Directus vs Kontent.ai

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.

Kontent.ai

Management API keys take per-area permissions, environment limits and an expiry from one minute to two years, and changes made with a key are named in the audit log. Rate limits and Retry-After are documented. No price is published, and no OpenAPI file was found. Access starts with a 30-day trial that a person opens in a browser.

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

Kontent.ai

1. Send Authorization: Bearer <key> to https://manage.kontent.ai/v2/projects/{environment_id}/.... The Management API must be switched on under Environment settings, General, Enabled APIs first
2. Ask for a Management API key with only the permissions the task needs. Read content alone gives a read-only key, and keys expire after six months by default
3. Stay under 10 requests a second and 400 a minute per environment, send requests one at a time, and wait the seconds in Retry-After on a 429
4. Page lists by passing the continuation_token from the response back in the x-continuation header
5. Create items with an external_id and write with the upsert PUT at /items/external-id/{id} so a retry after a lost response does not create a duplicate
6. With the MCP server, call get-patch-guide before any patch tool, and use a client that prompts on destructiveHint