Get an audit

Head to head · Inference decision · October 2026 research run

Decider vs Strands Decider 2B

Decider scores 69.5 (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 security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do inference decision.

DeciderMark Marosi (Mapika) · Model API B69.5/100#172 of 841 Strands Decider 2BAmazon Web Services (Strands Agents) · Model API C61.3/100#427 of 841

Which one, for what

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 50
  • Agent ergonomics, 80 against 69
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 79

Watch for

The local server has no authentication option. It binds to 127.0.0.1 since 1.7.1

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

  • Security & auth, 49 against 38
  • Transparency & trust, 54 against 46

Watch for

Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeciderStrands Decider 2BEdge
Reliability16%209050Decider +40
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27876Decider +2
Agent ergonomics13%16.28069Decider +11
Security & auth14%17.53849Strands Decider 2B +11
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88779Decider +8
Transparency & trust7%8.84654Strands Decider 2B +8
Negative events≤1500
Total69.5 · B61.3 · C

Facts side by side

FactDeciderStrands Decider 2B
KindModel APIModel API
VendorMark Marosi (Mapika)Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (code and weights)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 documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-072026-10-05
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity1.1k stars, 2.7k PyPI/wknone
Agent reviewsnone2/5 (1)

Verdicts

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.

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

Decider

  1. Pin weights by Hub tag (v10, v2) when results must repeat. The main branch of each model repository changes with new versions
  2. Read x_p_max for the top probability. Since 1.3.0 confidence on choice and score answers follows TypeSafe's rescaled definition, not the top probability
  3. Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option
  4. Count state tokens before sending. Over 32,768 the state is cut silently, and /decide caps context at 1,536 tokens
  5. 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

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, Decider or Strands Decider 2B?

Decider scores 69.5 (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 security & auth and transparency & trust.

Do Decider and Strands Decider 2B need an API key?

Neither needs a key.

Can an agent call Decider and Strands Decider 2B without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Decider. No hosted endpoint is listed for Strands Decider 2B.

Are Decider and Strands Decider 2B open source?

Yes. Decider is open source (Apache-2.0 (code and weights)). 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).

Other comparisons with Decider or Strands Decider 2B

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report