Terra API

# Fix list: Terra API

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/terra, the October 2026 research run, assessed 14 October 2026. Grade B, 65.9 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 Terra API: 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, 20 out of 100, up to 10 more on the total

Why it scored 20: Read with the hosted rubric. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-credit prices and the credit cost of each unit are public without a login (20). No free tier. Sign-up asks for a plan and billing details, with a 30-day money-back guarantee (0). A person signs up in a browser, and the CLI and MCP sign in through the dashboard (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. Reliability, 67 out of 100, up to 6.6 more on the total

Why it scored 67: Read with the hosted lines and scored on the Unified API and Terra AI. status.tryterra.co on Instatus has components and incident history (20). In the 90 days to 14 October 2026 Terra's own REST endpoints failed with authorisation errors for 2 hours 38 minutes on 7 August, and a large share of data requests errored for 16 minutes on 29 September. Provider-side incidents (Garmin since 1 September, Fitbit, TrainerRoad) are outside Terra's API. One major outage (10). Per-user limits published with numbers (15). 429 carries Retry-After and a rule header with backoff code. No idempotency keys for writes, though dedupe guidance is published (12 of 15). No SLA outside Enterprise contracts (0). The Unified API carries no beta label (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.

## 3. Security & auth, 65 out of 100, up to 6.1 more on the total

Why it scored 65: The data API key is one x-api-key per environment with no scopes, rotatable through the admin API. Admin tokens have 26 scopes, 7 to 90 day lifetimes, environment limits and revocation, and the admin MCP server uses OAuth. No secret in a query string (22 of 30). Read only access for the admin server, dashboard approval for paying invoices, rotating keys or removing members, and Terra AI is read-only (18 of 20). Health data is mostly numeric, and the MCP page warns that text in payloads can mislead an assistant (8 of 15). Token list with creation source and an event log, no API call audit log found (7 of 15). SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA claimed and a Vanta trust centre linked, which could not be read. No security.txt or bug bounty found (10 of 20).

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.

## 4. Transparency & trust, 56 out of 100, up to 3.9 more on the total

Made of editorial 42, provenance 69.

Why it scored 56: Closed service with public terms dated 1 May 2026 and Apache 2.0 specs (17 of 30). The privacy policy, effective 20 April 2023, excludes end-user wearable data and gives no fixed retention periods. A GDPR assessment sits in the trust centre, which could not be read, and no public DPA was found (10 of 30). A deprecated token route is kept indefinitely and Vantage changes ship under dated versions, with no written notice period for the Unified API (10 of 20). Processing is stated as mainly in the UK, with no sub-processor list found (5 of 20).

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: tryterra.co, no registry record we could read (0 of 15)
- Terms of service: read, states 6 of the 7 things a reader expects, and has 2 clauses that cost points (5.1 of 10)
- Privacy policy: read, states 7 of the 8 things a reader expects (9.3 of 10)
- security.txt: not found (0 of 10)

## 5. Agent ergonomics, 78 out of 100, up to 3.6 more on the total

Why it scored 78: Terra AI has six tools, each taking an explicit fields or select list, which keeps responses small. The admin server has about 40 tools, filtered by access level (22 of 25). Date ranges, with_samples and to_webhook size the REST reads, with no cursor paging since bulk data goes to webhooks (14 of 20). problem+json errors carry a code, 403 names scope_missing, and 429 names the rule (17 of 20). No idempotency keys. The admin server has dry runs and dashboard approval for risky changes (12 of 20). user_id is the main required parameter, with Python and npm SDKs and a CLI, though both SDKs date from October 2025 (13 of 15).

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.

## 6. Maintenance & community, 75 out of 100, up to 2.2 more on the total

Why it scored 75: The OpenAPI repository was republished on 13 October 2026 and @tryterra/cli 0.20.0 shipped on 9 October (30). 120 spec publishes since 16 July and CLI releases 0.18 to 0.20 in October (20). Closed service with monthly changelog pages and a support form. 24/7 engineering support is Enterprise only (11 of 15). terra-python 1.1.0 and terra-api 2.1.0 date from 2 October 2025, the legacy JavaScript package is no longer updated, and the official MCP registry has no Terra entry (8 of 15). We could not read CI results (6 of 10).

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.

## 7. Schema & documentation, 89 out of 100, up to 1.8 more on the total

Why it scored 89: OpenAPI 3.1 specs in tryterra/openapi for the Unified, admin, Teams, Vantage and widget APIs, plus AsyncAPI for streaming (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Operation descriptions state purpose, and some say when to use another path, such as the deprecated token route (16 of 20). The Unified spec has 173 required lists but only 18 enums (10 of 15). 573 examples and problem+json error responses, plus a guaranteed error list for Terra AI (13 of 15). Dated spec versions, monthly changelog pages and date-based versioning on Vantage (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.

## 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.

- unchecked: the Vanta trust centre at app.vanta.com/tryterra.co/trust. It is drawn by script and our reader saw only the title, so the SOC 2 report and any sub-processor list were not read
- unchecked: live API behaviour beyond two unauthenticated requests, which returned 401 problem+json. We had no credentials
- unchecked: GitHub stars and CI for the tryterra repositories. The GitHub API refused us for rate limits
- unchecked: the registration date of tryterra.co. RDAP returned no events
- No idempotency key was found for the write endpoints (nutrition, body, planned workouts)
- The founder's lead named the product Terra API at tryterra.co, which matches. Terra also runs Vantage, Lab Reports and Models APIs, graded here only as part of the platform

## Weaknesses

- No free tier. Sign-up asks for a plan and billing details, and Quick Start starts at $499 a month with a 30-day money-back guarantee
- The Unified API key is one environment-wide x-api-key with no scopes, and Terra AI takes the same key
- status.tryterra.co shows REST requests failing with authorisation errors for 2 hours 38 minutes on 7 August 2026
- No SLA is published outside Enterprise contracts, and no idempotency keys were found for write endpoints
- The privacy policy, effective 20 April 2023, excludes end-user wearable data, and no public sub-processor list was found

## 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.

- Send dev-id and x-api-key headers on every Unified API and Terra AI call. A missing header returns 401 problem+json
- Keep each request window to 1,825 days or less and under 6,000 requested days per user an hour. On 429 with rule r2, wait Retry-After seconds
- Pass either fields or select to Terra AI tools, never both and never neither, or the call fails with a validation error
- Expect data by webhook after a user connects through the widget session. REST reads are for backfills and on-demand queries
- Use the Read only access level for the admin MCP server unless a change is needed. The MCP level can read API keys

## 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.