# Leon vs Poke

> Leon scores 41 (E) to Poke's 37.6 (F) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-poke
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-poke.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-poke.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-poke.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
- Updated: 2026-10-12

Leon scores 41 (E) on agent readiness against Poke's 37.6 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Poke leads on reliability, schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do assistant proactive.

- Leon: grade E, 41/100, rank #934 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/leon.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/leon.json
- Poke: grade F, 37.6/100, rank #955 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/poke.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/poke.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 190 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Leon (E)

Good for: A developer who wants a self-hosted assistant with memory, computer use and a local model, and who will read the source.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 30
- Security & auth, 34 against 24
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: No tagged release of the core since 1.0.0-beta.8 on 1 May 2023. The 2.0 Developer Preview is installed by cloning the develop branch

### Poke (F)

Good for: One person who wants an assistant in their text messages that reads and drafts mail, manages a calendar and reaches other apps through MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 51 against 32
- Schema & documentation, 42 against 33
- Maintenance & community, 31 against 15

Watch for: No documented setting for which actions need approval before Poke sends, deletes or spends. Release notes mention email draft approval only in passing


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Leon | Poke | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 32 | 51 | Poke +19 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 33 | 42 | Poke +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 30 | Leon +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 34 | 24 | Leon +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Leon +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 15 | 31 | Poke +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 58 | Leon +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **41 · E** | **37.6 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Leon | Poke |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Platform |
| Vendor | Louis Grenard (Leon AI) | The Interaction Company of California Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Poke's Terms of Service. The `poke` npm package (CLI and Node.js SDK) declares MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2023-05-01 | 2026-06-25 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-03-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-11 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 18k stars | none |

## Verdicts

**Leon.** Connected-app credentials are encrypted per profile and the Gmail connection is read-only. The 2.0 Developer Preview has no tagged release, runs tools and a 30-minute proactive pulse with no approval step, listens on every network interface with client authentication off, and sends telemetry by default.

**Poke.** Hosted assistant that answers in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram and RCS and acts in Gmail, Outlook, calendars and MCP servers. Plan prices and a status page are public. No approval settings, credential storage, model providers or retention periods are documented, and customer content trains models unless Maximum Privacy is selected.

## Before you call either

### Leon

1. Clone the develop branch for 2.0. `npm install --global @leon-ai/cli` and docs.getleon.ai install and describe the legacy 1.0 betas
2. Set `client_interface.auth.enabled: true` and a `LEON_PROFILE_TOKEN` before the machine joins a shared network. The server binds 0.0.0.0
3. Set `telemetry_enabled: false` and `runtime.pulse_enabled: false` in the profile `config.yml` for an unattended or private run
4. Use `availability.tools.allowed` to limit tools. Shell, file writes, computer use and browser control are otherwise available to the agent with no approval prompt
5. Back up `LEON_CONNECTIONS_ENCRYPTION_KEY` from the profile `.env`. Without it the stored connections cannot be read

### Poke

1. POST JSON to `https://poke.com/api/v1/inbound/api-message` with a Bearer key from Kitchen. Legacy `pk_` keys work only on the deprecated `/api/v1/inbound-sms/webhook`
2. Expect only `{"success": true}` back. Poke's answer goes to the owner's message thread, not to the caller
3. Do not retry a POST blindly. No idempotency key is documented, and a repeated message may make Poke act twice
4. Treat an API key as full access to the owner's mail, calendar and integrations. Create one key per automation and revoke it when done
5. Avoid the prefilled integration link with `apiKey` in the query string for real secrets. Enter the key in the form or use `npx poke@latest mcp add -k`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Leon or Poke?

Leon scores 41 (E) on agent readiness against Poke's 37.6 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Poke leads on reliability, schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

### Are Leon and Poke open source?

Leon is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Poke.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Leon or Poke

- [AstrBot vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-leon.md)
- [AstrBot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-poke.md)
- [CowAgent vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-leon.md)
- [CowAgent vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-poke.md)
- [GAIA vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-leon.md)
- [GAIA vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-poke.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-leon.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-poke.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-leon.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-poke.md)
- [Haven vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-leon.md)
- [Haven vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-poke.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-leon.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-poke.md)
- [Instinct vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-leon.md)
- [Instinct vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-poke.md)
- [IronClaw vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-leon.md)
- [IronClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-poke.md)
- [Leon vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-lindy.md)
- [Leon vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Leon vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [Leon vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [Leon vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-openclaw.md)
- [Leon vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Leon vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Leon vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Leon vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Lindy vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-poke.md)
- [nanobot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-poke.md)
- [NanoClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-poke.md)
- [Dots vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-poke.md)
- [OpenClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-poke.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-poke.md)
- [Poke vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Poke vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Poke vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-zo-computer.md)