Gauge CLI vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP

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.

Helicone AI Gateway + MCP 51

No tagged release since v2025.08.21-1 (21 August 2025) and no changelog entry since 26 November 2025. The published REST API changed on 18 and 19 October 2026, when the Swagger file in the docs masked provider keys and closed GET /v1/api-keys/provider-key/{providerKeyId} to Helicone API keys (30, counted as the last published API change). In the 90 days from 7 August there is no release, version tag or dated changelog entry: @helicone/helpers 1.8.5, helicone-helpers 1.2.1 and @helicone/mcp 0.1.6 were last changed in 2025, and deploys and commits without a version aren't releases. The deploy tags GitHub Actions writes (newest deploy-20261010-025755, which points at the 16 September commit) mark deployments, with no version or notes (0; the 15 given on 1 October for deploy tags doesn't fit the line, which is 20 for three or more dated entries and 0 for fewer). 56 open issues on 1 October; reply times unread. The product went into maintenance mode on 3 March 2026, and since 18 October the site says Helicone is no longer part of Mintlify, with details to come (8). Helper SDKs in two languages, not updated in 2026 (8). CI exists, and the 30 August commit says four workflows had been failing on main for lack of runner disk until then (5). 30 + 0 + 8 + 8 + 5 = 51.

Gauge CLI 53

MIT (30). Local data stays in .gauge/ and telemetry fields are listed; hosted data handling wasn't read (18 of 30). Dated changelog, no deprecation policy (10 of 20). Telemetry on by default, disclosed with an opt-out (20). 30 + 18 + 10 + 20 = 78.

Helicone AI Gateway + MCP 70

Apache-2.0 (30). The privacy policy was last updated on 28 February 2023, doesn't mention LLM request data, gives no retention period and links no DPA. Retention per plan is on the pricing page. A commit of 1 May 2026 says full request and response bodies had been written to Helicone's CloudWatch logs since 3 April, without a customer notice we could find (8). Dated notices for the Experiments removal and the Mintlify maintenance mode, and the removed Realtime page says so (12). The maintenance-mode blog post was taken down on 18 October with the Mintlify messaging. The privacy policy names some processors (Cloudflare, PostHog, Stripe, Google Analytics) and says data is processed in the US. No full subprocessor list (10).

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.

Helicone AI Gateway + MCP 50

Better Stack page at status.helicone.ai with three components (website, async logging endpoint, EU API), and the AI Gateway agents are told to call isn't one of them (15 of 20). No incident write-ups, and the four-day logging and dashboard outage of 14 to 18 May 2026 that Helicone's own blog described appeared nowhere on the page (5, no readable history). Ingestion and API rate limits published per plan on the pricing page (15). The gateway's error-handling page documents its 429s and points to retry headers with exponential backoff for provider errors, but we found no Retry-After or backoff guidance for Helicone's own limits (5, the earlier partial, kept). No SLA found (0). Gateway and logging are GA (10). Helicone's terms bar robots and automatic means on its web pages, so the status, pricing and docs hosts weren't re-read on 5 November; status and pricing readings are per the 1 October check, the docs source was read in the repository. 15 + 5 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 50.

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.

Helicone AI Gateway + MCP 30

No x402 or other machine payment (0). Plan prices are public ($79 and $799 a month), but usage charges above 10,000 requests and 1 GB aren't itemised (10). Hobby is free with no card (20). A person has to sign up in a browser to get a key. Self-hosting is free but isn't an agent route (0).

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.

Helicone AI Gateway + MCP 69

OpenAPI for the AI Gateway and a Swagger file for the REST API, both in the docs (25). llms.txt at docs.helicone.ai (10). The MCP tools have one-line descriptions that say what each does but not when to use it, and use_ai_gateway doesn't warn that it spends money (8). Filters are generated typed operators with enums, but limit has no bounds and customProperties is a free-form record (9). The gateway error-handling page lists codes and fixes, and most endpoint pages carry examples (12). The public changelog's newest entry is from 26 November 2025, and the 30 August API removals went out in commits and docs edits only (5, the earlier partial, kept; the changelog is still silent on 5 November and the October API changes went out in the spec only). 25 + 10 + 8 + 9 + 12 + 5 = 69.

Gauge CLI 75

CLI reading for an agent driving it. Bundled instructions match the installed version, and output is filterable with -o json (20 of 25). Run summaries and Findings with queryable fields (15 of 20). Errors not documented as a reference (10 of 20). Reruns from checkpoints and a recheck command with a confirm step (15 of 20). Four commands to start, Node only (15 of 15). 20 + 15 + 10 + 15 + 15 = 75.

Helicone AI Gateway + MCP 70

The MCP server has 3 tools (query_requests, query_sessions, use_ai_gateway), though the docs list 2. The recursive filter schemas add some weight (20). Offset, limit, filters, sort and includeBodies off by default (20). Gateway errors are documented with codes and fixes. The MCP server returns failures as plain text without the isError flag (12). No readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations and no idempotency keys, while one of three tools spends credit (3). Only time bounds are required. Helper SDKs for TypeScript and Python (15).