# Galileo API + MCP vs Gauge CLI (slim)

> Gauge CLI scores 60.4 (C) to Galileo's 44.9 (E) for evaluations. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-gauge-cli.md (~4,500 tokens) · this version ~2,280 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-gauge-cli.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-gauge-cli
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-06
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Gauge CLI scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against Galileo API + MCP's 44.9 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Galileo API + MCP leads on schema & documentation. Both do evaluations.

- Galileo API + MCP: E 44.9, rank #1083 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/galileo.min.md
- Gauge CLI: C 60.4, rank #590 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gauge-cli.min.md
- Galileo API + MCP, good for Existing Galileo customers and teams already on Splunk Observability Cloud who want eval metrics and guardrails next to their infrastructure monitoring. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 79 against 60. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- Gauge CLI, good for Teams that build skills, CLIs, SDKs or MCP servers and want to see where coding agents get stuck with them, and to test fixes before release. Ahead on Reliability, 60 against 18; Security & auth, 55 against 33; Payments & pricing, 40 against 20; Maintenance & community, 82 against 74. Also No key needed to call it; Open source; No incidents deducted, where Galileo API + MCP loses 3 points for them.

| Category | Galileo API + MCP | Gauge CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 18 | 60 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 79 | 60 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 73 | 75 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 33 | 55 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 74 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 55 | 53 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Galileo API + MCP | Gauge CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | cli |
| Vendor | Galileo (now Splunk Agent Observability, Cisco) | Gauge |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.galileo.ai/v2` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source) | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 8 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-11-01 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not read yet |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Gauge CLI +42: Galileo API + MCP 18 (No status page found. status.galileo.ai still has no DNS record and docs.galileo.ai links none (0). The Splunk site links a system status page, but splunk.com is paused for us on its website terms, so it is unread. With no history to read, 5. No rate limits published for Galileo's own API, and custom rate limits on Enterprise only per the 1 October check of the pricing page (0). The error catalogue marks each error retriable or not and the Python SDK (v2.7.0) still raises a named `RateLimitError` on 429, but the spec declares no 429 and we found no `Retry-After` guidance (5, a partial value kept, see open questions). No SLA on any plan (0). The REST API is GA. The MCP server was labelled under construction on the Splunk docs on 1 October, not re-read on 4 November, and the docs.galileo.ai MCP page carries no label (8, kept). 0+5+0+5+0+8 = 18.); Gauge CLI 60 (Local package. Installs from npm as @withgauge/cli with Node 22.13 or later and Docker stated (20). checks.yml runs npm run check on push and pull request across a matrix, and the repository has 76 test files; whether main passes wasn't read (20 of 25). Issues weren't read (5, unchecked). A dated changelog with Added sections per release (15). Version 0.28.0 (0). 20 + 20 + 5 + 15 + 0 = 60.)
- Security & auth, Gauge CLI +22: Galileo API + MCP 33 (API key in a header (`Splunk-AO-API-Key` in the current spec, `Galileo-API-Key` in older docs), a JWT from `/login/api_key` that expires after 24 hours, or HTTP Basic with a username and password, which the docs list as an option. We found no key scopes, expiry or rotation docs (18). Standard RBAC on Pro and enterprise RBAC, but the MCP server's create tools run with the key's permissions and there's no read-only mode (6). Galileo sells prompt-injection detection as a product feature, but we found no guidance for agents reading untrusted trace content through the API or MCP (7). No audit log found (0). No security.txt, no trust page (trust.galileo.ai doesn't resolve, galileo.ai/security is a 404), no SECURITY.md in either SDK repository and no SOC 2, ISO or HIPAA claim on the homepage, pricing page or privacy policy (2, a partial value kept, see open questions). Re-read on 4 November, galileo.ai/security and /.well-known/security.txt answer 404 and the homepage names no certification. 18+6+7+0+2 = 33.); Gauge CLI 55 (Local tool. Agent credentials stay on your machine in local mode; hosted login with a device flow (20 of 30). Test agents run in fresh Docker sessions with injected inputs, and the gateway brokers credentials in hosted mode (12 of 20). Agents under test read your product's docs and outputs, with no prompt-injection guidance (5 of 15). Local transcripts and SQLite evidence per run (10 of 15). No security policy found (8 of 20). 20 + 12 + 5 + 10 + 8 = 55.)
- Payments & pricing, Gauge CLI +20: Galileo API + MCP 20 (No x402 or other machine payment (0). galileo.ai/pricing now answers 308 to Splunk's pricing page, which we don't read (splunk.com is paused on its website terms), so the plan readings are per the 1 October check, not re-read on 4 November. Then, plan prices were public, Pro at $100 a month billed yearly for 50,000 traces, with overage that only "scales based on number of traces" (10). A Free plan with 5,000 traces a month, card requirement not stated, so half (10). A person signs up in a browser at app.galileo.ai/sign-up, still linked from the homepage (0). 0+10+10+0 = 20.); Gauge CLI 40 (Scored on the hosted option. No payment protocol (0). Credit prices weren't found on the pages read (0). Local mode is free with no card (20). Local mode needs no sign-up (20). 0 + 0 + 20 + 20 = 40.)
- Schema & documentation, Galileo API + MCP +19: Galileo API + MCP 79 (OpenAPI 3.1 at api.galileo.ai/public/v2/openapi.json, linked from the llms.txt on docs.galileo.ai. We didn't request the API host. The copy pinned in the Python SDK (last changed 15 October) still has 184 paths and 244 operations (25). llms.txt and Markdown pages on docs.galileo.ai (10). 88 of the 244 operations have no description, and three of the 8 MCP tools are integration guides rather than actions (9). Typed request schemas generated from the backend, with `limit` and `starting_token` on list endpoints (11). The spec declares 200 and 422 on almost every operation and no 429. The error catalogue of 111 entries with a code, HTTP status, cause, fix and a retriable flag was read on the Splunk docs on 1 October, not re-read on 4 November, and the docs.galileo.ai copy loads its entries by script. Cookbooks give examples (11). Versioned `/v2` API and dated release notes on docs.galileo.ai (newest 27 October 2026) and the Splunk docs (13, kept). 25+10+9+11+11+13 = 79.); Gauge CLI 60 (CLI reading. No machine-readable contract, -o json on read commands (10 of 25). No llms.txt; instructions bundled in the CLI for agents (5). The README says what it finds and when local or hosted fits (16 of 20). Commands with help text; typed flags (9 of 15). Worked examples, no error reference (8 of 15). Dated changelog and semver tags (12 of 15). 10 + 5 + 16 + 9 + 8 + 12 = 60.)
- Maintenance & community, Gauge CLI +8: Galileo API + MCP 74 (TypeScript SDK v2.4.0 on 16 October 2026, Python SDK v2.7.0 on 14 October, and dated release notes on 13 and 27 October (30). In the 90 days from 6 August, TypeScript 2.3.0 (16 September), 2.3.1 (22 September), 2.3.2 (1 October) and 2.4.0, Python 2.7.0, and release notes dated 7 August, 13 October and 27 October (20). Dated release notes and Slack support on Pro. github.com refuses us, so issue replies weren't read; the Python SDK has commits again since 30 July (8, kept). Official Python and TypeScript SDKs (10). CI tests, codecov and Dependabot in both repositories. The Python `CHANGELOG.md` still stops at v0.10.0 from May 2025 while releases have reached 2.7.0 (6). 30+20+8+10+6 = 74.); Gauge CLI 82 (CLI 0.28.0 on 4 November 2026 (30). Six releases in 90 days (20). Issues and pull requests weren't read; a support address and issue tracker are published (12 of 25). Current official package (15). CI on push and pull request (5 of 10, results not read). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 5 = 82.)