# Prismatic vs Windmill API + MCP

> Prismatic scores 59.1 (C) to Windmill's 55.9 (C) for workflow automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prismatic-vs-windmill
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prismatic-vs-windmill.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prismatic-vs-windmill.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prismatic-vs-windmill.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: 2026-10-09

Prismatic scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Windmill API + MCP's 55.9 (C), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Windmill API + MCP leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do workflow automation.

- Prismatic: grade C, 59.1/100, rank #561 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prismatic.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prismatic.json
- Windmill API + MCP: grade C, 55.9/100, rank #644 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/windmill.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/windmill.json
- Best workflow automation platforms with APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/workflow-automation/index.md
- All 108 workflows comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/workflow-automation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Prismatic (C)

Good for: A B2B software company that wants to build integrations once, deploy them per customer and let an in-app agent call them as MCP tools.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 67 against 40

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where Windmill API + MCP loses 5 points for them

Watch for: No prices on the pricing page. All three plans end in a demo request

### Windmill API + MCP (C)

Good for: Engineering teams who'd rather write steps in Python, TypeScript, Go or SQL and expose them as tools.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 63
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 0

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: The default MCP URL puts the token in `?token=` unless a superadmin turns that off


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Prismatic | Windmill API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 40 | Prismatic +27 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 79 | Windmill API + MCP +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 73 | Windmill API + MCP +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 59 | 60 | Windmill API + MCP +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 35 | Windmill API + MCP +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 87 | Windmill API + MCP +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 65 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **59.1 · C** | **55.9 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Prismatic | Windmill API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Prismatic Software Inc. | Windmill Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.prismatic.io/mcp` | `https://app.windmill.dev/api` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service. The Prism CLI, the Spectral and embedded SDKs, the Prism MCP dev server and the Claude Code skills on GitHub are MIT | AGPL-3.0 (core), Apache-2.0 (clients and OpenAPI), commercial for enterprise-only parts |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.prismatic-io/prism-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-06-26 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 29 stars, 8.4k npm/wk | 18k stars, 126k npm/wk, 218k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Prismatic.** The GraphQL API covers 120 queries and 124 mutations with typed inputs, cursor pagination and Markdown documentation, and tokens follow seven user roles. No price is published, paid use runs under an agreement that is not public, and no API rate limit or idempotency key was found in the reviewed documentation.

**Windmill API + MCP.** Token scopes down to a single script path, with expiry. The default MCP URL puts the token in `?token=` unless a superadmin turns that off.

## Before you call either

### Prismatic

1. Have a person run `prism login` once, then store the output of `prism me:token --type refresh` as `PRISM_REFRESH_TOKEN`. Access tokens last 7 days
2. Read the `errors` array on every mutation. A failed mutation still returns HTTP 200
3. Pass `sortBy` with `CREATED_AT` when paging. Without a sort order pages can repeat or skip records
4. Use the regional host for the tenant, such as `app.eu-west-1.prismatic.io` and `mcp.eu-west-1.prismatic.io`
5. Create a guest user for a read-only agent, because tokens have no scopes of their own

### Windmill API + MCP

1. Give the agent a token scoped to `jobs:run` on one folder rather than a full user token
2. Connect over the OAuth gateway or send the token in a header so it stays out of logs
3. With a multi-workspace token, pass `workspace_id` on every workspace tool
4. Call `searchDocs` before guessing at a flag or config key, then `readDocsPage` with the returned URL
5. Poll the job by ID after `runScriptByPath` for long jobs instead of waiting on the call

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Prismatic or Windmill API + MCP?

Prismatic scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Windmill API + MCP's 55.9 (C), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Windmill API + MCP leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Do Prismatic and Windmill API + MCP need an API key?

Prismatic uses an OAuth sign-in. Windmill API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Prismatic and Windmill API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Prismatic has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.prismatic.io/mcp and Windmill API + MCP at https://app.windmill.dev/api.

### Are Prismatic and Windmill API + MCP open source?

No open-source release is listed for Prismatic. Windmill API + MCP is open source (AGPL-3.0 (core), Apache-2.0 (clients and OpenAPI), commercial for enterprise-only parts).


## For agents

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

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