# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

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 + MCP: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #229 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/braintrust.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/braintrust.json
- Galileo API + MCP: grade D, 48/100, rank #378 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/galileo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/galileo.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Braintrust API + MCP | Galileo API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 61 | 18 | Braintrust API + MCP +43 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 79 | Braintrust API + MCP +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 73 | Galileo API + MCP +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 33 | Braintrust API + MCP +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Braintrust API + MCP +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 74 | Braintrust API + MCP +11 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 56 | Braintrust API + MCP +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.3 · C** | **48 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Braintrust API + MCP | Galileo API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Braintrust | Galileo (now Splunk Agent Observability, Cisco) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.braintrust.dev/v1` | `https://api.galileo.ai/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source) | Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source) |
| Tools exposed | 42 | 8 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.braintrustdata/braintrust` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-01 |
| Popularity | 2M npm/wk, 1.7M PyPI/wk | 1.4k npm/wk, 6.2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (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

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