Head to head · Incidents · October 2026 research run

incident.io API vs New Relic MCP Server

incident.io API scores 68.9 (B) on agent readiness against New Relic MCP Server's 61 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. New Relic MCP Server leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do incidents.

Best observability and incident tools for AI agents · All 49 observability comparisons

Which one, for what

incident.io API B

Best for Agents that declare and update incidents, page people, read on-call schedules and post status page incidents in an organisation that already pays for incident.io.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 90 against 60
  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 51
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 59

Watch for

The pricing page marks API, webhooks and MCP as not included in the free Basic plan. Team starts at $19 per user a month

New Relic MCP Server C

Best for Agents investigating incidents, errors, deployments and performance in an existing New Relic account, where reads are enough.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 76 against 64
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 10

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Tool input schemas are visible only through an authenticated session; the docs give one-line descriptions and no parameters

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Schema & documentation incident.io API +37

incident.io API 88

OpenAPI 3.0.3 description, public at api.incident.io/v1/openapiV3.json per the docs and read from docs.incident.io/openapi/latest.json, 284 operations and 777 schemas (25). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). Every operation has a description, but the median is 65 characters and few say when not to use a call. List incidents is the exception, with worked filter examples (12). 262 enums, required fields marked and two free-form objects in the whole file (13). 4,014 example values and thirteen error statuses on every operation, though the shared error example pairs an unrelated code and message (13). Versions sit in the path per resource and the changelog is generated from the description file (15).

New Relic MCP Server 51

Tool input schemas are only visible through an authenticated session; the tool reference names 40 tools with one-line descriptions, so partial credit for a contract that exists but isn't public (10). docs.newrelic.com publishes llms.txt, updated 3 November 2026, and a Markdown twin of every page (10). Each tool's line says what it does, tags say which group it belongs to, and the reference says which tools need OAuth and which are preview; nothing says when not to use a tool (12). No parameters, types or enums are published; the setup examples show only the include-tags header (4). Example natural-language queries per group, a troubleshooting page for OAuth, API key, permission and connection errors, and no error code list (7). A dated what's-new feed and a 0.1.0 registry version, but no MCP changelog or server version in the docs (8). 10 + 10 + 12 + 4 + 7 + 8 = 51.

Reliability incident.io API +30

incident.io API 90

Scored as a hosted API. status.incident.io lists components with history, API and MCP among them (20). The feed, re-read on 1 November 2026, has four incidents in the 90 days from 3 August, each on one component. Opsgenie webhook delays on 3 August, alert listing in the public API and dashboard on 18 August until a rollback (no duration given), Microsoft Teams latency from 13:00 to 15:08 UTC on 20 August and Slack Enterprise Grid login errors for a subset of customers on 2 October. All partial, nothing since 2 October (20). Limits are published with numbers, 1,200 requests a minute per key and lower figures for eight endpoints (15). 429 carries Retry-After, the body recommends exponential backoff, and seven create calls require an idempotency_key (15). The SLA commits to 99.9 per cent a month on Pro and Enterprise (10). The API carries no beta label (10).

New Relic MCP Server 60

Scored as a hosted MCP server. status.newrelic.com is an Atlassian Statuspage with 115 components across the US, EU and JP regions and no MCP component (20). history.rss holds seven incidents in the 90 days to 3 November 2026, among them delayed queries and alerts in the US for 49 minutes on 2 November, synthetics ping delays the same day, the JP entity platform unavailable for 67 minutes on 28 October, delayed US data and alerts from 19:24 to 22:04 UTC on 25 September, intermittent UI errors for two and a half hours the same night, a Salesforce support outage on 16 September and a 10-minute EU metric issue. Two regional incidents over an hour on the query and alert paths the server depends on, so one major (10). Published numbers, 2,000 tool calls an hour per user on the MCP server and 25 concurrent NerdGraph requests per user (15). NerdGraph answers 429 on concurrency with guidance to batch or pool, but no Retry-After is documented and nothing covers retries of MCP calls; the tools are reads, so idempotency doesn't arise (8). The pricing page lists support response SLAs, and the paid terms promise commercially reasonable efforts, so no availability SLA (0). Public preview on 4 November 2025, available to all accounts on 3 November 2026 with preview tools marked separately, but no dated GA notice was found (7). 20 + 10 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 7 = 60.

Payments & pricing New Relic MCP Server +20

incident.io API 10

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices per seat are public, Team at $19 and Pro at $25 a user a month, with no per-call price (10). The Basic plan is free, but the pricing page marks API, webhooks and MCP as not included, and the docs route trials through sales (0). A person signs up, pays and creates a key in the dashboard (0).

New Relic MCP Server 30

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The pricing page is public for the free tier and data ingest ($0.40 per GB beyond 100 GB), but MCP tools are metered as compute units with no per-call rate, and user and edition prices are quoted on request (10). The free tier includes MCP, 100 GB a month and one full platform user with no card (20). A person signs up in a browser and completes the OAuth flow (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.

Agent ergonomics incident.io API +16

incident.io API 75

Scored for the REST API. page_size sets response size, but no field selection was found and incident objects are large. The description file is 5.4 MB, with per-resource files as the smaller route (12). Cursor pagination on 41 list operations and operator filters such as status_category[one_of] (18). Errors carry a code, a message, the field at fault and a request_id (18). idempotency_key is required on seven create calls, and updates by PUT have no key (14). Seven official SDKs and a CLI with JSON output, with idempotency_key and visibility required to create an incident (13).

New Relic MCP Server 59

40 tools in the default list, above the 30-tool line (5), with the include-tags header to load only named groups (add 10, so 15). Time windows on most tools, convert_time_period_to_epoch_ms, filters on incidents, errors and logs, and NRQL's own LIMIT and FACET; no documented page size (14). The troubleshooting page covers setup errors with fixes, and the docs say nothing about tool-level error bodies (8). Every tool is a read (query, list, fetch, analyse) and the gap tool reads files the client sends, so a retry is safe; no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint was confirmed because tools/list wasn't read (12). Natural-language prompts need no parameters from the user, and the API behind the server has official NerdGraph clients; nothing agent-specific beyond skills (10). 15 + 14 + 8 + 12 + 10 = 59.

Security & auth New Relic MCP Server +12

incident.io API 64

Organisation keys carry chosen permissions, 13 of 36 scopable to teams, can be rotated and are shown once. User keys take the owner's role and die with the account. 30 for that, less the checklist's 10 because alert event and heartbeat endpoints accept the alert source token in a token query parameter. The API key itself travels only in the header (20). A viewer permission gives read-only keys and the MCP status page tool only drafts, but no confirmation step guards destructive API calls (15). Alert payloads and incident text are untrusted content. The docs cover redaction of sensitive data, and no injection guidance for API consumers was found (4). Audit logs are Enterprise only, kept one year, exported or streamed, and API actions are attributed to the key (10). security.txt valid to July 2027, a disclosure policy with a five-working-day reply, SOC 2 Type I and II claimed, yearly penetration tests, no paid bounty (15).

New Relic MCP Server 76

OAuth 2.0 with the scopes observability:read, offline and offline_access, access tokens that expire after 5 minutes, refresh for 24 hours, revocation by deleting the user or turning off the organisation toggle, and the token acting as the user with no more than their roles; the alternative is a user API key in a header (28). A read scope, organisation toggles that default the API key, preview, Atlassian and AWS routes to off, an organisation-scoped role requirement, and no write tools in the list (16). Logs, error messages and trace attributes are untrusted text and no injection guidance was found (2). NrAuditEvent records sign-ins with IP addresses and NrdbQuery labels queries sent through the server, both queryable by the operator (13). security.txt pointing to a HackerOne programme, a published security policy citing SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 audits of its facilities and its own penetration testing, and an ISO 42001 certification announced on 29 September 2026; the trust centre itself renders through a script and was unread (17). 28 + 16 + 2 + 13 + 17 = 76.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runincident.io APINew Relic MCP ServerEdge
Reliability16%209060incident.io API +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28851incident.io API +37
Agent ergonomics13%16.27559incident.io API +16
Security & auth14%17.56476New Relic MCP Server +12
Payments & pricing10%12.51030New Relic MCP Server +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88380incident.io API +3
Transparency & trust7%8.87781New Relic MCP Server +4
Negative events≤15-20
TotalB 68.9/100C 61/100

Facts side by side

Factincident.io APINew Relic MCP Server
KindHTTP APIMCP server
VendorPineapple Technology Ltd. (incident.io)New Relic, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.incident.io/mcphttps://mcp.newrelic.com/mcp/
TransportsHTTPStreamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth
PricingPaidFreemium
Price for incidents$19 per seat per monthnot published
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under incident.io's Terms and Conditions. The SDKs, the inc CLI and the skills plugin on GitHub are MITnone
Tools exposednone40
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedcom.newrelic/mcp-server
Last release2026-10-312026-10-28
Terms last updated2026-08-012022-11-08
Privacy policy last updated2024-02-152026-09-14
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity1.3k npm/wknone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

incident.io API

The REST API has a public OpenAPI description with 284 operations, numeric rate limits, Retry-After on 429 and required idempotency keys on seven create calls. API and MCP access need the Team plan or higher, so the free Basic plan cannot be used by an agent, and audit logs are Enterprise only.

New Relic MCP Server

OAuth with a read scope, 5-minute access tokens, role-bound calls and a queryable audit trail make this a safe read surface over an account's data, and the free tier includes it. 40 tools need tag filtering, the schemas aren't public, there is no per-call price, and no dated GA notice was found.

Before you call either

incident.io API

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer <key> to https://api.incident.io and call GET /v1/identity first to read the key's roles
  2. Send a fresh idempotency_key with every create call for incidents, incident updates, timeline items, escalations and status page incidents. A repeated key returns the first result
  3. Page with page_size and after until no cursor comes back. Do not stop at a short or empty page
  4. Keep GET /v2/incidents under 60 requests a minute and wait the seconds in Retry-After on 429
  5. Incident creation is limited to 10 an hour per key when a Slack or Teams channel is created, 300 an hour otherwise

New Relic MCP Server

  1. Connect with OAuth; an api-key header reaches only the core tools and the docs say the API key route works only where stated
  2. Send include-tags with the groups the task needs (for example discovery,data-access) to keep the tool list under 30
  3. Call list_available_new_relic_accounts first and pass the account id to every query; convert_time_period_to_epoch_ms turns phrases such as last 30 minutes into the epoch bounds the other tools take
  4. Stay under 2,000 tool calls an hour per user and 25 concurrent NerdGraph requests; a 429 clears as in-flight requests finish
  5. Ask the organisation administrator to turn on the Preview Tools, API Keys, Atlassian or AWS toggles in feature control manager before relying on those tools; they are off by default

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, incident.io API or New Relic MCP Server?

incident.io API scores 68.9 (B) on agent readiness against New Relic MCP Server's 61 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. New Relic MCP Server leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

Do incident.io API and New Relic MCP Server need an API key?

incident.io API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. New Relic MCP Server uses an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call incident.io API and New Relic MCP Server without installing anything?

Yes. incident.io API has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.incident.io/mcp and New Relic MCP Server at https://mcp.newrelic.com/mcp/.

Other comparisons with incident.io API or New Relic MCP Server

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