulumi-esc-sdk" }, { "registry": "go", "name": "github.com/pulumi/esc-sdk/sdk" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Self-serve. Every request sends `Authorization: token \u003ctoken\u003e` to https://api.pulumi.com. A personal token comes from the console and carries all of the user's permissions. Organisation tokens (Essentials and above) and team tokens (Pro and above) are machine tokens that take a role, and custom roles with environment scopes need Pro. A workload on a registered OIDC issuer (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, EKS, GKE and others) exchanges its ID token for a short-lived Pulumi token with `pulumi login --oidc-token` or POST /api/oauth/token. Under an agent with no credentials the CLI creates an ephemeral account by itself.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Free edition with 25 secrets and 10,000 API calls a month for one user, no card. Essentials is $40 a month, Pro $400 and Enterprise $2,000, each including that many credits, with a managed secret at $0.50, $0.75 or $1.00 a month and API calls at $0.10 per 10,000. An agent can start with no contract through the free edition or an agent account (https://www.pulumi.com/pricing/, checked 2026-10-08).", "priceSummary": "$0.01 / 1k req", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the ESC docs, the OpenAPI document or the pricing page (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": 20661, "pypiWeekly": 53903, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://www.pulumi.com/docs/esc/", "llmsTxt": "https://www.pulumi.com/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://api.pulumi.com/api/openapi/pulumi-spec.json", "capabilities": [ "secrets.store", "secrets.rotate", "secrets.machine-identity", "secrets.audit" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "closed-source", "freemium", "free-tier", "no-card", "openapi", "llms-txt", "oidc", "cli", "typescript", "python", "go", "dotnet", "status-page", "soc2", "enterprise" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-07", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 71.1, "grade": "BB", "agentReady": true, "rank": 120, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 722, "categoryRank": 7, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 75, "maintenance": 82, "payments": 55, "reliability": 60, "schema": 82, "security": 79, "transparency": 65 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "An agent can start without a signup, because the Pulumi CLI creates a free ephemeral account that includes ESC, and the REST API has a public OpenAPI document. Audit logs, custom roles and approvals need the Pro edition at $400 a month, and no API rate limit was found in the reviewed documentation.", "bestFor": "Teams already on Pulumi, or anyone who wants one place that composes static secrets, other vaults and short-lived cloud credentials, and agents that need to start with no signup.", "strengths": [ "The Pulumi CLI creates a free ephemeral account for an agent with no signup, with write access for 72 hours and 30 days to claim it", "Public OpenAPI 3.0.3 document with 127 ESC operations, an llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every docs page", "OIDC issuers exchange a workload's ID token for a short-lived Pulumi token, 25 hours at most by default", "Separate read, open and write scopes per environment, with open approvals and update approvals on Pro and Enterprise", "Prices published per unit, $0.50 a secret a month on Essentials and $0.10 per 10,000 API calls, with a free edition and no card" ], "weaknesses": [ "Audit logs, custom roles, team tokens, approvals and customer-managed keys need Pro ($400 a month) or Enterprise", "No API rate limit with numbers was found in the reviewed documentation", "No public data processing addendum or subprocessor list was found, and the terms and privacy statement carry no date", "The official Pulumi MCP server lists no ESC tools, and the standalone esc CLI was retired at v0.26.0 on 9 July 2026", "A 42-minute major incident on 6 October 2026 affected inbound OIDC on the API and ESC, with no detail published", "The free edition has personal tokens only, which carry all of the user's permissions" ], "agentNotes": [ "Use `pulumi env`, not `esc`. The standalone CLI stopped at v0.26.0 and gets no security fixes", "Read one value with `pulumi env open \u003corg\u003e/\u003cproject\u003e/\u003cenv\u003e \u003cproperty path\u003e` so the whole environment doesn't enter context", "Run tools with `pulumi env run \u003cenv\u003e -- \u003ccmd\u003e`, which filters secret values from the command's output unless -i is set", "Set PULUMI_ACCESS_TOKEN for the SDKs. From 0.14.0 they no longer read the CLI login on disk", "Send `Authorization: token \u003ctoken\u003e` and `Accept: application/vnd.pulumi+8` on REST calls, and expect 409 when an environment changed since it was read", "Relay the claim link an agent account prints. The account goes read-only after 72 hours and locks after 30 days unclaimed" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "BB", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 71.1 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 75, "maintenance": 82, "payments": 55, "reliability": 60, "schema": 82, "security": 79, "transparency": 48 }, "provenanceScore": 82 }, "connect": { "install": "curl -fsSL https://get.pulumi.com | sh", "http": "curl -H \"Authorization: token $PULUMI_ACCESS_TOKEN\" \\\n -H \"Accept: application/vnd.pulumi+8\" \\\n https://api.pulumi.com/api/user" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/secrets.store", "tool": "https://letme.dev/pulumi-esc" }, "area": "agent-runtime", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "ESC API calls", "unit": "1k-requests", "usd": 0.01, "note": "$0.10 per 10,000. First 10,000 a month free on the free edition" }, { "item": "Essentials edition", "unit": "month", "usd": 40, "note": "Includes 40 credits. A managed secret is $0.50 a month" }, { "item": "Pro edition", "unit": "month", "usd": 400, "note": "Includes 400 credits. A managed secret is $0.75 a month" }, { "item": "Enterprise edition", "unit": "month", "usd": 2000, "note": "Includes 2,000 credits. A managed secret is $1.00 a month" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Pulumi Corporation", "domain": "pulumi.com", "domainRegistered": "2017-02-13", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.pulumi.com/terms-and-conditions/", "privacy": "https://www.pulumi.com/privacy/", "statusPage": "https://status.pulumi.com", "changelog": "https://www.pulumi.com/releases/changelog/", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The Terms \u0026 Conditions govern use of the Pulumi Services and name Pulumi Corporation, 601 Union St., Suite 1415, Seattle, WA 98101, with Washington law and King County courts. We found no date on the page.", "The privacy statement covers customers who register to use the services and gives privacy@pulumi.com as contact. We found no date on the page.", "www.pulumi.com/.well-known/security.txt and www.pulumi.com/security.txt both return 404. The security page gives security@pulumi.com and a PGP key.", "status.pulumi.com is Atlassian Statuspage with an ESC component. Its incident feed goes back to October 2023.", "No data processing addendum or subprocessor list was found on www.pulumi.com. The addresses we tried returned 404 and the sitemap lists neither.", "RDAP for pulumi.com gives a registration date of 2017-02-13." ], "score": 82 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pulumi-esc.json", "live": { "slug": "pulumi-esc", "probe": { "target": "https://api.pulumi.com", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-09T00:10:36.198774742Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 153, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 159, "p95ms24h": 227, "samples24h": 72, "samples30d": 72, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 70, "ok": 70 }, { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 2, "ok": 2 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.pulumi.com", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T00:13:33.169667858Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://www.pulumi.com/releases/changelog/", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:29:52.955269848Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "ddd6467eba9b" }, { "url": "https://www.pulumi.com/pricing/", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:29:48.804855492Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "ba84dc7bc768" }, { "url": "https://www.pulumi.com/privacy/", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:29:51.056197289Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "96eac852b529" }, { "url": "https://www.pulumi.com/terms-and-conditions/", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:29:55.102680068Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "660bfdce2184" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T00:13:33.169667858Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "Model platform", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Akeyless", "b": "Pulumi Corporation", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://api.akeyless.io", "b": "https://api.pulumi.com", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "OAuth or key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Freemium", "b": "Freemium", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "Apache-2.0 (SDKs), closed platform", "b": "Proprietary service under Pulumi's Terms \u0026 Conditions. The Pulumi CLI, the ESC evaluator and the ESC SDKs are Apache-2.0", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-09-17", "b": "2026-10-07", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2026-03-21", "b": "no date given", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2026-05-05", "b": "no date given", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "2 stars, 3.5k npm/wk, 219k PyPI/wk", "b": "21k npm/wk, 54k PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3/5 (2)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Pulumi ESC's 71.1 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pulumi ESC leads on agent ergonomics and payments \u0026 pricing.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) or Pulumi ESC?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.akeyless.io and Pulumi ESC at https://api.pulumi.com.", "question": "Can an agent call Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) and Pulumi ESC without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 90 against 60", "Security \u0026 auth, 89 against 79", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 72 against 65" ], "also": [ "Runs on your own machine" ], "goodFor": "Enterprises that want agents to use credentials without holding them, through a Gateway they run, and who will sign a quoted contract.", "slug": "akeyless", "watchFor": "No published prices above the free plan; clients and transactions are metered with overage billed at the end of a 12-month contract" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Agent ergonomics, 75 against 63", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 55 against 25" ], "also": [ "Free to start without a card" ], "goodFor": "Teams already on Pulumi, or anyone who wants one place that composes static secrets, other vaults and short-lived cloud credentials, and agents that need to start with no signup.", "slug": "pulumi-esc", "watchFor": "Audit logs, custom roles, team tokens, approvals and customer-managed keys need Pro ($400 a month) or Enterprise" } ], "job": { "capability": "secrets.store", "name": "Secrets store" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/1password-vs-akeyless.json", "title": "1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP vs Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/1password-vs-akeyless" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/1password-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/1password-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-aws-secrets-manager.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs AWS Secrets Manager", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-aws-secrets-manager" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-azure-key-vault.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Azure Key Vault", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-azure-key-vault" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-bitwarden-secrets-manager.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Bitwarden Secrets Manager", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-bitwarden-secrets-manager" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-doppler.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Doppler", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-doppler" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-google-secret-manager.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Google Cloud Secret Manager", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-google-secret-manager" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-hashicorp-vault.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-hashicorp-vault" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-infisical.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Infisical", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-infisical" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-keeper-secrets-manager.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Keeper Secrets Manager", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-keeper-secrets-manager" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-phase.json", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Phase", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-phase" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "AWS Secrets Manager vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-key-vault-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "Azure Key Vault vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-key-vault-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitwarden-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "Bitwarden Secrets Manager vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitwarden-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/doppler-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "Doppler vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/doppler-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-secret-manager-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "Google Cloud Secret Manager vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-secret-manager-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hashicorp-vault-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hashicorp-vault-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/infisical-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "Infisical vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/infisical-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keeper-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "Keeper Secrets Manager vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keeper-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/phase-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "title": "Phase vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/phase-vs-pulumi-esc" } ], "scores": [ { "akeyless": 90, "by": 30, "edge": "akeyless", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "pulumi-esc": 60, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "akeyless": 81, "by": 1, "edge": "pulumi-esc", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "pulumi-esc": 82, "weight": 13 }, { "akeyless": 63, "by": 12, "edge": "pulumi-esc", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "pulumi-esc": 75, "weight": 13 }, { "akeyless": 89, "by": 10, "edge": "akeyless", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "pulumi-esc": 79, "weight": 14 }, { "akeyless": 25, "by": 30, "edge": "pulumi-esc", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "pulumi-esc": 55, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "akeyless": 82, "by": 0, "edge": "", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "pulumi-esc": 82, "weight": 7 }, { "akeyless": 72, "by": 7, "edge": "akeyless", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "pulumi-esc": 65, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Pulumi ESC's 71.1 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pulumi ESC leads on agent ergonomics and payments \u0026 pricing. Both do secrets store.", "verdicts": { "akeyless": "Gateway-brokered SecretlessAI and a runtime-authority MCP server with 4 tools that return results, not credentials. No published prices above the free plan; clients and transactions are metered with overage billed at the end of a 12-month contract.", "pulumi-esc": "An agent can start without a signup, because the Pulumi CLI creates a free ephemeral account that includes ESC, and the REST API has a public OpenAPI document. Audit logs, custom roles and approvals need the Pro edition at $400 a month, and no API rate limit was found in the reviewed documentation." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc.min.md" }, "markdown": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Pulumi ESC's 71.1 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pulumi ESC leads on agent ergonomics and payments \u0026 pricing. Both do secrets store.\n\n- Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server): grade BB, 73.6/100, rank #74 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akeyless.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/akeyless.json\n- Pulumi ESC: grade BB, 71.1/100, rank #120 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pulumi-esc.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pulumi-esc.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) (BB)\n\nGood for: Enterprises that want agents to use credentials without holding them, through a Gateway they run, and who will sign a quoted contract.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 90 against 60\n- Security \u0026 auth, 89 against 79\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 72 against 65\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Runs on your own machine\n\nWatch for: No published prices above the free plan; clients and transactions are metered with overage billed at the end of a 12-month contract\n\n### Pulumi ESC (BB)\n\nGood for: Teams already on Pulumi, or anyone who wants one place that composes static secrets, other vaults and short-lived cloud credentials, and agents that need to start with no signup.\n\nAhead on:\n- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 63\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 55 against 25\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Free to start without a card\n\nWatch for: Audit logs, custom roles, team tokens, approvals and customer-managed keys need Pro ($400 a month) or Enterprise\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) | Pulumi ESC | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 60 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +30 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 82 | Pulumi ESC +1 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 75 | Pulumi ESC +12 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 89 | 79 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +10 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 55 | Pulumi ESC +30 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 82 | even |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 65 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +7 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **73.6 · BB** | **71.1 · BB** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) | Pulumi ESC |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Akeyless | Pulumi Corporation |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.akeyless.io` | `https://api.pulumi.com` |\n| Transports | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs), closed platform | Proprietary service under Pulumi's Terms \u0026 Conditions. The Pulumi CLI, the ESC evaluator and the ESC SDKs are Apache-2.0 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-10-07 |\n| Terms last updated | 2026-03-21 | no date given |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-05 | no date given |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | 2 stars, 3.5k npm/wk, 219k PyPI/wk | 21k npm/wk, 54k PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server).** Gateway-brokered SecretlessAI and a runtime-authority MCP server with 4 tools that return results, not credentials. No published prices above the free plan; clients and transactions are metered with overage billed at the end of a 12-month contract.\n\n**Pulumi ESC.** An agent can start without a signup, because the Pulumi CLI creates a free ephemeral account that includes ESC, and the REST API has a public OpenAPI document. Audit logs, custom roles and approvals need the Pro edition at $400 a month, and no API rate limit was found in the reviewed documentation.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)\n\n1. Run akeyless mcp-runtime-authority, not akeyless mcp, for an agent that acts on systems; the first returns results, the second has get_secret and get_password\n2. Authenticate with a cloud identity, Kubernetes or Universal Identity rather than an access key, which the docs reserve for proofs of concept\n3. Use CLI 1.130.0 or later for either MCP server, and point the client at your Gateway URL\n4. Count identities and calls before scaling. The free plan allows 5 clients, and calls over a tier's cap (200 a minute on Silver) are billed as extra clients, not refused\n5. Pass the token in the JSON body of each POST, and page `/list-items` with `pagination-token`\n\n### Pulumi ESC\n\n1. Use `pulumi env`, not `esc`. The standalone CLI stopped at v0.26.0 and gets no security fixes\n2. Read one value with `pulumi env open \u003corg\u003e/\u003cproject\u003e/\u003cenv\u003e \u003cproperty path\u003e` so the whole environment doesn't enter context\n3. Run tools with `pulumi env run \u003cenv\u003e -- \u003ccmd\u003e`, which filters secret values from the command's output unless -i is set\n4. Set PULUMI_ACCESS_TOKEN for the SDKs. From 0.14.0 they no longer read the CLI login on disk\n5. Send `Authorization: token \u003ctoken\u003e` and `Accept: application/vnd.pulumi+8` on REST calls, and expect 409 when an environment changed since it was read\n6. Relay the claim link an agent account prints. The account goes read-only after 72 hours and locks after 30 days unclaimed\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) or Pulumi ESC?\n\nAkeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Pulumi ESC's 71.1 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pulumi ESC leads on agent ergonomics and payments \u0026 pricing.\n\n### Can an agent call Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) and Pulumi ESC without installing anything?\n\nYes. Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.akeyless.io and Pulumi ESC at https://api.pulumi.com.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"akeyless\", \"b\": \"pulumi-esc\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare akeyless pulumi-esc`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/akeyless.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pulumi-esc.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) or Pulumi ESC\n\n- [1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP vs Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/1password-vs-akeyless.md)\n- [1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/1password-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs AWS Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-aws-secrets-manager.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Azure Key Vault](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-azure-key-vault.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Bitwarden Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-bitwarden-secrets-manager.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Doppler](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-doppler.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Google Cloud Secret Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-google-secret-manager.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-hashicorp-vault.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Infisical](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-infisical.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Keeper Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-keeper-secrets-manager.md)\n- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Phase](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-phase.md)\n- [AWS Secrets Manager vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [Azure Key Vault vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-key-vault-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [Bitwarden Secrets Manager vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitwarden-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [Doppler vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/doppler-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [Google Cloud Secret Manager vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-secret-manager-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hashicorp-vault-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [Infisical vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/infisical-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [Keeper Secrets Manager vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keeper-secrets-manager-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n- [Phase vs Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/phase-vs-pulumi-esc.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-09", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Pulumi ESC", "url": "" } ], "description": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Pulumi ESC's 71.1 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pulumi ESC leads on agent ergonomics and payments \u0026 pricing. Both do secrets store. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes…", "facts": [ "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) BB 73.6", "Pulumi ESC BB 71.1", "scores" ], "h1": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Pulumi ESC", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc.png", "path": "/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Pulumi ESC for AI agents", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-09", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2600, "slim": 730 }, "version": 1 }