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

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

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.

- Decider: grade B, 69.5/100, rank #172 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/decider.json
- Strands Decider 2B: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #427 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Decider | Strands Decider 2B | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 50 | Decider +40 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 76 | Decider +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 69 | Decider +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 49 | Strands Decider 2B +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 79 | Decider +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 46 | 54 | Strands Decider 2B +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.5 · B** | **61.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Decider | Strands Decider 2B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Mark Marosi (Mapika) | Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-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 documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no 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 |  |  |
| Popularity | 1.1k stars, 2.7k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (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).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-strands-decider.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-strands-decider.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "decider", "b": "strands-decider"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare decider strands-decider`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/decider.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json

## Other comparisons with Decider or Strands Decider 2B

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-decider.md)
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