# GLiClass vs Strands Decider 2B

> Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against GLiClass's 49.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. GLiClass leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference decision. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against GLiClass's 49.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. GLiClass leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference decision.

- GLiClass: grade D, 49.9/100, rank #697 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gliclass.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gliclass.json
- Strands Decider 2B: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #427 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json

## Which one, for what

### GLiClass (D)

Good for: Topic, intent and sentiment routing over a known label set on the owner's own CPU or GPU, where many labels must be scored at once.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 54

Watch for: No calibration evidence. The cards report F1 only, and the docs tell users to calibrate thresholds on their own traffic

### Strands Decider 2B (C)

Good for: Cheap, local classification, routing, triage and tool-call checks on short text inside Strands or other Python agents, and for teams who want to retrain a decision model from a published recipe.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 50 against 43
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 49
- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 60
- Security & auth, 49 against 38
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 44

Watch for: Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | GLiClass | Strands Decider 2B | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 43 | 50 | Strands Decider 2B +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 76 | Strands Decider 2B +27 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 69 | Strands Decider 2B +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 49 | Strands Decider 2B +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 44 | 79 | Strands Decider 2B +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 54 | GLiClass +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **49.9 · D** | **61.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GLiClass | Strands Decider 2B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Knowledgator | Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (library and the model weights we checked) | Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-07-21 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 555 stars, 13k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (1) |

## Verdicts

**GLiClass.** An Apache-2.0 classifier that scores a whole label set in one encoder pass on the owner's hardware, with single-label, multi-label, hierarchical and few-shot modes. It returns label scores with no calibration claim, the bundled server has no authentication, and the last three test runs on the main branch, on 24 September 2026, failed.

**Strands Decider 2B.** A 1.9B-parameter Apache-2.0 decision model that runs on a laptop GPU, an Apple silicon Mac or a CPU, with its training data, recipe and per-version results published. It's an experimental 0.1.0 release with a 4,096-token window that cuts long states by default, and its local server has no authentication.

## Before you call either

### GLiClass

1. Pass `--host 127.0.0.1` to `python -m gliclass.serve`, or put the port behind your own gateway. The server checks no credential
2. On a machine without a GPU add `--device cpu --dtype float32 --num-gpus-per-replica 0`. The default configuration expects CUDA
3. Send one text a request to `POST /gliclass`. An array in `texts` is cut to its first item without an error
4. Set `multi_label` to false for one label from a set. The default scores each label independently, so scores do not sum to 1
5. Keep text plus labels under the pipeline's 1,024-token `max_length`, or use `ZeroShotClassificationWithChunkingPipeline`. Longer input is truncated silently

### Strands Decider 2B

1. Pin the checkpoint by its full name, such as `StrandsAgents/strands-decider-2B-hobson-v21`, since each version is a separate Hugging Face repository
2. Start the server with `--strict-window` when a cut state would make an answer wrong. It then returns 422 naming the window
3. Ask every question about one state in one request. The state is read once and each question adds only its own tokens
4. Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option
5. Measure thresholds on your own traffic before acting automatically. The card says confidence bands hold for short classification only

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, GLiClass or Strands Decider 2B?

Strands Decider 2B scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against GLiClass's 49.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. GLiClass leads on transparency & trust.

### Do GLiClass and Strands Decider 2B need an API key?

Neither needs a key.

### Can an agent call GLiClass and Strands Decider 2B without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for GLiClass. No hosted endpoint is listed for Strands Decider 2B.

### Are GLiClass and Strands Decider 2B open source?

Yes. GLiClass is open source (Apache-2.0 (library and the model weights we checked)). Strands Decider 2B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with GLiClass or Strands Decider 2B

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs GLiClass](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-gliclass.md)
- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-strands-decider.md)
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- [Decider vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-strands-decider.md)
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