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Head to head · Obs traces · October 2026 research run

Braintrust API + MCP vs Galileo API + MCP

Braintrust API + MCP has a score of 61.3 (C) against Galileo API + MCP's 48 (D). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is reliability, 43 points.

Braintrust API + MCPBraintrust · HTTP API C61.3/100#229 of 452 Galileo API + MCPGalileo (now Splunk Agent Observability, Cisco) · HTTP API D48/100#378 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Braintrust API + MCP for

  • reliability (+43)
  • schema & documentation (+6)
  • security & auth (+25)
  • payments & pricing (+20)
  • maintenance & community (+11)
  • transparency & trust (+12)

Pick Galileo API + MCP for

  • agent ergonomics (+7)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBraintrust API + MCPGalileo API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%206118Braintrust API + MCP +43
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28579Braintrust API + MCP +6
Agent ergonomics13%16.26673Galileo API + MCP +7
Security & auth14%17.55833Braintrust API + MCP +25
Payments & pricing10%12.54020Braintrust API + MCP +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88574Braintrust API + MCP +11
Transparency & trust7%8.86856Braintrust API + MCP +12
Negative events≤15-40
Total61.3 · C48 · D

Facts side by side

FactBraintrust API + MCPGalileo API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorBraintrustGalileo (now Splunk Agent Observability, Cisco)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.braintrust.dev/v1https://api.galileo.ai/v2
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source)Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source)
Tools exposed428
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.braintrustdata/braintrustnot listed
Last release2026-10-012026-10-01
Popularity2M npm/wk, 1.7M PyPI/wk1.4k npm/wk, 6.2k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (2)2.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Braintrust API + MCP

OpenAPI 3.0.3 spec with 75 paths, 429 and Retry-After declared on 154 operations. Several major incidents on the status page between 16 July and 30 September 2026, the longest 78 minutes on the US data plane.

Galileo API + MCP

OpenAPI 3.1 spec with 184 paths and 244 operations. No status page, no published rate limits and no SLA.

Before you call either

Braintrust API + MCP

  1. Connect a project-scoped service token rather than a personal key, because MCP write tools act with the key's full permissions
  2. Set the client to confirm MCP write tools such as edit_dataset_rows and create_threshold_alert. The server has no read-only mode
  3. Cache sql_query results. Starter and Pro allow about 20 queries a minute and return 429
  4. Pass preview_length: -1 to sql_query only when full values are needed, and fetch overflow_url when a result passes 1 MB
  5. Upgrade to Python braintrust 0.28.0 or TypeScript 3.23.1 or later and rotate any provider keys traced before July 2026

Galileo API + MCP

  1. Check which side the account lives on first. Pre-August Galileo accounts use api.galileo.ai, Splunk SaaS accounts use app.{realm}.observability.splunkcloud.com/ao/api/
  2. Send the key as Splunk-AO-API-Key. The current spec no longer lists Galileo-API-Key
  3. Page list endpoints with limit and starting_token
  4. Use the error catalogue's retriable flag to decide whether to retry. 429s carry no documented Retry-After
  5. Use the REST API to read traces. The MCP server mostly creates datasets and prompts

Other comparisons with Braintrust API + MCP or Galileo API + MCP

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