# Clef vs Strands Decider 2B > Clef scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Strands Decider 2B leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do inference decision. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by… - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.md (~1,950 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - 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: 2026-10-06 Clef scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Strands Decider 2B leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do inference decision. - Clef: grade B, 66.3/100, rank #159 of 460. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-clef.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-clef.json - Strands Decider 2B: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #235 of 460. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json ## 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: - Reliability, 61 against 50 - Agent ergonomics, 75 against 69 - Security & auth, 69 against 49 - Transparency & trust, 89 against 54 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 ### Strands Decider 2B (C) Good for: Cheap, local classification, routing, triage and tool-call checks on short text inside Strands or other Python agents, and for teams who want to retrain a decision model from a published recipe. Ahead on: - Payments & pricing, 60 against 40 - Maintenance & community, 79 against 56 Also in its favour: - No key needed to call it - Open source Watch for: Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Clef | Strands Decider 2B | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 61 | 50 | Clef +11 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 76 | Strands Decider 2B +1 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 69 | Clef +6 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 69 | 49 | Clef +20 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 60 | Strands Decider 2B +20 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 79 | Strands Decider 2B +23 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 89 | 54 | Clef +35 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **66.3 · B** | **61.3 · C** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Clef | Strands Decider 2B | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Model API | Model API | | Vendor | Cloudflare | Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents) | | 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, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base | | Read-only variant documented | no | no | | llms.txt | yes | no | | Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-05 | | Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2/5 (1) | ## 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. **Strands Decider 2B.** A 1.9B-parameter Apache-2.0 decision model that runs on a laptop GPU, an Apple silicon Mac or a CPU, with its training data, recipe and per-version results published. It's an experimental 0.1.0 release with a 4,096-token window that cuts long states by default, and its local server has no authentication. ## Before you call either ### Clef 1. Send `model` as `clef` or `clef-flash` in the body as well as the model in the URL. The input schema requires it 2. Ask every independent question about one state in one call. Up to 64 are allowed 3. Try `clef-flash` first for text-only triage. It costs $0.09 per million input tokens against $0.24 4. Read the internal code on a 429. 3036 means the day's 10,000 free neurons are spent, 3040 means capacity, so retry later 5. Treat an answer about user-supplied text as a judgement that hostile input can steer. Cloudflare publishes no guidance on it ### Strands Decider 2B 1. Pin the checkpoint by its full name, such as `StrandsAgents/strands-decider-2B-hobson-v21`, since each version is a separate Hugging Face repository 2. Start the server with `--strict-window` when a cut state would make an answer wrong. It then returns 422 naming the window 3. Ask every question about one state in one request. The state is read once and each question adds only its own tokens 4. Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option 5. Measure thresholds on your own traffic before acting automatically. The card says confidence bands hold for short classification only ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Clef or Strands Decider 2B? Clef scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Strands Decider 2B leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. ### Do Clef and Strands Decider 2B need an API key? Clef needs an API key. Strands Decider 2B needs no key. ### Can an agent call Clef and Strands Decider 2B 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 Strands Decider 2B. ### Are Clef and Strands Decider 2B open source? No open-source release is listed for Clef. Strands Decider 2B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cloudflare-clef", "b": "strands-decider"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cloudflare-clef strands-decider` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-clef.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json ## Other comparisons with Clef or Strands Decider 2B - [Clef vs Laya](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-convai-laya.md) - [Clef vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md) - [Clef vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-typesafe-jev.md) - [Laya vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Kev vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Strands Decider 2B vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-typesafe-jev.md)