# Kev vs RightNow System Zero

> Kev scores 67.9 (B) to RightNow System Zero's 66.8 (B) for decision models. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-rightnow-system-zero
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md (~3,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-rightnow-system-zero.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-rightnow-system-zero.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: 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)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-31

Kev scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against RightNow System Zero's 66.8 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. RightNow System Zero leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do decision models.

- Kev: grade B, 67.9/100, rank #269 of 1244. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jaredpalmer-kev.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jaredpalmer-kev.json
- RightNow System Zero: grade B, 66.8/100, rank #320 of 1244. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rightnow-system-zero.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rightnow-system-zero.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 220 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Kev (B)

Good for: Self-hosted classification, routing, triage and rubric scoring where a probability matters, especially for teams already calling Jev who want the same API on their own hardware.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 73 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 68

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No package. `pip install kev` installs an unrelated 2021 ORM, so Kev runs from a Git clone with uv

### RightNow System Zero (B)

Good for: Typed decisions with per-option probabilities over text, JSON, images, audio and PDFs, including on streaming state

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 77
- Agent ergonomics, 86 against 78
- Security & auth, 70 against 49
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 55

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Standard context is 38,000 tokens. The 64k, 128k and 1M bands are held, and video is a preview


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Kev | RightNow System Zero | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 73 | 50 | Kev +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 83 | RightNow System Zero +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 86 | RightNow System Zero +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 70 | RightNow System Zero +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | Kev +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 68 | Kev +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 70 | RightNow System Zero +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.9 · B** | **66.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Kev | RightNow System Zero |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Jared Palmer | RightNow AI, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.rightnowai.co/v1/system-zero/decide` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (code, adapters and weights) | Proprietary hosted model under RightNow AI terms of use; the SDKs are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-27 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Kev.** Apache-2.0 code, adapters and heads on Apache-2.0 Qwen bases, with release tarballs and SHA-256 checksums for the 0.8B, 4B and 9B models. No package. `pip install kev` installs an unrelated 2021 ORM, so Kev runs from a Git clone with uv.

**RightNow System Zero.** A well-documented decision API with an OpenAPI file, idempotent retries, a detailed error catalogue, streaming over WebSocket and published per-unit prices with USD 5 of starting credit. Standard context is 38,000 tokens; the 64k, 128k and 1M bands are held and video is a preview. The latency and benchmark figures are RightNow's own, and several of its pages disagree.

## Before you call either

### Kev

1. Install from the repository. The `kev` package on PyPI is an unrelated project
2. Pin a checkpoint with `@v1.0`, as in `jaredpalmer/kev-4b@v1.0`, so tuned thresholds keep their meaning
3. Keep states under 8,192 tokens on Kev-0.8B, 4B and 9B, or use Kev-27B for long documents
4. Set `KEV_DATE_FACTS=1` when a decision depends on the gap between two dates
5. Expect a 422 naming the token count when a state passes 65,536 tokens. The server refuses it instead of cutting it

### RightNow System Zero

1. Send audio only as inline 16,000 Hz WAV. The FLAC, MP3, OGG and MP4 audio named on the blog are refused with media_unsupported.
2. Keep state under 38,000 tokens. Long-context requests return 404 long_context_not_available, which never succeeds on retry.
3. Reuse the same Idempotency-Key and body on retries, and stop when error.retryable or x-should-retry is false.
4. Check every entry in answers even on HTTP 200, since one question can be refused while the others are answered.
5. Treat probabilities as uncalibrated while calibrated is false, and pin system-zero-2.0.0 when answers must not move with the alias.

## Tutorials

- [Classify a delivery problem with Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/jaredpalmer-kev/), for Kev

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Kev or RightNow System Zero?

Kev scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against RightNow System Zero's 66.8 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. RightNow System Zero leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics, security & auth and transparency & trust.

### Do Kev and RightNow System Zero need an API key?

Kev needs no key. RightNow System Zero needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Kev and RightNow System Zero without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Kev. RightNow System Zero has a hosted endpoint at https://api.rightnowai.co/v1/system-zero/decide.

### Are Kev and RightNow System Zero open source?

Kev is open source (Apache-2.0 (code, adapters and weights)). No open-source release is listed for RightNow System Zero.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Kev or RightNow System Zero

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Celeris-1 Decision vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [Clef vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Clef vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [Laya vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Laya vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [Decider vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Decider vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [GLiClass vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [GLiClass vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Granite Switch 4.1 vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/granite-switch-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [Kev vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Kev vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [Kev vs Drex 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-nace-drex.md)
- [Kev vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Kev vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-pplx-decider.md)
- [Kev vs pplx-decider-flash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-pplx-decider-flash.md)
- [Kev vs ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-scaledown.md)
- [Kev vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Kev vs kettei](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-sqwish-kettei.md)
- [Kev vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [Kev vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [Kev vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-vela.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [Drex 1.5 vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nace-drex-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [OpenAI Decisions API vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [pplx-decider-flash vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-flash-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [pplx-decider vs RightNow System Zero](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-rightnow-system-zero.md)
- [RightNow System Zero vs ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rightnow-system-zero-vs-scaledown.md)
- [RightNow System Zero vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rightnow-system-zero-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [RightNow System Zero vs kettei](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rightnow-system-zero-vs-sqwish-kettei.md)
- [RightNow System Zero vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rightnow-system-zero-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [RightNow System Zero vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rightnow-system-zero-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [RightNow System Zero vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rightnow-system-zero-vs-vela.md)

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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