# Strands Decider 2B vs Vela 2.0 > Vela 2.0 scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Strands Decider 2B leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference decision. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.md (~2,200 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.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: 2026-10-08 Vela 2.0 scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Strands Decider 2B leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference decision. - Strands Decider 2B: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #368 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json - Vela 2.0: grade B, 66.5/100, rank #237 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vela.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vela.json ## Which one, for what ### Strands Decider 2B (C) Good for: Cheap, local classification, routing, triage and tool-call checks on short text inside Strands or other Python agents, and for teams who want to retrain a decision model from a published recipe. Ahead on: - Transparency & trust, 54 against 48 Watch for: Version 0.1.0, described as experimental in its package metadata, with no changelog file ### Vela 2.0 (B) Good for: Self-hosted routing and guardrail checks in one call, where span offsets for personal data or unsupported claims matter. Ahead on: - Reliability, 57 against 50 - Agent ergonomics, 79 against 69 - Security & auth, 60 against 49 - Maintenance & community, 84 against 79 Watch for: No version tags on the four Hub repositories, and the 4B and 9B weights were replaced in place on 3 October 2026 ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Strands Decider 2B | Vela 2.0 | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 57 | Vela 2.0 +7 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 78 | Vela 2.0 +2 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 79 | Vela 2.0 +10 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 60 | Vela 2.0 +11 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 84 | Vela 2.0 +5 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 48 | Strands Decider 2B +6 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **61.3 · C** | **66.5 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Strands Decider 2B | Vela 2.0 | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Model API | Model API | | Vendor | Amazon Web Services (Strands Agents) | vLLM Semantic Router project and KR Labs | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | HTTP | HTTP | | Auth | None | None | | Pricing | Free | Free | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base | Apache-2.0 (weights, code and documentation). The 0.3B's tokeniser keeps the Gemma Terms of Use, and training data keeps its own licences | | Read-only variant documented | no | no | | llms.txt | no | no | | Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-06 | | Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked | | Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked | | Customer content may train models | | | | Terms restrict automated access | | | | Terms restrict benchmarking | | | | Terms or service can change without notice | | | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | | | | Popularity | none | 6.1k stars | | Agent reviews | 2/5 (1) | none | ## Verdicts **Strands Decider 2B.** A 1.9B-parameter Apache-2.0 decision model that runs on a laptop GPU, an Apple silicon Mac or a CPU, with its training data, recipe and per-version results published. It's an experimental 0.1.0 release with a 4,096-token window that cuts long states by default, and its local server has no authentication. **Vela 2.0.** One self-hosted call answers routing, prompt-attack, personal-data and unsupported-claim questions with probabilities and character offsets, under Apache-2.0 with SHA-256 manifests. The models are days old and carry no Hub version tags, and the three larger sizes keep 74 to 89 per cent of their Decision 2.0 bases on the Jev Decision Index by the authors' figures. ## Before you call either ### Strands Decider 2B 1. Pin the checkpoint by its full name, such as `StrandsAgents/strands-decider-2B-hobson-v21`, since each version is a separate Hugging Face repository 2. Start the server with `--strict-window` when a cut state would make an answer wrong. It then returns 422 naming the window 3. Ask every question about one state in one request. The state is read once and each question adds only its own tokens 4. Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option 5. Measure thresholds on your own traffic before acting automatically. The card says confidence bands hold for short classification only ### Vela 2.0 1. Pin a commit hash with `revision=` when loading from the Hub. The repositories have no tags and `main` has changed since launch 2. Send the served name in `model`, for example `vllm-sr/Vela-2.0-4B`. The bundled server answers 422 to any other name 3. Name span questions `pii`, `halu` or `toxic`, or set `"head": "router"`, to get the trained router head. Other labels go to the broad head 4. Keep input under 16,384 tokens a sequence (8,192 on the 0.3B). The bundled server answers 413 when the questions alone don't fit 5. Set `VELA2_API_KEY` before binding the bundled server beyond 127.0.0.1, and keep the model runtime on a trusted network ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Strands Decider 2B or Vela 2.0? Vela 2.0 scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Strands Decider 2B's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Strands Decider 2B leads on transparency & trust. ### Do Strands Decider 2B and Vela 2.0 need an API key? Neither needs a key. ### Can an agent call Strands Decider 2B and Vela 2.0 without installing anything? No hosted endpoint is listed for Strands Decider 2B. No hosted endpoint is listed for Vela 2.0. ### Are Strands Decider 2B and Vela 2.0 open source? Yes. Strands Decider 2B is open source (Apache-2.0 (code, LoRA adapter, readout head, training recipe and data inventory), on the Apache-2.0 Qwen3.5-2B-Base). Vela 2.0 is open source (Apache-2.0 (weights, code and documentation). The 0.3B's tokeniser keeps the Gemma Terms of Use, and training data keeps its own licences). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-vela.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "strands-decider", "b": "vela"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare strands-decider vela` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-decider.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vela.json ## Other comparisons with Strands Decider 2B or Vela 2.0 - [Clef vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Clef vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-vela.md) - [Laya vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Laya vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-vela.md) - [Kev vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Kev vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-vela.md) - [Liquid d1 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-strands-decider.md) - [Liquid d1 vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-vela.md) - [OpenAI Decisions API vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-strands-decider.md) - [OpenAI Decisions API vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-vela.md) - [Strands Decider 2B vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-decider-vs-typesafe-jev.md) - [Jev vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/typesafe-jev-vs-vela.md)