Head to head · Inference decision · October 2026 research run
GLiClass vs Vela 2.0
Vela 2.0 scores 66.5 (B) 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.
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 48
Watch for
No calibration evidence. The cards report F1 only, and the docs tell users to calibrate thresholds on their own traffic
Vela 2.0 B
Good for Self-hosted routing and guardrail checks in one call, where span offsets for personal data or unsupported claims matter.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 57 against 43
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 49
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 60
- Security & auth, 60 against 38
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 44
Watch for
No version tags on the four Hub repositories, and the 4B and 9B weights were replaced in place on 3 October 2026
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | GLiClass | Vela 2.0 | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 43 | 57 | Vela 2.0 +14 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 49 | 78 | Vela 2.0 +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 60 | 79 | Vela 2.0 +19 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 38 | 60 | Vela 2.0 +22 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 44 | 84 | Vela 2.0 +40 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 64 | 48 | GLiClass +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 49.9 · D | 66.5 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | GLiClass | Vela 2.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Knowledgator | vLLM Semantic Router project and KR Labs |
| 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 (weights, code and documentation). The 0.3B's tokeniser keeps the Gemma Terms of Use, and training data keeps its own licences |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-07-21 | 2026-10-06 |
| 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 | 6.1k stars |
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.
Vela 2.0
One self-hosted call answers routing, prompt-attack, personal-data and unsupported-claim questions with probabilities and character offsets, under Apache-2.0 with SHA-256 manifests. The models are days old and carry no Hub version tags, and the three larger sizes keep 74 to 89 per cent of their Decision 2.0 bases on the Jev Decision Index by the authors' figures.
Before you call either
GLiClass
- Pass
--host 127.0.0.1topython -m gliclass.serve, or put the port behind your own gateway. The server checks no credential - On a machine without a GPU add
--device cpu --dtype float32 --num-gpus-per-replica 0. The default configuration expects CUDA - Send one text a request to
POST /gliclass. An array intextsis cut to its first item without an error - Set
multi_labelto false for one label from a set. The default scores each label independently, so scores do not sum to 1 - Keep text plus labels under the pipeline's 1,024-token
max_length, or useZeroShotClassificationWithChunkingPipeline. Longer input is truncated silently
Vela 2.0
- Pin a commit hash with
revision=when loading from the Hub. The repositories have no tags andmainhas changed since launch - Send the served name in
model, for examplevllm-sr/Vela-2.0-4B. The bundled server answers 422 to any other name - Name span questions
pii,haluortoxic, or set"head": "router", to get the trained router head. Other labels go to the broad head - Keep input under 16,384 tokens a sequence (8,192 on the 0.3B). The bundled server answers 413 when the questions alone don't fit
- Set
VELA2_API_KEYbefore binding the bundled server beyond 127.0.0.1, and keep the model runtime on a trusted network
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, GLiClass or Vela 2.0?
Vela 2.0 scores 66.5 (B) 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 Vela 2.0 need an API key?
Neither needs a key.
Can an agent call GLiClass and Vela 2.0 without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for GLiClass. No hosted endpoint is listed for Vela 2.0.
Are GLiClass and Vela 2.0 open source?
Yes. GLiClass is open source (Apache-2.0 (library and the model weights we checked)). Vela 2.0 is open source (Apache-2.0 (weights, code and documentation). The 0.3B's tokeniser keeps the Gemma Terms of Use, and training data keeps its own licences).
Other comparisons with GLiClass or Vela 2.0
- Clef vs GLiClass
- Clef vs Vela 2.0
- Laya vs GLiClass
- Laya vs Vela 2.0
- Decider vs GLiClass
- Decider vs Vela 2.0
- GLiClass vs Kev
- GLiClass vs Liquid d1
- GLiClass vs OpenAI Decisions API
- GLiClass vs Strands Decider 2B
- GLiClass vs Jev
- Kev vs Vela 2.0
- Liquid d1 vs Vela 2.0
- OpenAI Decisions API vs Vela 2.0
- Strands Decider 2B vs Vela 2.0
- Jev vs Vela 2.0
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/gliclass-vs-vela.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/gliclass.json·/api/v1/tools/vela.json - From a terminal
anchor compare gliclass vela(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "gliclass", "b": "vela"}at/mcp, no key