# Gauge CLI vs Laminar API + MCP

> Gauge CLI scores 60.4 (C) to Laminar's 57 (C) for evaluations. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gauge-cli-vs-laminar
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gauge-cli-vs-laminar.md (~4,450 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-06

Gauge CLI scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against Laminar API + MCP's 57 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Laminar API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do evaluations.

- Gauge CLI: grade C, 60.4/100, rank #590 of 1354. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gauge-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gauge-cli.json
- Laminar API + MCP: grade C, 57/100, rank #727 of 1354. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/laminar.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/laminar.json
- Best agent tracing, monitoring and evaluation tools: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-observability/index.md
- All 250 evals comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-observability/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Gauge CLI (C)

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 52
- Security & auth, 55 against 44
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where Laminar API + MCP loses 5 points for them

Watch for: Collects anonymous command usage by default, with an opt-out

### Laminar API + MCP (C)

Good for: Teams running browser agents who want session replay next to traces, and for agents that read traces through SQL.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 60
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 75
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 53

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

Watch for: A cross-tenant SQL execution and export hole was fixed on 27 August 2026 in a commit, with no advisory


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: Laminar API + MCP +28

- 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.
- Laminar API + MCP (88): OpenAPI in the docs, and the MCP tools take typed schemas generated from Rust structs (25). llms.txt and Markdown docs (10). The tool descriptions are among the best in the category. `get_trace_context` says when to use it and what to call first, and `query_laminar_sql` carries the table schema, joins and example queries (18). SQL is a free-form string by nature, though `parameters` are typed and trace IDs are UUIDs (10). The SQL API documents its 400, 401 and 429 bodies with examples (13). Monthly changelog without dates per entry, and a `/v1` API (12).

### Security & auth: Gauge CLI +11

- 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.
- Laminar API + MCP (44): One project API key as a Bearer token, revocable, scoped to one project, with no read-only key type (20). MCP still has three tools and no write tools, and SQL is SELECT-only on a read-only database client (16). Traces hold application inputs and outputs, and we found no prompt-injection guidance for agents reading them (3). No audit log found (0). SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA are claimed for Pro and Enterprise on the pricing page per the 1 October check, with no report, no SECURITY.md in any of the three repositories, no security.txt per the 1 October check and no advisories in OSV for `lmnr` or Laminar. A bare SOC 2 claim with no disclosure route takes 5 in this run (5). 20+16+3+0+5 = 44.

### Transparency & trust: Laminar API + MCP +11

- 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.
- Laminar API + MCP (64): Apache-2.0, with Signals and Slack alerts held back from the open-source images behind a licence key (28). The privacy policy covers account data in general terms with no retention period for trace data, no subprocessor list and no DPA link we could find. Retention per plan is on the pricing page and PII redaction is documented (12). No deprecation policy. The move from lmnr.ai to laminar.sh while the API stayed on api.lmnr.ai wasn't dated in the changelog (5). Self-hosted telemetry, on by default since 8 June 2026, is disclosed in the README as anonymised, with `LAMINAR_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=true` to switch it off. The code sends a per-deployment UUID, version, environment and row counts, with the source IP dropped. Until v0.3.2 (16 October) the documented opt-out didn't reach the Compose frontend containers (7280cc17). No subprocessor or data-location list for the cloud (12).

### Payments & pricing: Gauge CLI +10

- 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.
- Laminar API + MCP (30): No x402 (0). Per-GB prices and Signals token prices published without login (20). The Free plan exists with 1 GB and 7 days, but the pricing page doesn't say whether a card is needed, so half (10). A person signs up in a browser to create a project key (0).

### Reliability: Gauge CLI +8

- 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.
- Laminar API + MCP (52): Laminar's terms (last updated 11 August 2026) bar any spider, robot or scraper that accesses the Services other than its documented APIs, SDKs and CLI, so status.laminar.sh was not re-read on 4 November and the 1 October readings are kept. Better Stack page whose only components are the homepage and an API echo probe, with nothing for ingestion, SQL or MCP, kept at 12 as partly met. Per the 1 October check the window from 6 August to 1 October shows only one planned 30-minute Postgres upgrade on 8 August, and no unread stretch is credited beyond it (20). The SQL docs still say queries are rate limited per project with no numbers (0). The SQL API documents 429 as 'Project rate limit exceeded. Retry with backoff', which is backoff guidance alone. Annotation queue items take an `idempotencyKey`, but no retry guidance covers ingestion (10). No SLA found (0). API, SQL and MCP are GA (10). 12+20+0+10+0+10 = 52.

### Agent ergonomics: Laminar API + MCP +5

- 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.
- Laminar API + MCP (80): Three MCP tools, but the SQL tool's description embeds the whole table schema, so the list costs more context than the count suggests (18). Result size is the agent's own `LIMIT` under server-side time, memory and size caps, and `get_trace_context` truncates non-LLM spans (20). Tool failures come back with `isError` and a message. HTTP errors are a single `error` field (17). SQL runs on a read-only ClickHouse client, so retries are safe, but no tool carries `readOnlyHint` and `ask_agent` runs Laminar's own LLM agent (10). One required argument per tool. Python and TypeScript SDKs and a CLI (15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Gauge CLI | Laminar API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 52 | Gauge CLI +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 88 | Laminar API + MCP +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 80 | Laminar API + MCP +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 44 | Gauge CLI +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Gauge CLI +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 83 | Laminar API + MCP +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 64 | Laminar API + MCP +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **60.4 · C** | **57 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Gauge CLI | Laminar API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | cli | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Gauge | Laminar (LMNR AI) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.lmnr.ai/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 3 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-11 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-11 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 3.3k stars, 80k npm/wk, 1.7M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Gauge CLI

No score change since it was listed.

### Laminar API + MCP

- +0.2 on 4 November 2026: correction
- +0.2 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.4 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Gauge CLI.** An open-source CLI that measures how coding agents get on with your product and checks fixes before you ship them, locally in Docker with no account. It's young and pre-1.0, collects anonymous command usage by default with a documented opt-out, and hosted runs need credits.

**Laminar API + MCP.** Browser session recordings can be matched to agent traces. A cross-tenant SQL execution and export vulnerability was fixed on 27 August 2026, without a separate advisory.

## Before you call either

### Gauge CLI

1. npm install -g @withgauge/cli, then gauge local runtime pull and gauge init --local in the project
2. Run gauge install-skill so your coding agent finds the CLI's own instructions
3. Set GAUGE_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1 in CI if you don't want command usage collected
4. Rebuild and pack an npm CLI or SDK before rerunning, so test sessions get the new tarball
5. Keep .gauge/ private; it holds measurements and analyses

### Laminar API + MCP

1. Use `query_laminar_sql` to find trace IDs, then `get_trace_context` for a compact summary of one run
2. Always add a time range and `LIMIT` to SQL. Server caps on time, memory and result size reject wide scans
3. On 429 from the SQL API, back off and retry. The per-project limit isn't published
4. Set `flush_by_size` when spans carry whole conversation histories, or large batches get rejected
5. Keep the project API key in a header, not in the URL

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Gauge CLI or Laminar API + MCP?

Gauge CLI scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against Laminar API + MCP's 57 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Laminar API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call Gauge CLI and Laminar API + MCP without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Gauge CLI. Laminar API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.lmnr.ai/v1.

### Are Gauge CLI and Laminar API + MCP open source?

Yes. Gauge CLI is open source (MIT). Laminar API + MCP is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp