# Overmind vs Respan API + MCP (slim)

> Respan scores 72 (BB) to Overmind's 58.5 (C) for agent tracing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/overmind-vs-respan.md (~5,600 tokens) · this version ~3,280 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/overmind-vs-respan.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/overmind-vs-respan
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-02
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Respan API + MCP scores 72 (BB) on agent readiness against Overmind's 58.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Overmind leads on transparency & trust. Both do agent tracing.

- Overmind: C 58.5, rank #650 of 1266 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/overmind.min.md
- Respan API + MCP: BB 72, rank #126 of 1266 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/respan.min.md
- Overmind, good for A team that wants to go from agent traces to a fine-tuned small open model in one place, driven by a coding agent. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 65 against 59. Also Open source; No incidents deducted, where Respan API + MCP loses 3 points for them.
- Respan API + MCP, good for Teams that want a gateway and tracing in one integration and an agent that can read logs and manage prompts, datasets and evaluators over MCP, read-only or not. Ahead on Reliability, 83 against 23; Schema & documentation, 89 against 81; Agent ergonomics, 90 against 76; Maintenance & community, 85 against 76. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.

| Category | Overmind | Respan API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 23 | 83 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 81 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 76 | 90 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 70 | 74 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 76 | 85 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 65 | 59 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Overmind | Respan API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Overmind Technology Ltd | Respan (formerly Keywords AI) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.overmindlab.ai` | `https://api.respan.ai/api` |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 for the platform (API, Console and the rest of the repository) and MIT for the SDK, CLI and client libraries under overmind/. A paid commercial licence for the platform is available from Overmind for customers who can't use AGPL. The hosted service is under Overmind's terms of 1 March 2026 | Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source) |
| Tools exposed | 85 | 12 |
| Last release | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-19 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-01 | 2026-02-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-03 | 2026-02-25 |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 732 stars | 270 npm/wk, 13k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Respan API + MCP +60: Overmind 23 (No status page. status.overmindlab.ai doesn't resolve, /status returns 404 and neither the site nor the docs link one (0). With no history to read, 5. No request rate limits for the REST API, MCP or OTLP ingest were found in the docs. The only pacing settings, `JEV_REQUESTS_PER_MINUTE` and `JEV_TOKENS_PER_SECOND`, are self-hosting configuration for the scoring model (0). No 429 or Retry-After guidance, but the docs give safe-retry rules in detail. Launches, uploads, pipeline runs and inference take a stable `request_key`, identical retries return the existing receipt, changed payloads conflict, and `run_evaluation` is named as not idempotent (8). The terms promise commercially reasonable efforts toward 99.5 per cent availability a month, with remedies only in an order form or separate SLA, so half (5). The site doesn't call the service beta, but the SDK is classed "3 - Alpha" on its package metadata and the public repository is seven weeks old (5). 0+5+0+8+5+5 = 23.); Respan API + MCP 83 (Better Stack page at status.respan.ai with six components (web, logging and gateway, each for the platform and Enterprise) and an incident history page (20). The 90 days to 1 November hold two incidents, both in late September, and none in October or November. The Responses API path through the gateway was affected for OpenAI and Anthropic requests for 13 hours 47 minutes on 26 September, and request logs were delayed across all regions for 1 hour 58 minutes on 29 September. The first affected about 0.5 per cent of OpenAI and Anthropic requests on that path. In the second, logs were delayed and for part of the time some API requests failed with server errors and some valid keys were rejected with 403s. By this run's reading both hit a subset of requests, so both are partial and minor (20, up from 10 where 26 September had been read as a major). Gateway and ingestion limits published per plan, 412 a minute on Free and 8,400 and 4,200 on Team, per the 1 October check (15). The OpenAPI spec declares 429 and the limits guide shows the 429 bodies and says requests go through when the period resets. We found no `Retry-After` or backoff guidance (10). The pricing page listed a 99.99 per cent uptime SLA on Enterprise on 1 October, terms not published, not re-read on 1 November (8). Gateway, logging and MCP are GA (10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 8 + 10 = 83.)
- Agent ergonomics, Respan API + MCP +14: Overmind 76 (About 85 MCP tools in the source, all loaded for a read-write connection. A key or OAuth grant without write sees only the read tools (about 22), which is the only subset (5, plus 5 for the read-only filter). Cursor and offset pagination, limits by item count and response bytes, `preview_rows` bounded 1 to 1,000, query filters on traces by status, duration, tokens, cost and time, and `evidence_resource` links for paging retained results (20). MCP errors carry a structured code, message, retryability and field details, and authentication failures are kept apart from workflow failures. REST validation errors include details (18). Stable `request_key` on paid and long-running operations with conflict on a changed payload, and every tool sets readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint and openWorldHint from its catalogue entry. Only two tools are marked destructive (20). Account connections must pass `project_id` on every project tool. One official SDK, Python, plus OpenTelemetry from any language and the OpenAI client for inference (8). 10+20+18+20+8 = 76.); Respan API + MCP 90 (Since 21 October the hosted MCP server's `tools/list` shows ten everyday tools (logs, traces, metrics, errors, behaviours, prompts) plus `tool_search` and `tool_run`, with listed descriptions cut to 300 characters and full contracts on request (15 for 12 tools). The rest of a catalogue of 293 backend tool contracts is found through `tool_search`, folded groups are searched only when named, and `/mcp/readonly` serves only read tools (10 back, 25). `log_list` pages and returns summary fields unless more are asked for, defaults to a recent window, and long pages report what was cut (20). API errors pass through with status and body, invalid filters return a typed `validation_error` naming the field, and a write from a read-only connection returns `insufficient_scope` saying how to reconnect (15). Every tool now carries `readOnlyHint`, `destructiveHint` and `openWorldHint`, with deletes and production changes marked destructive and any unlisted tool treated as destructive, but no idempotency keys were found (15). Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and agent skills, with few required parameters (15). 25 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 90.)
- Maintenance & community, Respan API + MCP +9: Overmind 76 (overmind 0.1.115 on PyPI on 2026-10-31, and the last commit on main the same day (30). 41 PyPI releases since 21 September 2026 and 24 git tags from v0.0.15 on 18 September to v0.1.23 on 30 October (20). github.com answered 403 to this session, so issues and pull request replies weren't read. 172 commits on main from eight people since 15 September, a Discord server and a support email (8). One official SDK, Python, current with the platform (10). Public CI workflows for the platform and SDK, Dependabot bumps merged on 28 October and a CI badge. We couldn't see the pass state (8). 30+20+8+10+8 = 76.); Respan API + MCP 85 (respan-tracing 2.24.0 published from the Apache-2.0 monorepo on 19 October, per its version-sync commit (30). Version-sync commits recording package publishes on 15 days from 7 August to 19 October, and dated changelog entries on 13, 21 and 28 August, 4, 11, 21 and 25 September, and 2, 9 and 19 October (20). The MCP repository took merged pull requests through October, the latest on 29 October. Issue reply times unread (GitHub's pages refuse us). Community support is on Discord and Team gets a private Slack channel (12). Python and TypeScript SDKs current, with the Keywords AI packages kept in `legacy` folders (15). CI runs types, tests and build on MCP pull requests since 10 October, and the monorepo's workflows run in public (8).)
- Schema & documentation, Respan API + MCP +8: Overmind 81 (The docs say each deployment serves its OpenAPI schema at `/api/schema/`, and the repository holds a generated client of 451 files under frontend/src/openapi. api.overmindlab.ai's robots.txt allows only /.well-known/, so the schema itself wasn't read. Every MCP tool takes a Pydantic input model with `extra="forbid"`, compiled to JSON Schema in overbae/services/mcp/catalog.py, read in the source at main on 31 October 2026 (25). llms.txt with 42 pages, llms-full.txt and Markdown for every page on Mintlify (10). Tool descriptions say what each does and what it doesn't ("Does not activate application routing", "no execution", "Passive: never starts provider work"), and the MCP reference warns that an inspection-style name doesn't mean zero cost. Some workbench descriptions are clipped to the point of being hard to parse (16). Typed inputs with Literal enums, length and range bounds, UUID formats and required fields (13). The docs have worked examples for the CLI, SDK, OTLP and inference, and document status classes (401, 402, 403, 404, 409) and structured MCP errors with code, message, retryability and field details, without a full error-code list (10). The MCP server exposes a contract version and a catalogue fingerprint at `overmind://interface/current`. The SDK changelog has one undated Unreleased section and no product changelog was found (7). 25+10+16+13+10+7 = 81.); Respan API + MCP 89 (OpenAPI 3.1 at respan.ai/docs/openapi.json with 40 or more paths, and every MCP tool takes a zod schema (25). llms.txt, per-section llms.txt and `.md` for every page (10). MCP descriptions say when to use a tool and when not to. `list_logs` tells the model to filter server-side rather than fetch everything and to call `get_log_detail` for full data, and `delete_dataset` says it can't be undone (17). Typed inputs with operator enums, but `page_size` bounds sit in the description rather than the schema and filter values are `any` (11). Worked JSON examples in descriptions, and the spec documents 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 424, 429 and 503 responses (14). Weekly dated changelog. API paths mix `/api/` and `/api/v1/` with no version policy (12).)
- Transparency & trust, Overmind +6: Overmind 65 (Platform under AGPL-3.0 and SDK and CLI under MIT, both OSI licences, with a paid commercial licence as an option and a licensing page that says which code is which (30). The privacy policy of 3 October 2026 gives retention (subscription plus 30 days, deletion within 90 days, logs 365 days, backups 7 days), AWS eu-west-1 hosting and OAuth token lifetimes. The terms of 1 March 2026 still describe an earlier security product, say data stays in UK and EU data centres while the privacy policy names model, training and inference providers without locations, and incorporate a DPA that isn't published. The two documents agree on retention but not on the product (15). The terms promise 90 days' written notice before withdrawing a capability and 30 days' notice of material changes. No dated deprecation notices were found (8). SDK analytics are an opt-in extra with three documented off switches. The hosted MCP server reports to PostHog with payloads dropped, which the docs don't mention, and no named sub-processor list was found beyond AWS, though the docs name Modal, OpenRouter, Clerk and Stripe (12). 30+15+8+12 = 65.); Respan API + MCP 59 (Closed platform. The SDK monorepo is Apache-2.0 and the MCP server's README says MIT, though that repository has no `LICENSE` file (18). The privacy notice (25 February 2026) covers prompts and outputs and says they go to AI providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. Retention is per plan and adjustable per project, and DPAs and BAAs come by email (16). No deprecation policy found. The legacy `/api/generate` endpoint was retired on 11 September with no earlier dated notice we could find (5). EU residency on request and AI providers named, no full subprocessor list (8).)