Head to head · Inference decision · October 2026 research run
Clef vs Decider
Decider scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against Clef's 66.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Clef leads on security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do inference decision.
Which one, for what
Clef B
Good for Classification, routing and rubric scoring over text, JSON and images inside Cloudflare, or self-hosted where data can't leave.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 69 against 38
- Transparency & trust, 86 against 46
Also in its favour
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
Released on 1 October 2026, with no service record and no entry in the Workers AI changelog we read
Decider B
Good for Local classification, routing, triage and checks where a team wants open weights in several sizes and a Jev-shaped route.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 90 against 61
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 75
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 56
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
- Open source
Watch for
The local server has no authentication option. It binds to 127.0.0.1 since 1.7.1
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Clef | Decider | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 61 | 90 | Decider +29 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 75 | 78 | Decider +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 80 | Decider +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 69 | 38 | Clef +31 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 60 | Decider +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 56 | 87 | Decider +31 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 86 | 46 | Clef +40 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 66.1 · B | 69.5 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Clef | Decider |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Cloudflare | Mark Marosi (Mapika) |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clef | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (weights and scoring code, following the Qwen base models). Training code and data aren't published | Apache-2.0 (code and weights) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | |
| Popularity | none | 1.1k stars, 2.7k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |
Verdicts
Clef
Apache-2.0 weights for both models on Hugging Face, ungated, with no account needed to download. Released on 1 October 2026, with no service record and no entry in the Workers AI changelog we read.
Decider
An Apache-2.0 decision model family with a dated changelog, passing CI, 21 package releases since 22 September 2026 and model cards that list measured regressions. One person maintains it, the local server has no authentication option, states over 32,768 tokens are cut without an error, and no security policy is published.
Before you call either
Clef
- Send
modelascleforclef-flashin the body as well as the model in the URL. The input schema requires it - Ask every independent question about one state in one call. Up to 64 are allowed
- Try
clef-flashfirst for text-only triage. It costs $0.09 per million input tokens against $0.24 - Read the internal code on a 429. 3036 means the day's 10,000 free neurons are spent, 3040 means capacity, so retry later
- Treat an answer about user-supplied text as a judgement that hostile input can steer. Cloudflare publishes no guidance on it
Decider
- Pin weights by Hub tag (
v10,v2) when results must repeat. Themainbranch of each model repository changes with new versions - Read
x_p_maxfor the top probability. Since 1.3.0confidenceon choice and score answers follows TypeSafe's rescaled definition, not the top probability - Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option
- Count state tokens before sending. Over 32,768 the state is cut silently, and
/decidecaps context at 1,536 tokens - Split multi-step arithmetic or multi-hop judgements into several questions, and don't write long rules into a question. The README says both fail
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Clef or Decider?
Decider scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against Clef's 66.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Clef leads on security & auth and transparency & trust.
Do Clef and Decider need an API key?
Clef needs an API key. Decider needs no key.
Can an agent call Clef and Decider without installing anything?
Clef has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clef. No hosted endpoint is listed for Decider.
Are Clef and Decider open source?
No open-source release is listed for Clef. Decider is open source (Apache-2.0 (code and weights)).
Other comparisons with Clef or Decider
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-decider.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-clef.json·/api/v1/tools/decider.json - From a terminal
anchor compare cloudflare-clef decider(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "cloudflare-clef", "b": "decider"}at/mcp, no key