Directus vs Hygraph

Directus

The built-in MCP server works under the connecting user's permissions, supports OAuth limited to the MCP endpoint and blocks deletes unless an administrator allows them. Since version 12 a licence check caps the free Core tier at 3 Studio seats, 25 collections and 5 flows, and the default tool list carries about 79 KB of instructions.

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.

Directus

1. Connect with OAuth or an Authorization: Bearer header. Don't put the token in the URL as ?access_token=, where it can be logged
2. Use /mcp?tool_mode=registry when the client loads every tool definition. Default mode sends each tool's full instructions, about 79 KB in total
3. Read the schema tool before writing. Item payloads are untyped objects, so field names and types come only from the data model
4. Publish a version with POST /versions/{id}/promote over REST. The MCP items tool refuses system collections such as directus_versions
5. Count translation and junction tables against the 25-collection Core limit before creating collections

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