# Kite Agent Passport vs Agent Vault by Self

> Agent Vault by Self scores 52.4 (D) to Kite Agent Passport's 51.4 (D) for wallet spend limits. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-self-agent-vault
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-self-agent-vault.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-self-agent-vault.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-self-agent-vault.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 required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

Agent Vault by Self scores 52.4 (D) on agent readiness against Kite Agent Passport's 51.4 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Kite Agent Passport leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do wallet spend limits.

- Kite Agent Passport: grade D, 51.4/100, rank #845 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kite-agent-passport.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kite-agent-passport.json
- Agent Vault by Self: grade D, 52.4/100, rank #823 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/self-agent-vault.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/self-agent-vault.json
- Best agent wallets and spending controls: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-wallets/index.md
- All 38 wallets comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-wallets/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Kite Agent Passport (D)

Good for: Coding agents such as Claude Code or Codex that need to pay x402 or MPP services within budgets a person approves by passkey.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 71 against 48
- Transparency & trust, 54 against 47

Watch for: A person signs up by email, clicks a verification link and creates a passkey in a browser before any agent can spend

### Agent Vault by Self (D)

Good for: A person or developer who wants an agent to buy and sign in on ordinary websites with the holder's own card and logins, without the agent seeing them.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 40 against 35
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 64

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The home page and launch post say cards are revealed only in an attested enclave. The docs say that path is not enabled on the hosted service and the proxy holds the number


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Kite Agent Passport | Agent Vault by Self | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 40 | Agent Vault by Self +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 76 | Agent Vault by Self +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 66 | Kite Agent Passport +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 72 | 76 | Agent Vault by Self +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 30 | Kite Agent Passport +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 48 | Kite Agent Passport +23 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 47 | Kite Agent Passport +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **51.4 · D** | **52.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Kite Agent Passport | Agent Vault by Self |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | MCP server |
| Vendor | Kite AI | SocialConnect Labs, Inc. (Self Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.agentvault.io/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | Closed service under terms from Datalego Inc. dated 29 April 2026. The Passport Skills repository is MIT. The kpass CLI is distributed as binaries and its source repository is private. | Proprietary hosted service. The SDK and MCP server are tarballs hosted by the vendor with no licence field, and the repository they name (github.com/selfxyz/agent-vault) is not public. The checkout recipe registry, selfxyz/agent-checkout-skill, is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 30 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-17 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-04-29 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-04-29 |  |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| 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 | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Kite Agent Passport.** Spending sessions with per-transaction and total caps, a lifetime and passkey approval are enforced by the service, with step-up checks and an audit log. A person must sign up by email and create a passkey before an agent can pay. No published fee rate, OpenAPI file or Passport status page was found.

**Agent Vault by Self.** Scoped, revocable keys, OAuth on the hosted MCP server, spending caps, approvals and a documented threat model are designed to keep real card numbers and passwords out of the agent's context. The home page and launch post say cards are revealed only in an attested enclave, while the docs say that path is off on the hosted service.

## Before you call either

### Kite Agent Passport

1. Run `kpass` with `--output json --no-interactive` and branch on the exit code and `error_code`. Exit 6 is a session policy breach, so request a new session rather than logging in again
2. Pass `--idempotency-key` on every `kpass session execute` so a retry after a timeout does not pay twice
3. Ask the person for a session with a small per-transaction cap and a short `--ttl`, and confirm the merchant URL before executing
4. Use `kpass sandbox` test mode and the faucet to try a payment flow without real funds. Scoped cards are not available in sandbox
5. Check the kite-passport skill's trigger rules before installing it, since it directs the agent to paid services ahead of free tools

### Agent Vault by Self

1. Pass the `session` handle from each hosted MCP result on every later call. Without it a page tool is refused or a new signed-out browser opens
2. On a `pending` answer, call `get_pending_result` with its `wait` id in the same turn. Repeating the original call starts a second one
3. Tell the user when `waiting_on_owner` is true. A first fill on a new site waits up to 15 minutes for the holder's approval
4. Before retrying a fill after an unknown outcome, check the merchant's order state or `get_run_report`. Some failures keep a recorded spend
5. Ask the holder to add an agent card to every card the agent may use. A card marked No limits accepts any amount on authorised sites

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Kite Agent Passport or Agent Vault by Self?

Agent Vault by Self scores 52.4 (D) on agent readiness against Kite Agent Passport's 51.4 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Kite Agent Passport leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call Kite Agent Passport and Agent Vault by Self without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Kite Agent Passport. Agent Vault by Self has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.agentvault.io/mcp.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Kite Agent Passport or Agent Vault by Self

- [Agentcard vs Kite Agent Passport](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-kite-agent-passport.md)
- [Agentcard vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Circle Wallets (Agent Wallets, Programmable Wallets) vs Kite Agent Passport](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/circle-wallets-vs-kite-agent-passport.md)
- [Coinbase Developer Platform (Agentic Wallet, AgentKit, CDP MCP) vs Kite Agent Passport](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-cdp-agentkit-vs-kite-agent-passport.md)
- [Kite Agent Passport vs Openfort](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-openfort.md)
- [Kite Agent Passport vs Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-privy.md)
- [Kite Agent Passport vs Sponge Wallet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-sponge-wallet.md)
- [Kite Agent Passport vs Turnkey Agentic Wallets](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-turnkey-agentic-wallets.md)
- [Circle Wallets (Agent Wallets, Programmable Wallets) vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/circle-wallets-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Coinbase Developer Platform (Agentic Wallet, AgentKit, CDP MCP) vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-cdp-agentkit-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Openfort vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openfort-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/privy-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Agent Vault by Self vs Sponge Wallet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/self-agent-vault-vs-sponge-wallet.md)
- [Agent Vault by Self vs Turnkey Agentic Wallets](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/self-agent-vault-vs-turnkey-agentic-wallets.md)

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