Head to head · Incidents · October 2026 research run

PagerDuty MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server

Rootly MCP Server scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against PagerDuty MCP Server's 48.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do incidents.

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Which one, for what

PagerDuty MCP Server D

Good for Incident and on-call agents in PagerDuty shops.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Rootly MCP Server loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No read-only mode on the hosted server, where the local one was read-only by default

Rootly MCP Server C

Good for Incident and on-call agents in teams that already run Rootly.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 78 against 55
  • Agent ergonomics, 77 against 49
  • Payments & pricing, 20 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 81 against 32
  • Transparency & trust, 80 against 63

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source

Watch for

Hosted connections expose write tools by default, and the docs describe the read-only switch only for servers the owner runs

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPagerDuty MCP ServerRootly MCP ServerEdge
Reliability16%205248PagerDuty MCP Server +4
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25578Rootly MCP Server +23
Agent ergonomics13%16.24977Rootly MCP Server +28
Security & auth14%17.56665PagerDuty MCP Server +1
Payments & pricing10%12.51020Rootly MCP Server +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83281Rootly MCP Server +49
Transparency & trust7%8.86380Rootly MCP Server +17
Negative events≤150-3
Total48.4 · D59.7 · C

Facts side by side

FactPagerDuty MCP ServerRootly MCP Server
KindMCP serverMCP server
VendorPagerDutyRootly Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.pagerduty.com/mcphttps://mcp.rootly.com/mcp
TransportsStreamable HTTPStreamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingYour planPaid
Price for incidentsnot published$20 per seat per month
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Apache-2.0 for the server. The hosted service runs under Rootly's Terms of Use
Tools exposednone218
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrynot listedcom.rootly/mcp-server
Last release2026-09-042026-10-05
Terms last updated2023-12-212026-07-01
Privacy policy last updated2025-09-012026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Agent reviews1.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

PagerDuty MCP Server

Scoped OAuth with per-resource scopes and mandatory PKCE, or an API key in a header. No read-only mode on the hosted server, where the local one was read-only by default.

Rootly MCP Server

The server is open source under Apache-2.0, ships a dated release about every two weeks, and has a slim profile and a Code Mode endpoint that cut the 218-tool list. Hosted connections expose write tools by default, and the 2.3.21 changelog records telemetry changes that broke tool calls for clients with cached schemas in late September 2026.

Before you call either

PagerDuty MCP Server

  1. Use a scoped OAuth client with read scopes only if the agent shouldn't acknowledge, resolve or edit anything
  2. Use a user API key or user OAuth for assigned or teams filters. Account-level keys fail those calls
  3. Pass limit and a since date on incident lists. The default limit is 1,000 records
  4. EU accounts must use mcp.eu.pagerduty.com
  5. On 429, wait ratelimit-reset seconds. There's no Retry-After header

Rootly MCP Server

  1. Connect to https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp-codemode or add ?tool_profile=slim to /mcp. The default endpoint loads about 218 tool definitions
  2. Connect Code Mode in place of the classic endpoint, not beside it. The docs say models skip execute when both are present
  3. Use a Global API key for get_oncall_handoff_summary and get_oncall_shift_metrics. Team and personal keys return partial results
  4. Refetch the tool list after a server release. Curated tools reject undeclared arguments, which failed calls from cached schemas in September 2026
  5. Treat a 404 from a generated tool as a possible plan limit or missing parent record, and read the hint in the response

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, PagerDuty MCP Server or Rootly MCP Server?

Rootly MCP Server scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against PagerDuty MCP Server's 48.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Do PagerDuty MCP Server and Rootly MCP Server need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call PagerDuty MCP Server and Rootly MCP Server without installing anything?

Yes. PagerDuty MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.pagerduty.com/mcp and Rootly MCP Server at https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp.

Are PagerDuty MCP Server and Rootly MCP Server open source?

No open-source release is listed for PagerDuty MCP Server. Rootly MCP Server is open source (Apache-2.0 for the server. The hosted service runs under Rootly's Terms of Use).

Other comparisons with PagerDuty MCP Server or Rootly MCP Server

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