{ "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": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T11:36:47.259400669Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T11:36:47.259400669Z" } }, "answer": "Alation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.", "b": { "slug": "guru", "name": "Guru", "vendor": "Guru Technologies, Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://www.getguru.com", "kind": "http-api", "category": "company-knowledge", "summary": "Hosted knowledge platform from Guru Technologies, Inc. in Philadelphia.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guru", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guru.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guru.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guru.json", "repo": "https://github.com/guruhq/remote-mcp-server", "license": "Proprietary hosted service under Guru's terms of service. The Python SDK (guruhq/guru-py-sdk) is MIT, and the MCP server's public repository holds only a README and server.json", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp", "packages": [], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "MCP clients sign in with OAuth. Some popular clients are pre-approved and others need Guru Support to allowlist them, and no scopes are documented. Without OAuth, the MCP server takes `Authorization: Bearer EMAIL:TOKEN`. The REST API takes basic auth with the user's email and a token. User tokens read and write with the user's own permissions, and collection tokens are read-only and limited to one collection. The developer docs also have pages on OAuth2 clients and impersonation tokens.", "pricing": "paid", "pricingNotes": "getguru.com/pricing shows no plans or prices and sends every visitor to sales, describing the price as tailored to the organisation. We found no free plan or trial on the pricing or home pages. The terms say AI use is subject to usage limits and overage fees set in each order (checked 2026-10-03).", "priceSummary": "Paid", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the developer docs, the help centre MCP article or the pricing page (checked 2026-10-03).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-03" }, "docsUrl": "https://developer.getguru.com/docs/guru-mcp-server-overview", "llmsTxt": "https://developer.getguru.com/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/guruhq/guru-py-sdk/main/swagger/swagger.json", "registryName": "com.getguru/mcp-server", "capabilities": [ "knowledge.search", "work.docs" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "closed-source", "official", "mcp", "oauth", "openapi", "llms-txt", "python", "enterprise", "status-page" ], "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 45.1, "grade": "E", "agentReady": false, "rank": 773, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 842, "categoryRank": 10, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 48, "maintenance": 46, "payments": 0, "reliability": 48, "schema": 58, "security": 52, "transparency": 59 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-03" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Hosted MCP server at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp, registered as com.getguru/mcp-server in the official MCP registry. No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales.", "bestFor": "Companies already running Guru that want agents to answer from verified cards with each user's permissions, and to draft card changes.", "strengths": [ "Hosted MCP server at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp, registered as com.getguru/mcp-server in the official MCP registry", "Every MCP and API call keeps the signed-in user's Guru permissions, and collection tokens are read-only and limited to one collection", "Swagger 2.0 file of 251 operations in Guru's Python SDK repository, plus llms.txt and Markdown docs", "Atlassian Statuspage with an API component and incident history back to 2021", "SOC 2 Type II, and terms that bar training public models on customer content and delete it 90 days after termination" ], "weaknesses": [ "No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales", "No rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA published, and the terms sell the service as is", "The developer site lists five MCP tools while the help centre describes 14 actions, among them archive and move", "OAuth works only for clients Guru has pre-approved, and others need Guru Support to allowlist them", "No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty, and the help centre's release notes stop at April 2026" ], "agentNotes": [ "Ask the person for a Guru account. There's no trial or keyless route, and OAuth needs a pre-approved client", "Send `Authorization: Bearer email:token` to the MCP server when OAuth isn't available, and basic auth to https://api.getguru.com/api/v1/", "Use a collection token for read-only work. User tokens write with the user's full rights", "Follow the `Link` header to page REST search results. Each page holds at most 50 cards", "Confirm with a person before archiving or moving cards. Guru documents no confirmation step" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 2, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "E", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 45.1 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 48, "maintenance": 46, "payments": 0, "reliability": 48, "schema": 58, "security": 52, "transparency": 47 }, "provenanceScore": 70 }, "connect": { "http": "curl -u $GURU_USER:$GURU_TOKEN https://api.getguru.com/api/v1/teams -D -", "config": { "mcpServers": { "guru": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp" } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/knowledge.search", "tool": "https://letme.dev/guru" }, "area": "business", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Guru Technologies, Inc.", "domain": "getguru.com", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.getguru.com/terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://www.getguru.com/privacy", "statusPage": "https://status.getguru.com", "changelog": "https://help.getguru.com/docs/guru-release-notes", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-03", "notes": [ "The terms (last updated 25 March 2026) name Guru Technologies, Inc., 111 S Independence Mall East, Suite 960, Philadelphia, PA 19106.", "getguru.com/.well-known/security.txt returns 404, and the security page names no disclosure route.", "The help centre's release notes for 2026 stop at April. The developer changelog at developer.getguru.com/changelog has four undated entries." ], "score": 70 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guru.json", "live": { "slug": "guru", "probe": { "target": "https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-09T11:46:30.238079276Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 401, "lastMs": 415, "lastNote": "asks for credentials", "authRequired": true, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 446, "p95ms24h": 478, "samples24h": 259, "samples30d": 1535, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 54, "ok": 54 }, { "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": 125, "ok": 125 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.getguru.com", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T11:39:31.666159396Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "mcp-registry", "name": "com.getguru/mcp-server", "version": "1.0.2", "seenAt": "2026-10-09T02:57:46.004536428Z" } ], "githubStars": 1, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://getguru.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T15:38:59.455007434Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://developer.getguru.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T14:00:30.283727655Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "getguru.com", "registered": "2010-02-26", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/getguru.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:09:11.913459927Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://help.getguru.com/docs/guru-release-notes", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:49.048524265Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-06T16:09:33.549824885Z", "fingerprint": "4f82dbc5c716" }, { "url": "https://www.getguru.com/privacy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:27:57.950685872Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "0aedb1072851" }, { "url": "https://www.getguru.com/terms-of-service", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:28:00.02915072Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "8bf342dea25e" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T11:46:30.238079276Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "HTTP API", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Alation, Inc.", "b": "Guru Technologies, Inc.", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio", "b": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "OAuth or key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Paid", "b": "Paid", "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": "Proprietary hosted service under Guru's terms of service. The Python SDK (guruhq/guru-py-sdk) is MIT, and the MCP server's public repository holds only a README and server.json", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "16", "b": "none", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "not listed", "b": "com.getguru/mcp-server", "name": "MCP registry" }, { "a": "2026-10-03", "b": "none", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "2026-03-25", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "2025-08-19", "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": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "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": "19 stars, 2.1k PyPI/wk", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "none", "b": "2/5 (2)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Alation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Alation or Guru?" }, { "answer": "Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.", "question": "Do Alation and Guru need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Alation runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Guru has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp.", "question": "Can an agent call Alation and Guru without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 61 against 48", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 78 against 58", "Agent ergonomics, 71 against 48", "Security \u0026 auth, 63 against 52", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 71 against 46", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 76 against 59" ], "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": null, "also": [ "A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install" ], "goodFor": "Companies already running Guru that want agents to answer from verified cards with each user's permissions, and to draft card changes.", "slug": "guru", "watchFor": "No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales" } ], "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-dust.json", "title": "Alation vs Dust", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust" }, { "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-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-guru.json", "title": "Atlan vs Guru", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-guru" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-guru.json", "title": "Cohere North vs Guru", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-guru" }, { "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/glean-vs-guru.json", "title": "Glean vs Guru", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/glean-vs-guru" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-onyx.json", "title": "Guru vs Onyx", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-onyx" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-overclock.json", "title": "Guru vs Overclock", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-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" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-guru.json", "title": "DataHub vs Guru", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-guru" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-marmot.json", "title": "Guru vs Marmot", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-marmot" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-openmetadata.json", "title": "Guru vs OpenMetadata", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-openmetadata" } ], "scores": [ { "alation": 61, "by": 13, "edge": "alation", "guru": 48, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "alation": 78, "by": 20, "edge": "alation", "guru": 58, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13 }, { "alation": 71, "by": 23, "edge": "alation", "guru": 48, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13 }, { "alation": 63, "by": 11, "edge": "alation", "guru": 52, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14 }, { "alation": 0, "by": 0, "edge": "", "guru": 0, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "alation": 71, "by": 25, "edge": "alation", "guru": 46, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7 }, { "alation": 76, "by": 17, "edge": "alation", "guru": 59, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Alation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. 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.", "guru": "Hosted MCP server at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp, registered as com.getguru/mcp-server in the official MCP registry. No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.min.md" }, "markdown": "Alation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. 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- Guru: grade E, 45.1/100, rank #773 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guru.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guru.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 48\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 78 against 58\n- Agent ergonomics, 71 against 48\n- Security \u0026 auth, 63 against 52\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 71 against 46\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 76 against 59\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### Guru (E)\n\nGood for: Companies already running Guru that want agents to answer from verified cards with each user's permissions, and to draft card changes.\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install\n\nWatch for: No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Alation | Guru | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 61 | 48 | Alation +13 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 58 | Alation +20 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 48 | Alation +23 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 52 | Alation +11 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 0 | even |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 46 | Alation +25 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 59 | Alation +17 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **45.1 · E** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Alation | Guru |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Alation, Inc. | Guru Technologies, Inc. |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp` |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Paid | Paid |\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 | Proprietary hosted service under Guru's terms of service. The Python SDK (guruhq/guru-py-sdk) is MIT, and the MCP server's public repository holds only a README and server.json |\n| Tools exposed | 16 | none |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| MCP registry | not listed | `com.getguru/mcp-server` |\n| Last release | 2026-10-03 | none |\n| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-03-25 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-08-19 |\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 | yes | yes |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | 19 stars, 2.1k PyPI/wk | none |\n| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |\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**Guru.** Hosted MCP server at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp, registered as com.getguru/mcp-server in the official MCP registry. No public prices, plans or trial, and the pricing page sends everyone to sales.\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### Guru\n\n1. Ask the person for a Guru account. There's no trial or keyless route, and OAuth needs a pre-approved client\n2. Send `Authorization: Bearer email:token` to the MCP server when OAuth isn't available, and basic auth to https://api.getguru.com/api/v1/\n3. Use a collection token for read-only work. User tokens write with the user's full rights\n4. Follow the `Link` header to page REST search results. Each page holds at most 50 cards\n5. Confirm with a person before archiving or moving cards. Guru documents no confirmation step\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Alation or Guru?\n\nAlation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.\n\n### Do Alation and Guru need an API key?\n\nBoth take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.\n\n### Can an agent call Alation and Guru without installing anything?\n\nAlation runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Guru has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.api.getguru.com/mcp.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"alation\", \"b\": \"guru\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare alation guru`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alation.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guru.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Alation or Guru\n\n- [Alation vs Cohere North](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-cohere-north.md)\n- [Alation vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.md)\n- [Alation vs Glean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean.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 Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-guru.md)\n- [Cohere North vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-guru.md)\n- [Dust vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-guru.md)\n- [Glean vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/glean-vs-guru.md)\n- [Guru vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-onyx.md)\n- [Guru vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-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- [DataHub vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-guru.md)\n- [Guru vs Marmot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-marmot.md)\n- [Guru vs OpenMetadata](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-openmetadata.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": "Alation vs Guru", "url": "" } ], "description": "Alation scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Guru's 45.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do company knowledge search. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Alation C 60.3", "Guru E 45.1", "scores" ], "h1": "Alation vs Guru", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-alation-vs-guru.png", "path": "/compare/alation-vs-guru", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Alation vs Guru for AI agents, C 60.3 vs E 45.1 | Anchor Terminal", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-09", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2200, "slim": 730 }, "version": 1 }