{
  "data": {
    "a": {
      "slug": "alation",
      "name": "Alation",
      "vendor": "Alation, Inc.",
      "vendorUrl": "https://www.alation.com",
      "kind": "http-api",
      "category": "company-knowledge",
      "summary": "Alation is a hosted data catalogue for tables, queries, BI reports, lineage and data quality. Agents reach it through REST APIs, a natural-language Aggregated Context API, a Python agent SDK and an MCP server on each cloud instance.",
      "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation",
      "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.md",
      "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.min.md",
      "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alation.json",
      "repo": "https://github.com/Alation/alation-ai-agent-sdk",
      "license": "Proprietary service under Alation's Master Cloud Software Licence and Services Agreement. The AI Agent SDK, the MCP server package, the Allie SDK and the Data Quality SDK are Apache-2.0",
      "transports": [
        "http",
        "streamable-http",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "packages": [
        {
          "registry": "pypi",
          "name": "alation-ai-agent-mcp"
        },
        {
          "registry": "pypi",
          "name": "alation-ai-agent-sdk"
        },
        {
          "registry": "pypi",
          "name": "allie-sdk"
        }
      ],
      "auth": "mixed",
      "authNotes": "Access is granted inside a customer's Alation instance. On Alation Cloud Service a Server Admin registers an OAuth client application, which creates a system user with one Alation role, and the client exchanges its ID and secret for a JWT sent as a Bearer token. An authorisation code flow with refresh tokens covers user sign-in, and the remote MCP server needs a client that accepts a `client_id` and `client_secret`, since dynamic client registration is not supported. Any signed-in user can also create an API key pair, a refresh token (60 days by default) and an access token (24 hours) sent in a `TOKEN` header. Permissions follow the user's role, as listed in the APIs by Roles table.",
      "pricing": "paid",
      "pricingNotes": "No prices are published. www.alation.com/pricing redirects to a form for a sales call, and we found no trial or self-serve sign-up. Each cloud tenant gets a one-time allowance of 2,000 Aggregated Context API calls, with 429 responses from 2,400 calls until a paid tier is bought through the account manager (checked 2026-10-08).",
      "priceSummary": "Paid",
      "where": "local",
      "x402": {
        "level": "no",
        "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the developer portal, the agent SDK source or the legal pages (checked 2026-10-08).",
        "endpoints": []
      },
      "toolCount": 16,
      "popularity": {
        "githubStars": 19,
        "npmWeekly": null,
        "pypiWeekly": 2087,
        "asOf": "2026-10-08"
      },
      "docsUrl": "https://developer.alation.com/",
      "capabilities": [
        "data.catalogue",
        "knowledge.search",
        "data.lineage",
        "db.sql"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "hosted",
        "closed-source",
        "enterprise",
        "official",
        "mcp",
        "oauth",
        "openapi",
        "python",
        "sales-led",
        "status-page",
        "sla",
        "soc2"
      ],
      "lastRelease": "2026-10-03",
      "graded": true,
      "anchor": {
        "graded": true,
        "score": 60.3,
        "grade": "C",
        "agentReady": false,
        "rank": 472,
        "ranked": true,
        "rankOf": 842,
        "categoryRank": 7,
        "methodology": "0.4",
        "run": "2026-10-01",
        "scores": {
          "ergonomics": 71,
          "maintenance": 71,
          "payments": 0,
          "reliability": 61,
          "schema": 78,
          "security": 63,
          "transparency": 76
        },
        "pending": [
          "performance",
          "tasks"
        ],
        "assessment": {
          "confidence": "medium",
          "date": "2026-10-08"
        },
        "negative": 0,
        "verdict": "Each API has an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, and OAuth clients are bound to an Alation role with revocable tokens and rotatable secrets. Access needs a sales contract, since no price, trial or self-serve sign-up is published. The agent SDK and local MCP server have stayed at a release candidate since 14 January 2026.",
        "bestFor": "A company already on Alation Cloud Service that wants agents to find governed tables, columns, queries, BI reports and lineage, and to run read-only SQL against data products, under an Alation role.",
        "strengths": [
          "OpenAPI 3.0 definitions for each API, shown on every reference page and served by each instance under `/openapi/`",
          "OAuth 2.0 client credentials tied to a system user with one Alation role, with token revocation, secret rotation and offline JWT verification",
          "The AI API answers 429 with `Retry-After` and three `Ai-RateLimit` headers, and the REST 429 body states the seconds to wait",
          "The local MCP server enables 8 of its 16 tools by default, with allow and deny lists, and the remote server lists only tools the user may call",
          "A 99.5 per cent monthly uptime target with service credits of 1 to 5 per cent in the published MSA"
        ],
        "weaknesses": [
          "No published price, trial or self-serve sign-up. The pricing address redirects to a sales form",
          "Four incidents between 10 August and 10 September 2026, two of them regional outages longer than an hour",
          "`alation-ai-agent-sdk` and `alation-ai-agent-mcp` were last published on 14 January 2026 as 1.0.0rc3, and a plain `pip install` still resolves to 0.12.0",
          "No guidance on prompt injection, although tools return catalogue descriptions, documents and query text written by users",
          "No `security.txt` and no bug bounty, and security advisories sit behind a Community login"
        ],
        "agentNotes": [
          "Ask a Server Admin to register an OAuth client application with the lowest role that fits. Only admins can create one, and the secret is shown once",
          "Pin `alation-ai-agent-mcp==1.0.0rc3`. An unpinned install resolves to 0.12.0, which predates the catalogue search agent",
          "Call `catalog_context_search_agent` for catalogue questions. `alation_context` is deprecated and its description tells models not to call it directly",
          "Watch `X-Entitlement-Usage` on Aggregated Context API responses. The 2,000 free calls never reset, and a quota 429 is not retryable",
          "Page with `limit` and `skip` and follow `X-Next-Page`. The BI Source API uses `offset`, and one call returns at most 1,000 objects"
        ],
        "metrics": {
          "kind": "remote",
          "measured": false
        },
        "reviewCount": 0,
        "avgRating": 0,
        "history": [
          {
            "basis": "public evidence",
            "confidence": "medium",
            "grade": "C",
            "methodology": "0.4",
            "pending": [
              "performance",
              "tasks"
            ],
            "run": "2026-10-01",
            "runLabel": "October 2026 research run",
            "score": 60.3
          }
        ],
        "editorialScores": {
          "ergonomics": 71,
          "maintenance": 71,
          "payments": 0,
          "reliability": 61,
          "schema": 78,
          "security": 63,
          "transparency": 65
        },
        "provenanceScore": 86
      },
      "connect": {
        "install": "uv pip install alation-ai-agent-mcp==1.0.0rc3",
        "config": {
          "mcpServers": {
            "alation": {
              "args": [
                "--from",
                "alation-ai-agent-mcp",
                "start-alation-mcp-server"
              ],
              "command": "uvx",
              "env": {
                "ALATION_AUTH_METHOD": "service_account",
                "ALATION_BASE_URL": "https://your-alation-instance.com",
                "ALATION_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
                "ALATION_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret"
              }
            }
          }
        }
      },
      "letme": {
        "capability": "https://letme.dev/data.catalogue",
        "tool": "https://letme.dev/alation"
      },
      "area": "business",
      "provenance": {
        "legalEntity": "Alation, Inc.",
        "domain": "alation.com",
        "domainRegistered": "1998-07-27",
        "endpointOnVendorDomain": true,
        "terms": "https://www.alation.com/legal/msa/",
        "privacy": "https://www.alation.com/legal/privacy-policy/",
        "statusPage": "https://status.alationcloud.com",
        "changelog": "https://developer.alation.com/dev/docs/running-api-release-notes",
        "securityTxt": "none",
        "checked": "2026-10-08",
        "notes": [
          "The MSA (version 10 April 2026) and the privacy policy (version 23 September 2026) name Alation, Inc., 3 Lagoon Drive, Suite 300, Redwood City, CA 94065. The MSA is governed by Delaware law, or by the law of England and Wales for customers in the UK, EEA and Switzerland.",
          "Cloud instances and the status page are on alationcloud.com, a second domain of the vendor's. The agent SDK's guides give `your-instance.alationcloud.com` as the instance host.",
          "www.alation.com/.well-known/security.txt returns 404. The security page sends reports to security@alation.com.",
          "The privacy policy covers Alation websites and other Alation services. Customer personal data in the product is governed by the Data Privacy Addendum of 10 April 2026 at https://www.alation.com/legal/online-dpa/.",
          "RDAP gives alation.com a registration date of 1998-07-27. We did not establish when Alation acquired the domain."
        ],
        "score": 86
      },
      "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.json",
      "live": {
        "slug": "alation",
        "vendorStatus": {
          "page": "https://status.alationcloud.com",
          "indicator": "maintenance",
          "summary": "Service Under Maintenance",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T10:41:24.91593843Z"
        },
        "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T10:41:24.91593843Z"
      }
    },
    "answer": "Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Alation's 60.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Alation leads on reliability and transparency \u0026 trust.",
    "b": {
      "slug": "dust",
      "name": "Dust",
      "vendor": "Permutation Labs",
      "vendorUrl": "https://dust.tt",
      "kind": "http-api",
      "category": "company-knowledge",
      "summary": "Dust is a platform for building AI agents on a company's documents and connected tools, from Permutation Labs in Paris. Outside agents reach it through a REST API, a JavaScript SDK, a CLI and a remote MCP server with OAuth.",
      "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dust",
      "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dust.md",
      "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dust.min.md",
      "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dust.json",
      "repo": "https://github.com/dust-tt/dust",
      "license": "MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli`",
      "transports": [
        "http"
      ],
      "remoteUrl": "https://dust.tt/mcp",
      "packages": [
        {
          "registry": "npm",
          "name": "@dust-tt/client"
        },
        {
          "registry": "npm",
          "name": "@dust-tt/dust-cli"
        }
      ],
      "auth": "mixed",
      "authNotes": "Self-serve. The REST API takes a workspace API key as a Bearer token, created by an admin in the workspace under Developers, API Keys. A key can be limited to chosen spaces and given a spending cap on a rolling 30 days. The remote MCP server takes OAuth only, with dynamic client registration or a client ID metadata document, and the token works as the signed-in user. The client-side MCP server (preview) needs an OAuth personal access token. Sign-in to create a workspace is in a browser.",
      "pricing": "freemium",
      "pricingNotes": "Free seat with 500 lifetime credits. Pro is €30 a seat a month (€24 billed yearly) with 8,000 credits, Max €150 (€120 yearly) with 40,000, and Enterprise is by quote, as dust.tt/home/pricing showed our reader in euros. API and other programmatic usage has no free credits and draws only on the workspace credit pool, bought as top-ups on Business or committed on Enterprise. No price per top-up credit was found (checked 2026-10-08).",
      "priceSummary": "Freemium",
      "where": "hosted",
      "x402": {
        "level": "no",
        "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs index, the OpenAPI document or the pricing page (checked 2026-10-08).",
        "endpoints": []
      },
      "toolCount": null,
      "popularity": {
        "githubStars": 1482,
        "npmWeekly": 17225,
        "pypiWeekly": null,
        "asOf": "2026-10-08"
      },
      "docsUrl": "https://docs.dust.tt",
      "llmsTxt": "https://docs.dust.tt/llms.txt",
      "openapi": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dust-tt/dust/refs/heads/main/front-api/public/swagger.json",
      "capabilities": [
        "knowledge.search",
        "agent.mcp-client"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "hosted",
        "open-source",
        "mit",
        "mcp",
        "oauth",
        "openapi",
        "llms-txt",
        "typescript",
        "cli",
        "eu-region",
        "status-page",
        "soc2",
        "freemium"
      ],
      "lastRelease": "2026-10-08",
      "graded": true,
      "anchor": {
        "graded": true,
        "score": 62.8,
        "grade": "B",
        "agentReady": false,
        "rank": 378,
        "ranked": true,
        "rankOf": 842,
        "categoryRank": 5,
        "methodology": "0.4",
        "run": "2026-10-01",
        "scores": {
          "ergonomics": 67,
          "maintenance": 86,
          "payments": 20,
          "reliability": 53,
          "schema": 75,
          "security": 75,
          "transparency": 68
        },
        "pending": [
          "performance",
          "tasks"
        ],
        "assessment": {
          "confidence": "medium",
          "date": "2026-10-08"
        },
        "negative": 0,
        "verdict": "The whole platform is MIT on GitHub, with a public OpenAPI document of 68 operations, llms.txt and a remote MCP server that acts with the signed-in user's access. API calls that run agents draw only on a paid workspace credit pool, and the terms of service could not be read.",
        "bestFor": "A team that already works in Dust and wants an outside agent to search its spaces, read documents and call its agents with a user's own access.",
        "strengths": [
          "The platform's source is public under the MIT licence at github.com/dust-tt/dust, with commits on the day of the check",
          "Public OpenAPI 3.0 document with 68 operations, plus llms.txt and a Markdown copy of each docs page",
          "Remote MCP server at `https://dust.tt/mcp` and `https://eu.dust.tt/mcp`, with OAuth, dynamic client registration and the signed-in user's own access",
          "API keys can be limited to chosen spaces and given a spending cap on a rolling 30 days",
          "SOC 2 Type II on the security page, a HackerOne disclosure programme, and US or EU hosting"
        ],
        "weaknesses": [
          "Programmatic usage has no free credits. It draws only on the workspace credit pool, which Free seats cannot use",
          "Rate limits are published for document upserts and app runs only, and no Retry-After guidance was found in the docs",
          "The terms link redirects to a Notion site drawn by script, so the service terms, any SLA and the DPA went unread",
          "Audit logs are an Enterprise feature, and no security.txt is published (404)",
          "Two major incidents on status.dust.tt in the last 90 days, one of 2 hours 3 minutes on 16 July 2026 that covered the API"
        ],
        "agentNotes": [
          "Use `https://eu.dust.tt` for a workspace in the EU region and `https://dust.tt` otherwise, for both the API and the MCP server",
          "Connect an MCP client by OAuth and send the `resource` parameter in authorisation and token requests. API keys do not work on the MCP server",
          "Expect HTTP 429 with type `rate_limit_error` when the credit pool, the programmatic monthly cap or the key's spend cap is exhausted. Retrying will not help",
          "Call `GET /api/v1/w/{wId}/search` with `limit` (1 to 100, default 25) and `cursor`, or a data source view's search with `top_k`",
          "Keep document upserts under 120 a minute per workspace"
        ],
        "metrics": {
          "kind": "remote",
          "measured": false
        },
        "reviewCount": 0,
        "avgRating": 0,
        "history": [
          {
            "basis": "public evidence",
            "confidence": "medium",
            "grade": "B",
            "methodology": "0.4",
            "pending": [
              "performance",
              "tasks"
            ],
            "run": "2026-10-01",
            "runLabel": "October 2026 research run",
            "score": 62.8
          }
        ],
        "editorialScores": {
          "ergonomics": 67,
          "maintenance": 86,
          "payments": 20,
          "reliability": 53,
          "schema": 75,
          "security": 75,
          "transparency": 71
        },
        "provenanceScore": 64
      },
      "connect": {
        "install": "npm install @dust-tt/client",
        "config": {
          "mcpServers": {
            "dust": {
              "type": "http",
              "url": "https://dust.tt/mcp"
            }
          }
        }
      },
      "letme": {
        "capability": "https://letme.dev/knowledge.search",
        "tool": "https://letme.dev/dust"
      },
      "area": "business",
      "provenance": {
        "legalEntity": "Permutation Labs",
        "domain": "dust.tt",
        "domainRegistered": "",
        "endpointOnVendorDomain": true,
        "terms": "",
        "privacy": "https://dust.tt/home/platform-privacy",
        "statusPage": "https://status.dust.tt",
        "changelog": "https://docs.dust.tt/docs/changelog",
        "securityTxt": "none",
        "checked": "2026-10-08",
        "notes": [
          "The Platform Privacy Policy names Permutation Labs, 86 avenue de Wagram, 75017 Paris, France. It covers the platform where Dust is the data controller, not customer data Dust handles as a processor.",
          "No terms link is recorded. dust.tt/terms redirects (308) to a Notion site, dust-tt.notion.site, which is drawn by script and gave our reader no text, so we could not tell which document there governs the platform.",
          "The API and the MCP server answer on dust.tt and eu.dust.tt. OAuth for MCP is at signin.dust.tt.",
          "dust.tt/.well-known/security.txt returns 404. The repository's SECURITY.md sends reports to dust.tt/home/vulnerability, a HackerOne programme.",
          "No RDAP service answers for the .tt registry, so the domain's registration date is not recorded.",
          "dust.tt/robots.txt returns 404. docs.dust.tt/robots.txt carries `Content-Signal: ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes`."
        ],
        "score": 64
      },
      "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dust.json",
      "live": {
        "slug": "dust",
        "probe": {
          "target": "https://dust.tt/mcp",
          "method": "get",
          "lastAt": "2026-10-09T10:42:41.938062523Z",
          "lastOk": true,
          "lastStatus": 401,
          "lastMs": 202,
          "lastNote": "asks for credentials",
          "authRequired": true,
          "uptime24h": 100,
          "uptime30d": 100,
          "p50ms24h": 156,
          "p95ms24h": 202,
          "samples24h": 33,
          "samples30d": 33,
          "days": [
            {
              "date": "2026-10-09",
              "probes": 33,
              "ok": 33
            }
          ]
        },
        "vendorStatus": {
          "page": "https://status.dust.tt",
          "indicator": "none",
          "summary": "All Systems Operational",
          "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T10:41:35.388664013Z"
        },
        "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T10:42:41.938062523Z"
      }
    },
    "facts": [
      {
        "a": "HTTP API",
        "b": "HTTP API",
        "name": "Kind"
      },
      {
        "a": "Alation, Inc.",
        "b": "Permutation Labs",
        "name": "Vendor"
      },
      {
        "a": "no (local only)",
        "b": "https://dust.tt/mcp",
        "name": "Hosted endpoint"
      },
      {
        "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio",
        "b": "HTTP",
        "name": "Transports"
      },
      {
        "a": "OAuth or key",
        "b": "OAuth or key",
        "name": "Auth"
      },
      {
        "a": "Paid",
        "b": "Freemium",
        "name": "Pricing"
      },
      {
        "a": "no",
        "b": "no",
        "name": "x402"
      },
      {
        "a": "Proprietary service under Alation's Master Cloud Software Licence and Services Agreement. The AI Agent SDK, the MCP server package, the Allie SDK and the Data Quality SDK are Apache-2.0",
        "b": "MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli",
        "name": "Licence"
      },
      {
        "a": "16",
        "b": "none",
        "name": "Tools exposed"
      },
      {
        "a": "no",
        "b": "no",
        "name": "Read-only variant documented"
      },
      {
        "a": "no",
        "b": "yes",
        "name": "llms.txt"
      },
      {
        "a": "2026-10-03",
        "b": "2026-10-08",
        "name": "Last release"
      },
      {
        "a": "no date given",
        "b": "no document linked",
        "name": "Terms last updated"
      },
      {
        "a": "no date given",
        "b": "no date given",
        "name": "Privacy policy last updated"
      },
      {
        "a": "not found in the text",
        "b": "",
        "name": "Customer content may train models"
      },
      {
        "a": "not found in the text",
        "b": "",
        "name": "Terms restrict automated access"
      },
      {
        "a": "yes",
        "b": "",
        "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking"
      },
      {
        "a": "not found in the text",
        "b": "",
        "name": "Terms or service can change without notice"
      },
      {
        "a": "not found in the text",
        "b": "",
        "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver"
      },
      {
        "a": "19 stars, 2.1k PyPI/wk",
        "b": "1.5k stars, 17k npm/wk",
        "name": "Popularity"
      }
    ],
    "faq": [
      {
        "answer": "Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Alation's 60.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Alation leads on reliability and transparency \u0026 trust.",
        "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Alation or Dust?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.",
        "question": "Do Alation and Dust need an API key?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "Alation runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Dust has a hosted endpoint at https://dust.tt/mcp.",
        "question": "Can an agent call Alation and Dust without installing anything?"
      },
      {
        "answer": "No open-source release is listed for Alation. Dust is open source (MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli`).",
        "question": "Are Alation and Dust open source?"
      }
    ],
    "goodFor": [
      {
        "aheadOn": [
          "Reliability, 61 against 53",
          "Transparency \u0026 trust, 76 against 68"
        ],
        "also": [
          "Runs on your own machine"
        ],
        "goodFor": "A company already on Alation Cloud Service that wants agents to find governed tables, columns, queries, BI reports and lineage, and to run read-only SQL against data products, under an Alation role.",
        "slug": "alation",
        "watchFor": "No published price, trial or self-serve sign-up. The pricing address redirects to a sales form"
      },
      {
        "aheadOn": [
          "Security \u0026 auth, 75 against 63",
          "Payments \u0026 pricing, 20 against 0",
          "Maintenance \u0026 community, 86 against 71"
        ],
        "also": [
          "A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install",
          "Open source"
        ],
        "goodFor": "A team that already works in Dust and wants an outside agent to search its spaces, read documents and call its agents with a user's own access.",
        "slug": "dust",
        "watchFor": "Programmatic usage has no free credits. It draws only on the workspace credit pool, which Free seats cannot use"
      }
    ],
    "job": {
      "capability": "knowledge.search",
      "name": "Company knowledge search"
    },
    "others": [
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-cohere-north.json",
        "title": "Alation vs Cohere North",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-cohere-north"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean.json",
        "title": "Alation vs Glean",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.json",
        "title": "Alation vs Guru",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-onyx.json",
        "title": "Alation vs Onyx",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-onyx"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-overclock.json",
        "title": "Alation vs Overclock",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-overclock"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-dust.json",
        "title": "Atlan vs Dust",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-dust"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-dust.json",
        "title": "Cohere North vs Dust",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-dust"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean.json",
        "title": "Dust vs Glean",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.json",
        "title": "Dust vs Guru",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-onyx.json",
        "title": "Dust vs Onyx",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-onyx"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-overclock.json",
        "title": "Dust vs Overclock",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-overclock"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-atlan.json",
        "title": "Alation vs Atlan",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-atlan"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub.json",
        "title": "Alation vs DataHub",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-marmot.json",
        "title": "Alation vs Marmot",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-marmot"
      },
      {
        "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-openmetadata.json",
        "title": "Alation vs OpenMetadata",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-openmetadata"
      }
    ],
    "scores": [
      {
        "alation": 61,
        "by": 8,
        "dust": 53,
        "edge": "alation",
        "key": "reliability",
        "name": "Reliability",
        "weight": 16
      },
      {
        "key": "performance",
        "name": "Performance",
        "pending": true,
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "alation": 78,
        "by": 3,
        "dust": 75,
        "edge": "alation",
        "key": "schema",
        "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation",
        "weight": 13
      },
      {
        "alation": 71,
        "by": 4,
        "dust": 67,
        "edge": "alation",
        "key": "ergonomics",
        "name": "Agent ergonomics",
        "weight": 13
      },
      {
        "alation": 63,
        "by": 12,
        "dust": 75,
        "edge": "dust",
        "key": "security",
        "name": "Security \u0026 auth",
        "weight": 14
      },
      {
        "alation": 0,
        "by": 20,
        "dust": 20,
        "edge": "dust",
        "key": "payments",
        "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing",
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "key": "tasks",
        "name": "Task success",
        "pending": true,
        "weight": 10
      },
      {
        "alation": 71,
        "by": 15,
        "dust": 86,
        "edge": "dust",
        "key": "maintenance",
        "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community",
        "weight": 7
      },
      {
        "alation": 76,
        "by": 8,
        "dust": 68,
        "edge": "alation",
        "key": "transparency",
        "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust",
        "weight": 7
      }
    ],
    "summary": "Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Alation's 60.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Alation leads on reliability and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do company knowledge search.",
    "verdicts": {
      "alation": "Each API has an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, and OAuth clients are bound to an Alation role with revocable tokens and rotatable secrets. Access needs a sales contract, since no price, trial or self-serve sign-up is published. The agent SDK and local MCP server have stayed at a release candidate since 14 January 2026.",
      "dust": "The whole platform is MIT on GitHub, with a public OpenAPI document of 68 operations, llms.txt and a remote MCP server that acts with the signed-in user's access. API calls that run agents draw only on a paid workspace credit pool, and the terms of service could not be read."
    }
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    "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust",
    "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.json",
    "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt",
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  "markdown": "Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Alation's 60.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Alation leads on reliability and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do company knowledge search.\n\n- Alation: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #472 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alation.json\n- Dust: grade B, 62.8/100, rank #378 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dust.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dust.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Alation (C)\n\nGood for: A company already on Alation Cloud Service that wants agents to find governed tables, columns, queries, BI reports and lineage, and to run read-only SQL against data products, under an Alation role.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 61 against 53\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 76 against 68\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Runs on your own machine\n\nWatch for: No published price, trial or self-serve sign-up. The pricing address redirects to a sales form\n\n### Dust (B)\n\nGood for: A team that already works in Dust and wants an outside agent to search its spaces, read documents and call its agents with a user's own access.\n\nAhead on:\n- Security \u0026 auth, 75 against 63\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 20 against 0\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 86 against 71\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install\n- Open source\n\nWatch for: Programmatic usage has no free credits. It draws only on the workspace credit pool, which Free seats cannot use\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Alation | Dust | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 61 | 53 | Alation +8 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 75 | Alation +3 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 67 | Alation +4 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 75 | Dust +12 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 20 | Dust +20 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 86 | Dust +15 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 68 | Alation +8 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **62.8 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Alation | Dust |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Alation, Inc. | Permutation Labs |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://dust.tt/mcp` |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | Proprietary service under Alation's Master Cloud Software Licence and Services Agreement. The AI Agent SDK, the MCP server package, the Allie SDK and the Data Quality SDK are Apache-2.0 | MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli` |\n| Tools exposed | 16 | none |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-10-03 | 2026-10-08 |\n| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |\n| Popularity | 19 stars, 2.1k PyPI/wk | 1.5k stars, 17k npm/wk |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Alation.** Each API has an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, and OAuth clients are bound to an Alation role with revocable tokens and rotatable secrets. Access needs a sales contract, since no price, trial or self-serve sign-up is published. The agent SDK and local MCP server have stayed at a release candidate since 14 January 2026.\n\n**Dust.** The whole platform is MIT on GitHub, with a public OpenAPI document of 68 operations, llms.txt and a remote MCP server that acts with the signed-in user's access. API calls that run agents draw only on a paid workspace credit pool, and the terms of service could not be read.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Alation\n\n1. Ask a Server Admin to register an OAuth client application with the lowest role that fits. Only admins can create one, and the secret is shown once\n2. Pin `alation-ai-agent-mcp==1.0.0rc3`. An unpinned install resolves to 0.12.0, which predates the catalogue search agent\n3. Call `catalog_context_search_agent` for catalogue questions. `alation_context` is deprecated and its description tells models not to call it directly\n4. Watch `X-Entitlement-Usage` on Aggregated Context API responses. The 2,000 free calls never reset, and a quota 429 is not retryable\n5. Page with `limit` and `skip` and follow `X-Next-Page`. The BI Source API uses `offset`, and one call returns at most 1,000 objects\n\n### Dust\n\n1. Use `https://eu.dust.tt` for a workspace in the EU region and `https://dust.tt` otherwise, for both the API and the MCP server\n2. Connect an MCP client by OAuth and send the `resource` parameter in authorisation and token requests. API keys do not work on the MCP server\n3. Expect HTTP 429 with type `rate_limit_error` when the credit pool, the programmatic monthly cap or the key's spend cap is exhausted. Retrying will not help\n4. Call `GET /api/v1/w/{wId}/search` with `limit` (1 to 100, default 25) and `cursor`, or a data source view's search with `top_k`\n5. Keep document upserts under 120 a minute per workspace\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Alation or Dust?\n\nDust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Alation's 60.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Alation leads on reliability and transparency \u0026 trust.\n\n### Do Alation and Dust need an API key?\n\nBoth take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.\n\n### Can an agent call Alation and Dust without installing anything?\n\nAlation runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Dust has a hosted endpoint at https://dust.tt/mcp.\n\n### Are Alation and Dust open source?\n\nNo open-source release is listed for Alation. Dust is open source (MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli`).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"alation\", \"b\": \"dust\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare alation dust`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alation.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dust.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Alation or Dust\n\n- [Alation vs Cohere North](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-cohere-north.md)\n- [Alation vs Glean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean.md)\n- [Alation vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.md)\n- [Alation vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-onyx.md)\n- [Alation vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-overclock.md)\n- [Atlan vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-dust.md)\n- [Cohere North vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-dust.md)\n- [Dust vs Glean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-glean.md)\n- [Dust vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.md)\n- [Dust vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-onyx.md)\n- [Dust vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-overclock.md)\n- [Alation vs Atlan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-atlan.md)\n- [Alation vs DataHub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub.md)\n- [Alation vs Marmot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-marmot.md)\n- [Alation vs OpenMetadata](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-openmetadata.md)\n",
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    "description": "Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Alation's 60.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Alation leads on reliability and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do company knowledge search. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.",
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