Arcade.dev vs Stytch Connected Apps

Arcade.dev

Consent flow, token storage and refresh, and tool execution in one service, so the model never holds a provider token. The terms of 15 July 2025 call the service an early version provided as is, with no uptime commitment below Enterprise.

Stytch Connected Apps

OAuth 2.1 authorisation server with DCR, CIMD and PKCE out of the box. No outbound token vault, so it can't hold your users' third-party tokens.

Arcade.dev

1. Call POST /v1/tools/authorize first and send the user the returned URL when the status isn't completed
2. Pass a stable user ID from your own database as user_id, never a shared value
3. Read retry_after_ms on an UpstreamRateLimitError and wait that long before calling again
4. Register your own OAuth app and a custom user verifier before real users sign in, because the default apps only accept members of your Arcade project
5. Revoke a user's access with DELETE /v1/admin/user_connections/{id}

Stytch Connected Apps

1. Fetch {project-domain}/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server first and use the endpoints it returns, not hard-coded paths
2. Register with token_endpoint_auth_method none and PKCE S256 when the agent can't keep a secret
3. Expect a 401 with protected resource metadata from the MCP server, then register and authorise
4. Ask only for scopes the user's roles can grant, or the consent page will refuse them
5. Back off exponentially on a 429, since no Retry-After header is documented