# Dust vs Secoda

> Dust scores 62.8 (B) to Secoda's 44.5 (E) for company knowledge search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-secoda
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-secoda.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-secoda.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-secoda.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Secoda's 44.5 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do company knowledge search.

- Dust: grade B, 62.8/100, rank #419 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dust.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dust.json
- Secoda: grade E, 44.5/100, rank #875 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/secoda.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/secoda.json
- Best company knowledge search and data catalogues for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/company-knowledge/index.md
- All 63 knowledge comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/company-knowledge/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Dust (B)

Good for: A team that already works in Dust and wants an outside agent to search its spaces, read documents and call its agents with a user's own access.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 53 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 75 against 59
- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 44
- Security & auth, 75 against 54
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 58

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Open source

Watch for: Programmatic usage has no free credits. It draws only on the workspace credit pool, which Free seats cannot use

### Secoda (E)

Good for: A data team already on Secoda that wants an agent to read and edit catalogue metadata, lineage, documents and glossary terms, or to search the catalogue and run SQL through the local MCP server.

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No price is published. The three plans (Core, Premium, Enterprise) link to a sales form, and no trial or sign-up button was found on the site


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Dust | Secoda | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 40 | Dust +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 59 | Dust +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 44 | Dust +23 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 54 | Dust +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 0 | Dust +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 60 | Dust +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 58 | Dust +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.8 · B** | **44.5 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Dust | Secoda |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Permutation Labs | Secoda, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://dust.tt/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli` | Proprietary service under the Secoda Master Subscription Agreement. The local MCP server in secoda/secoda-mcp is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.5k stars, 17k npm/wk | 1 stars |

## Verdicts

**Dust.** The whole platform is MIT on GitHub, with a public OpenAPI document of 68 operations, llms.txt and a remote MCP server that acts with the signed-in user's access. API calls that run agents draw only on a paid workspace credit pool, and the terms of service could not be read.

**Secoda.** The REST API reference embeds OpenAPI 3.0 definitions on every page, with `llms.txt` and Markdown copies, and the subscription agreement carries a 99.9 per cent uptime commitment. No price, trial or sign-up is published, no status page was found, and the public changelog stops at 28 October 2025 although self-hosted releases continue.

## Before you call either

### Dust

1. Use `https://eu.dust.tt` for a workspace in the EU region and `https://dust.tt` otherwise, for both the API and the MCP server
2. Connect an MCP client by OAuth and send the `resource` parameter in authorisation and token requests. API keys do not work on the MCP server
3. Expect HTTP 429 with type `rate_limit_error` when the credit pool, the programmatic monthly cap or the key's spend cap is exhausted. Retrying will not help
4. Call `GET /api/v1/w/{wId}/search` with `limit` (1 to 100, default 25) and `cursor`, or a data source view's search with `top_k`
5. Keep document upserts under 120 a minute per workspace

### Secoda

1. Pick the base URL by workspace region. `app.secoda.co` uses `api.secoda.co`, `eu.secoda.co` uses `eapi.secoda.co` and `apac.secoda.co` uses `aapi.secoda.co`
2. Keep writes under 30 PUT, PATCH or POST calls a minute on entity endpoints, and back off on a 429
3. List with `/api/v1/resource/catalog` and a URL-encoded JSON `filter`. The per-type list endpoints for tables are marked deprecated, and results stop at 10,000 resources
4. Send at most 100 entities to `/api/v1/resource/all/bulk_update/` in one request
5. Add a trailing slash when an endpoint does not behave as expected, as the docs advise
6. Treat an API key as the creating user. `run_sql` in the MCP server works only when an admin has enabled Run SQL and the user has query access to the integration

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Dust or Secoda?

Dust scores 62.8 (B) on agent readiness against Secoda's 44.5 (E), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Dust and Secoda need an API key?

Dust takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Secoda needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Dust and Secoda without installing anything?

Dust has a hosted endpoint at https://dust.tt/mcp. Secoda runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are Dust and Secoda open source?

Dust is open source (MIT for the platform's source at github.com/dust-tt/dust. The hosted service is sold under Dust's own terms. The npm page gives ISC for `@dust-tt/client` and MIT for `@dust-tt/dust-cli`). No open-source release is listed for Secoda.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Dust or Secoda

- [Alation vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.md)
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- [Cohere North vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-dust.md)
- [Cohere North vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-north-vs-secoda.md)
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- [Dust vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-onyx.md)
- [Dust vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dust-vs-overclock.md)
- [Glean vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/glean-vs-secoda.md)
- [Guru vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guru-vs-secoda.md)
- [Onyx vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/onyx-vs-secoda.md)
- [Overclock vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/overclock-vs-secoda.md)
- [Alation vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-secoda.md)
- [Atlan vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-secoda.md)
- [Collibra vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/collibra-vs-secoda.md)
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- [OpenMetadata vs Secoda](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openmetadata-vs-secoda.md)