Northflank by Northflank

# Fix list: Northflank

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/northflank, the October 2026 research run, assessed 1 October 2026. Grade C, 61.8 out of 100.

This is everything the published grade says the listing lacks, the biggest possible gain to the total first. It comes from the reason given for each score, the checklist each category was scored against (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist), the provenance checks, the deductions, what we couldn't check and what the review panel asked for. A fix counts at the next check, once it's public.

For a coding agent working on Northflank: work through the items below in the product, its docs and its public pages. Each category gives the reason for its score, with the points each checklist item earned, and the checklist itself, so the gap is the items that earned less than their points. Change the product, not the wording, and keep a note of what you changed and where it's published.

## 1. Payments & pricing, 30 out of 100, up to 8.8 more on the total

Why it scored 30: No machine payment protocol (0). Per-hour GPU, vCPU and memory prices published without a login (20). A free sandbox tier with 2 services, 1 database and 2 cron jobs; whether it needs a card isn't stated (10 of 20). Signup is a browser flow (0).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-payments):

The published rubric, also on the [x402 page](https://www.anchorterminal.com/x402/).

- 40, a machine payment protocol (x402, MPP or L402) on the tool's own endpoints. 10 to 30 when it covers only some endpoints or only goes through a third party, and the note says which.
- 20, per-call or per-unit pricing published without a login. 10 for public plan-only pricing, 0 for "contact sales" or prices behind a login.
- 20, a free tier or trial that doesn't need a card.
- 20, autonomous onboarding, meaning an agent can get access without a person signing up in a browser (keyless use, x402, a programmatic key API).

Payment platforms and agent wallets rarely charge for their own API over a machine protocol, so the first line has steps for them, and the highest one that applies counts. 40 when x402, MPP or L402 runs on all their own endpoints, 30 when it runs on part of their own API, 25 when their merchants can accept one, 20 for running a facilitator, 15 for paying as a buyer, and 0 when the only protocol is their own. Merchant acceptance sits above a facilitator because the platform's own customers can charge agents through it, while a facilitator settles for sellers who wire up the protocol themselves. The counter-argument (a facilitator does more for the protocol as a whole) has a point. Each note says which step applied.

Open-source software you run yourself is scored on its hosted or paid option if it has one. A free, self-hosted package with nothing to buy gets 20, 20 and 20 for the last three lines, and 0 to 40 for the first only if it ships a payment protocol.

## 2. Agent ergonomics, 48 out of 100, up to 8.5 more on the total

Why it scored 48: List endpoints take `per_page` (default 50, up to 100) and return small objects (15). `page` and a 24-character `cursor` on every list endpoint (20). Error responses aren't documented beyond the 429 (5). No idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance found (0). CLI and JavaScript client on npm; no Python SDK and no MCP server (8).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-ergonomics):

- 0 to 25, context cost. For MCP, the number and size of the tool definitions (25 for ten or fewer compact tools, 15 for 11 to 30, 5 for more than 30, plus up to 10 back for toolsets, dynamic loading or read-only subsets). For APIs, whether responses can be sized (field selection, limits, summaries).
- 20, pagination, filtering and output-size controls.
- 20, actionable, documented error responses, codes and messages an agent can recover from.
- 20, idempotency or safe retries, and for MCP the `readOnlyHint` and `destructiveHint` annotations.
- 15, sensible defaults, few required parameters, and official SDKs in at least two languages.

Models are read for tool use, structured output, prompt caching, context length, batch and SDKs. Frameworks for how much code and how many defaults a tool-calling agent with MCP needs.

## 3. Reliability, 65 out of 100, up to 7 more on the total

Why it scored 65: Instatus page at status.northflank.com with per-component uptime (99.99 to 100 per cent) and history (20). Three incidents from July to September 2026. On 5 August workloads failed to start across several regions for 1 hour, marked partial outage, which meets our major threshold; SSO through WorkOS was degraded for 46 minutes on 25 September and addon exposure was paused for 2 hours 25 minutes in one region on 4 September (10). 1,000 API requests an hour by default (15). A 429 past the limit, with `x-ratelimit-remaining` and `x-ratelimit-reset` on every response; no backoff or safe-retry guidance (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). Services, jobs and GPU workloads are GA (10).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-reliability):

Hosted APIs, MCP servers, models and platforms.

- 20, a public status page with component history (Statuspage, Instatus, BetterStack or the vendor's own).
- 0 to 30, the incident record for the last 90 days on that page. 30 for a clean record or trivial incidents only, 20 for minor incidents only, 10 for one major outage (an hour or more of a core API down, or errors across the board), 0 for several. 5 when there's no history we could read, and the note says so.
- 15, rate limits documented with numbers.
- 15, documented 429 or overload handling (Retry-After, backoff guidance), and idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance where writes are involved.
- 10, an SLA published for any paid tier.
- 10, the surface agents use is generally available, not beta or preview.

Local packages, SDKs, frameworks and stdio MCP servers.

- 20, installs from an official package with supported runtimes stated.
- 25, a public CI and test suite, passing on the default branch.
- 0 to 25, open crash or regression issues relative to activity (25 for few and handled, 0 for many, old and unanswered).
- 15, semver discipline and breaking changes called out in a changelog.
- 15, version 1.0 or later, or declared stable.

Protocols are read from their reference implementations, the public facilitators or servers, spec stability and test vectors.

## 4. Security & auth, 75 out of 100, up to 4.4 more on the total

Why it scored 75: Personal tokens and team API tokens issued under API roles with granular permissions and project or cluster restrictions (30). API roles take per-action permissions and can be restricted to named projects or clusters; no confirmation step for destructive calls found (15). Runs your own containers and returns their output (10). Audit logs with filters since April 2025 (15). SOC 2 Type 2 per the changelog; no security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty found (5).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-security):

- 0 to 30, the credential model. 30 for OAuth 2.1 with scopes, or scoped and revocable keys with rotation. 20 for plain revocable API keys. 10 for one all-powerful key. 10 off when a secret can travel in a URL query string as a documented option.
- 0 to 20, read-only or least-privilege modes, and confirmation or approval for destructive actions.
- 0 to 15, prompt-injection posture where the tool returns untrusted content (documented mitigations or guidance). A tool that returns no untrusted content gets 10.
- 0 to 15, audit logs or per-call visibility for the operator.
- 0 to 20, a security programme. security.txt or a disclosure policy, a bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, advisories handled in public.

Models are read for retention, whether API data trains models (and whether that's off by default), zero-retention options and certifications. Frameworks for telemetry defaults, approval hooks, guardrails and sandboxing.

## 5. Transparency & trust, 60 out of 100, up to 3.5 more on the total

Made of editorial 33, provenance 86.

Why it scored 60: Closed service under UK law (15). Terms and privacy policy are both dated 1 March 2021, more than five years old, with no retention periods we could find (10). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). Regions and bring-your-own-cloud are documented; no subprocessor list found (8).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-transparency):

- 0 to 30, source availability and licence clarity. 30 for open source under an OSI licence, 15 for closed with clear terms, 0 for unclear terms.
- 0 to 30, data handling and retention statements that agree with each other (privacy policy, DPA, retention periods, subprocessors).
- 0 to 20, a deprecation policy or notices with dates.
- 0 to 20, telemetry disclosed with an opt-out (local software), or subprocessors and data locations disclosed (hosted).

The other half of Transparency and trust is the provenance score, computed from checked facts (below). The category score is the mean of the two.

Provenance checks not met in full (half of this category, computed from checked facts):

- Domain age: northflank.com, registered 2019-03-31 (7 years) (11 of 15)
- security.txt: not found (0 of 10)

## 6. Schema & documentation, 81 out of 100, up to 3.1 more on the total

Why it scored 81: OpenAPI 3.0 at api.northflank.com/v1/swagger-json with well over 100 paths, plus an HTML view (25). llms.txt and a .md twin for every docs page (10). Operations carry short descriptions and the guides explain jobs against services; few say when not to use an endpoint (12). Enums throughout (token kind, scope, restriction mode) and bounded parameters such as `per_page` 1 to 100 (13). Examples in the guides; the spec documents 200 responses but not error schemas (6). Versioned /v1 and a dated changelog (15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-schema):

APIs and MCP servers.

- 25, a machine-readable contract (a public OpenAPI file or similar; for MCP, typed JSON Schema inputs on every tool).
- 10, llms.txt or Markdown docs served for agents.
- 0 to 20, descriptions that say what a tool is for, when to use it and when not to, read from the tool definitions in the source or the API reference.
- 0 to 15, typed inputs with enums, constraints and required fields, and no free-form JSON blobs.
- 0 to 15, examples and documented error responses.
- 15, versioning and a public changelog.

Models are read from the API reference, the OpenAPI file, llms.txt, the structured-output and tool-use docs and the model cards. Frameworks from docs a model can follow, typed interfaces, examples and the API reference.

## 7. Maintenance & community, 65 out of 100, up to 3.1 more on the total

Why it scored 65: Changelog entry on 24 September 2026 (30). Entries come every two months, so two fall in the last 90 days (22 July and 24 September), each covering dozens of changes; half credit (10). Closed service with a dated changelog and a support address for rate-limit increases (10 of 15). CLI and JavaScript client are current; no Python SDK (10). npm packages not audited (5).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-maintenance):

- 0 to 30, time since the last release, or the last published model or API change for a closed service. 30 within 30 days, 20 within 90, 10 within 180, 0 older.
- 20, at least three releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days.
- 0 to 25, responsiveness. Issues and pull requests answered on GitHub (the open issues and how recent the replies are). For closed services, a public changelog and a support or community channel that answers, 0 to 15.
- 15, presence in the official MCP registry under a verified namespace (MCP servers), or current official SDKs (APIs and models).
- 10, package health, current dependencies and CI.

Models are read for deprecation notice periods and model churn rather than release counts.

## What we couldn't check

What we couldn't read counted as absent. Publishing it on a page a plain HTTP fetch can read (not only in a browser) lets the next check count it.

- Whether the free sandbox needs a card isn't stated on the pricing page we relied on.
- We didn't find a subprocessor list or retention periods; the 2021 privacy policy may predate GPU and BYOC products.
- Error response schemas may exist in the HTML Swagger view; the JSON spec we read documented only 200 responses.

## Weaknesses

- No scale to zero for services; minimum instances must be at least 1
- 1,000 API requests an hour by default
- One partial outage of workload starts across regions on 5 August 2026
- Terms and privacy policy unchanged since 1 March 2021, and no security.txt
- No error schemas in the spec, no idempotency keys, no Python SDK

## What costs an agent a turn today

The notes we give agents before they call it. Each one is a workaround an agent shouldn't need.

- Issue the agent a team token under an API role limited to one project, not a personal token
- Read `x-ratelimit-remaining` and wait `x-ratelimit-reset` seconds on a 429; the default is 1,000 calls an hour
- Page lists with `per_page` up to 100 and the returned `cursor` instead of numbered pages
- Use a job, not a service, for anything that finishes; services bill until paused or deleted
- Fetch any docs page with .md appended to get Markdown

## What the review panel asked for

- allow scale to zero for services
- state the sandbox card requirement
- Document error responses in the spec
- Add safe-retry guidance

## When it's done

Send what changed and where it's published as a dispute (https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/#disputes, or `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/contact` with `"kind": "dispute"`). Disputes are answered in public, and the listing is checked again by the same checklist. Paying for an audit or a listing claim changes nothing here.