Head to head · Content management · October 2026 research run

Cosmic vs Hygraph

Cosmic scores 72.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Hygraph's 67.4 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Hygraph leads on security & auth. Both do content management.

Best headless CMS and website publishing for AI agents · All 136 cms comparisons

Which one, for what

Cosmic BB

Best for Teams that want an agent to set up and fill a hosted CMS end to end, including signup.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 90 against 83
  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 78
  • Agent ergonomics, 82 against 72
  • Payments & pricing, 45 against 35
  • Maintenance & community, 86 against 64

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

No SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA certification, by the security page's own statement

Hygraph B

Best for Teams on Hygraph who want an agent to create, localise and publish entries, upload assets or change schema, with delete and unpublish kept out of reach on MCP.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 63 against 47

Watch for

GraphQL error bodies carry a message and a requestId with no machine-readable code, and only asset transformation 429 responses are documented with Retry-After

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community Cosmic +22

Cosmic 86

MCP server v1.7.1 was tagged on 2 November 2026 (30). v1.7.0 on 9 September and v1.7.1, plus changelog entries on 14 and 31 August, 1, 8, 10, 22 and 23 September and 5 and 9 October 2026 (20). A dated changelog, a Discord server and support email; GitHub issue activity wasn't read because the GitHub API refused us for its rate limit (12 of 25). com.cosmicjs/mcp in the official MCP registry under a domain namespace, though the registry has 1.6.0 while the repository is at 1.7.1 (15). CI, deploy and publish workflows in the MCP repository (9 of 10). 30+20+12+15+9 = 86.

Hygraph 64

The changelog's newest entry is still 30 September 2026, 32 days before 1 November, and no newer dated change was found (20). In the 90 days from 3 August, entries on 31 August and 30 September and @hygraph/management-sdk 1.6.1 on 19 August, per the 8 October check of npm, not re-read on 1 November (20). Public changelog, a community Slack, in-app chat and email support on Growth. The SDK's GitHub repository shows no commit since 13 September 2024 (9 of 15). The Management SDK was current on npm on 8 October. The official MCP registry still returns no Hygraph entry (11). The public repository does not carry the 2026 npm releases, so CI could not be seen (4).

Security & auth Hygraph +16

Cosmic 47

Separate read and write keys per bucket, rotatable independently (25), less 10 because the docs give read_key as a query parameter on GET (15 of 30). Read-only MCP access by leaving out the write key, four user roles on every plan, and a delete tool told not to run speculatively; no approval step (14 of 20). Objects hold text written by people and AI generation writes into the bucket; no prompt-injection guidance was found (3 of 15). An append-only audit log of security-relevant actions on Workspace or Pro plans (10 of 15). No SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA by the security page's own statement, no security.txt, reports to support email (5 of 20). 15+14+3+10+5 = 47.

Hygraph 63

Permanent Auth Tokens are JWTs sent as a Bearer header, each limited by model, stage, locale, environment and action, with separate Management API permissions, and deleting one invalidates it. No expiry or rotation was found. The global MCP endpoint uses OAuth through auth.hygraph.com with PKCE and a registration endpoint, with access following the user's own permissions (25 of 30). New tokens start with no permissions, MCP token presets include read-only and content-only, MCP rejects delete and unpublish, and public API access is off by default. The API itself has no confirmation step (17). The docs warn against always allowing execute_graphql. No guidance on treating stored content as untrusted input was found (5). Audit logs are Enterprise only with 90 days of retention and record the token that made a change (7). The site states SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified hosting. /.well-known/security.txt answered 404, no disclosure policy or bounty was found, and the trust report on app.drata.com answered 403 (9).

Schema & documentation Cosmic +10

Cosmic 88

openapi.json at www.cosmicjs.com covers 21 operations on 12 paths, each with a summary, a description and documented 401, 402, 404, 429 and 500 responses, though the docs describe more endpoints than it covers (revisions, AI, search); MCP tools have typed inputs (20 of 25). llms.txt and every docs page as Markdown (10). Tool descriptions say when to use each tool and when not to, such as never calling delete speculatively (18 of 20). 11 enums in the spec, typed metafields and validation messages (11 of 15). Examples on every API page and an error model with a sample (14 of 15). API v3 paths and a dated changelog (15). 20+10+18+11+14+15 = 88.

Hygraph 78

GraphQL introspection is on by default for each project's Content API, so the contract is machine-readable and specific to the project. The Management API answered 401 to an introspection query without a token, and no static schema file was found (20 of 25). A root llms.txt with a Markdown copy of every docs section under /llms-full/ (10). The Management SDK page states when to use it and when not to, and the MCP tools reference gives each of 19 tools one line with a warning on execute_graphql (15). Inputs are typed per model with enums and required fields. Rich Text takes an AST and JSON fields are free-form (13). Request and response examples throughout, and an errors page for nine HTTP statuses. Error bodies carry a message only, with no code list (10). The endpoint path carries /v2/ and the changelog is public and dated. No API versioning policy was found (10).

Agent ergonomics Cosmic +10

Cosmic 82

24 tools, in the 11 to 30 band (15), plus 5 because omitting the write key gives a read-only subset (20 of 25). limit, props, depth, cursor pagination with after, status and locale filters (20). Status codes with specific messages and fix-or-retry guidance per code (17 of 20). readOnlyHint and destructiveHint on the MCP tools; no idempotency keys for writes, though agent signup is idempotent (14 of 20). Few required parameters, a TypeScript SDK and a CLI, no SDK in a second language found (11 of 15). 20+20+17+14+11 = 82.

Hygraph 72

GraphQL field selection sizes every response, first defaults to 10 and is capped at 100, and the MCP tool list_entities takes a limit and field selection. The project MCP endpoint lists 17 tools (22 of 25). first, last, skip, before and after, Relay connections, typed where filters and ordering (20). Errors use documented HTTP statuses and a requestId, with free-text messages and no machine code (11). No idempotency keys. upsert mutations key on a unique field, batch migrations apply all or nothing with a dry_run on the MCP tool, and MCP rejects delete and unpublish. We couldn't read the tool annotations (12). Only the Bearer header is required and any GraphQL client works. The one official SDK covers the Management API in JavaScript and TypeScript (7).

Payments & pricing Cosmic +10

Cosmic 45

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and quotas are public, with add-ons; no per-call price (10). Free plan with no card (20). Agent signup returns working bucket keys with no human signup; the human claims the project by emailed code within 14 days, so partial (15 of 20). 0+10+20+15 = 45.

Hygraph 35

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Growth is $199 a month, with overage of $0.20 per 10,000 API operations and per GB of asset traffic. Enterprise is priced through sales (15). The Hobby plan needs no card and includes 500,000 API calls a month (20). A person signs up in a browser by email or social login and creates the token in Studio (0).

Reliability Cosmic +7

Cosmic 90

Graded on the hosted service with the hosted lines. Statuspage at cosmicstatus.com with API and Web Dashboard components (20). The history page shows no incidents in September, October or November 2026, and the newest incident in the feed is from 26 May 2025. The MCP server isn't a component, so 25 of 30. 100 requests a second with a burst of 200, timeouts and size limits are documented (15). 429 is documented and the error page says which codes to fix and not retry; no Retry-After guidance was found. Agent signup is idempotent (12 of 15). The security page says Enterprise has an SLA from 99.95 per cent uptime; the SLA page itself wasn't read (8 of 10). Hosted MCP is announced as available now, with no beta label (10). 20+25+15+12+8+10 = 90.

Hygraph 83

Graded on the GraphQL Content and Management APIs, with the hosted MCP server noted. Public status page at status.hygraph.com, now on incident.io, with the API, the Content API cache and the asset CDN for 11 regions (20). In the 90 days to 1 November 2026 its feed lists two incidents, both partial outages. On 7 August new sign-ups were unavailable for 36 minutes (11:38 to 12:14 UTC) with existing users unaffected, and on 16 October cache invalidation for the Content API in the AP South 1 shared region was delayed for 1 hour 47 minutes (09:13 to 11:01 UTC). Each hit one function or one region, so both read as minor (20 of 30). Rate limits published by plan as uncached requests a second (5, 25, up to 500) and concurrent operations (15). The docs give exponential backoff guidance with sample code. Retry-After is documented only for asset transformation limits, and there are no idempotency keys (10). The pricing page lists an Enterprise uptime SLA of up to 99.95%. The SLA document was not found (8). The APIs and the MCP server carry no beta label (10).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCosmicHygraphEdge
Reliability16%209083Cosmic +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28878Cosmic +10
Agent ergonomics13%16.28272Cosmic +10
Security & auth14%17.54763Hygraph +16
Payments & pricing10%12.54535Cosmic +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88664Cosmic +22
Transparency & trust7%8.86362Cosmic +1
Negative events≤1500
TotalBB 72.5/100B 67.4/100

Facts side by side

FactCosmicHygraph
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCosmic Inc.Hygraph GmbH
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.cosmicjs.com/v1/buckets/{bucket_slug}https://mcp.hygraph.com/mcp
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary service under Hygraph GmbH's Terms of Service. The @hygraph/management-sdk package is MIT
Tools exposed2417
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrycom.cosmicjs/mcpnot listed
Last release2026-11-022026-09-30
Terms last updatedno date givenno date given
Privacy policy last updatedno date givenno date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity295 npm/wk52 stars, 8.6k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.5/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Cosmic

Cosmic gives agents 24 annotated MCP tools with when-to-use descriptions, a read-only mode by key, documented limits and an agent signup API that returns working keys before a human claims the project. It holds no SOC 2 or ISO certification by its own statement, and read keys can travel in the URL.

Hygraph

Tokens are limited by model, stage, locale and action, the GraphQL schema is typed and introspectable, and a hosted MCP server rejects delete and unpublish operations. Error bodies carry a message without a machine code, there are no idempotency keys, audit logs are Enterprise only, and no data processing agreement, sub-processor list or security.txt was found.

Before you call either

Cosmic

  1. Send only the read key in the Bearer token unless the task needs writes
  2. Use cosmic_agent_signup when the user has no Cosmic account, and hand the human the claim URL within 14 days
  3. Fix and don't retry on 400; wait and retry on 429
  4. Use props, depth=0 and cursor pagination with after to stay under the 6 MB response limit
  5. Confirm with the user before cosmic_objects_delete, which deletes permanently

Hygraph

  1. Send the Permanent Auth Token as Authorization: Bearer <token> to https://<region>.hygraph.com/v2/<projectId>/<environment>. Read the schema by introspection first, because every type is generated from the project's models
  2. Mutations write to DRAFT. Call publish<Model> with to: [PUBLISHED] as a separate mutation, and pass locales to write or publish a localisation
  3. Stay under the plan's limit for uncached requests (5 a second on Hobby, 25 on Growth) and its concurrent mutations (5 and 10). Back off exponentially on 429
  4. Upload an asset with createAsset, then POST the file to the returned pre-signed URL, or pass uploadUrl for a remote file. The asset stays ASSET_CREATE_PENDING until processed
  5. Schema changes go to the Management API through @hygraph/management-sdk or the MCP tool submit_batch_migration. Version restore has no documented mutation, so read <model>Version and write the old values back

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cosmic or Hygraph?

Cosmic scores 72.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Hygraph's 67.4 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Hygraph leads on security & auth.

Do Cosmic and Hygraph need an API key?

Cosmic needs an API key. Hygraph takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Cosmic and Hygraph without installing anything?

Yes. Cosmic has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.cosmicjs.com/v1/buckets/{bucket_slug} and Hygraph at https://mcp.hygraph.com/mcp.

Other comparisons with Cosmic or Hygraph

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