Compare / Markets / Cybersecurity & Identity vs Developer Tools & DevOps

compare_cohorts

Cybersecurity vs Developer Tools: who governs their own APIs better?

Developer tools lead on score and ergonomics, but cybersecurity companies are likelier to publish OAuth scopes. The gap is small and depth-confounded.

Cybersecurity & Identity

31.1 average
thin on average
Agent readiness 17.7 · agent-aware
2313 scored providers · industry
VS

Developer Tools & DevOps

33.4 average
thin on average
Agent readiness 18.7 · agent-aware
2996 scored providers · industry

Each sun is drawn from the cohort's averages: six facet rings, the mean Kin Score and mean agent readiness.

Check this first: the gap is partly our coverageDeveloper Tools & DevOps scores 2.3 points higher than Cybersecurity & Identity AND is the better-enriched cohort: 2.9 points less catalog_gap and 1 more artifact directories on the median member. The market difference and our coverage difference point the same way, so this delta cannot be attributed to the markets on its own. Close the enrichment gap, or report both figures together.

Two of the deepest industries in the catalog, with 2,313 scored cybersecurity and identity providers and 2,996 in developer tools and DevOps. Developer tools come out ahead at 33.4 against 31.1, with 118 exemplars against 71. The biggest single gap is developer ergonomics, 40.4 against 35.1. Companies that sell to developers tend to document for them too.

Cybersecurity has a lead of its own: 19% publish OAuth scopes, against 12% in developer tools. Identity companies are the ones defining scopes for everyone else, so they publish their own. Developer tools answer with Spectral rules, which 30% publish against 21% in security.

Both are well enriched, with medians of 14 and 15 artifact directories, so this is one of the fairer comparisons on the page. The flag is still raised, because the 2.3-point gap is only a little larger than the 2.9-point difference in catalog gap.

The distributions

Cybersecurity & IdentityDeveloper Tools & DevOpsDelta
Kin Score, mean31.133.4-2.3
Kin Score, median30.133-2.9
Kin Score, highest91.689.2
Kin Score, std dev18.417.9
Agent readiness, mean17.718.7-1
Agent readiness, highest73.874.4

Delta is Cybersecurity & Identity minus Developer Tools & DevOps, as the tool returns it.

Where the providers sit

Cybersecurity & Identity

exemplar 71strong 202developing 528thin 510emerging 614minimal 388

Developer Tools & DevOps

exemplar 118strong 296developing 694thin 791emerging 746minimal 351

Facet averages

FacetCybersecurity & IdentityDeveloper Tools & DevOpsDelta
Discoverability 63.5 63.1 +0.4
Contract Quality 25.3 28.5 -3.2
Contract Governance 10.1 10.6 -0.5
Operational Transparency 21.2 24.1 -2.9
Developer Ergonomics 35.1 40.4 -5.3
Access Clarity 31.2 31.5 -0.3

What they publish

Share of each cohort's providers publishing each artifact. mcp_pct counts any mcp/ artifact including ones API Evangelist derived from the provider OpenAPI; mcp_first_party_pct counts only servers the provider publishes. Prefer the latter.

ArtifactCybersecurity & IdentityDeveloper Tools & DevOpsDelta
First-party MCP server18%23%-5
Any MCP artifact (incl. derived)19%25%-6
OAuth scopes19%12%+7
Spectral rules21%30%-9
Arazzo workflows4%4%0
Agent skills0%0%0
Security artifact97%97%0

How well we know each cohort

The coverage behind the averages. A cohort with a higher catalog gap and fewer artifact directories has been enriched less, so part of any difference is our coverage rather than the market.

Cybersecurity & IdentityDeveloper Tools & DevOps
Declared members24643131
Scored (in the averages)2313 (94%)2996 (96%)
Thinly covered19602422
Median artifact directories1415
Mean catalog gap (points we could add)73.971
The full compare_cohorts response
{"a":{"kind":"industry","slug":"cybersecurity","name":"Cybersecurity & Identity","members":2464,"stats":{"kind":"industry","slug":"cybersecurity","name":"Cybersecurity & Identity","tier":"report","coverage":{"declared_members":2464,"resolved_members":2464,"scored_members":2313,"agent_scored_members":2313,"scored_share_pct":94,"unexamined_members":104,"enrichment_depth":{"mean_catalog_gap":73.9,"median_artifact_dirs":14,"n":2313,"thinly_covered":1960,"thinly_covered_of":2313,"thin_coverage_note":"1960 of 2313 scored members had under half their catalog-attributable points satisfied at all (catalog_earned / catalog_max < 0.5). They are INCLUDED in the mean above. A large share here means the cohort mean is partly a measurement of how far our enrichment reached, not only of how these providers publish.","note":"Rubric points API Evangelist could add to the average member with no action by the providers, and the median count of artifact directories we hold on them. A cohort with a higher gap and thinner artifacts has been enriched less, so part of any difference between its mean and another cohort's is our coverage rather than the market. Compare two cohorts only when this figure is comparable. It is an upper bound on our backlog: it says who CAN close a gap, not who did."},"unexamined_note":"Excluded from the distribution: these carry a catalog-owned needs_work flag (never enriched, or no resolvable host). They are listed as members and keep their own page and score; they do not vote in the averages, because their score measures our coverage rather than their posture."},"sufficient":true,"kin_score":{"mean":31.1,"median":30.1,"min":0,"max":91.6,"stdev":18.4},"agent_readiness":{"mean":17.7,"median":18.7,"min":0,"max":73.8,"stdev":16.2},"band_distribution":{"exemplar":71,"strong":202,"developing":528,"thin":510,"emerging":614,"minimal":388},"facet_averages":{"discoverability":{"mean":63.5,"n":2313},"contract_quality":{"mean":25.3,"n":2313},"contract_governance":{"mean":10.1,"n":2313},"operational_transparency":{"mean":21.2,"n":2313},"developer_ergonomics":{"mean":35.1,"n":2313},"access_clarity":{"mean":31.2,"n":2313}},"adoption":{"mcp_pct":19,"mcp_first_party_pct":18,"mcp_note":"mcp_pct counts any mcp/ artifact including ones API Evangelist derived from the provider OpenAPI; mcp_first_party_pct counts only servers the provider publishes. Prefer the latter.","skills_pct":0,"scopes_pct":19,"security_pct":97,"arazzo_pct":4,"rules_pct":21}}},"b":{"kind":"industry","slug":"developer-tools","name":"Developer Tools & DevOps","members":3131,"stats":{"kind":"industry","slug":"developer-tools","name":"Developer Tools & DevOps","tier":"report","coverage":{"declared_members":3131,"resolved_members":3131,"scored_members":2996,"agent_scored_members":2996,"scored_share_pct":96,"unexamined_members":116,"enrichment_depth":{"mean_catalog_gap":71,"median_artifact_dirs":15,"n":2996,"thinly_covered":2422,"thinly_covered_of":2996,"thin_coverage_note":"2422 of 2996 scored members had under half their catalog-attributable points satisfied at all (catalog_earned / catalog_max < 0.5). They are INCLUDED in the mean above. A large share here means the cohort mean is partly a measurement of how far our enrichment reached, not only of how these providers publish.","note":"Rubric points API Evangelist could add to the average member with no action by the providers, and the median count of artifact directories we hold on them. A cohort with a higher gap and thinner artifacts has been enriched less, so part of any difference between its mean and another cohort's is our coverage rather than the market. Compare two cohorts only when this figure is comparable. It is an upper bound on our backlog: it says who CAN close a gap, not who did."},"unexamined_note":"Excluded from the distribution: these carry a catalog-owned needs_work flag (never enriched, or no resolvable host). They are listed as members and keep their own page and score; they do not vote in the averages, because their score measures our coverage rather than their posture."},"sufficient":true,"kin_score":{"mean":33.4,"median":33,"min":0,"max":89.2,"stdev":17.9},"agent_readiness":{"mean":18.7,"median":19.6,"min":0,"max":74.4,"stdev":16},"band_distribution":{"exemplar":118,"strong":296,"developing":694,"thin":791,"emerging":746,"minimal":351},"facet_averages":{"discoverability":{"mean":63.1,"n":2996},"contract_quality":{"mean":28.5,"n":2996},"contract_governance":{"mean":10.6,"n":2996},"operational_transparency":{"mean":24.1,"n":2996},"developer_ergonomics":{"mean":40.4,"n":2996},"access_clarity":{"mean":31.5,"n":2996}},"adoption":{"mcp_pct":25,"mcp_first_party_pct":23,"mcp_note":"mcp_pct counts any mcp/ artifact including ones API Evangelist derived from the provider OpenAPI; mcp_first_party_pct counts only servers the provider publishes. Prefer the latter.","skills_pct":0,"scopes_pct":12,"security_pct":97,"arazzo_pct":4,"rules_pct":30}}},"comparable":true,"delta":{"kin_score_mean":-2.3,"kin_score_median":-2.9,"agent_readiness_mean":-1,"facets":{"discoverability":0.4,"contract_quality":-3.2,"contract_governance":-0.5,"operational_transparency":-2.9,"developer_ergonomics":-5.3,"access_clarity":-0.3},"adoption":{"mcp_pct":-6,"mcp_first_party_pct":-5,"mcp_note":null,"skills_pct":0,"scopes_pct":7,"security_pct":0,"arazzo_pct":0,"rules_pct":-9},"enrichment_depth":{"mean_catalog_gap":2.9,"median_artifact_dirs":-1}},"depth_confounded":true,"depth_note":"Developer Tools & DevOps scores 2.3 points higher than Cybersecurity & Identity AND is the better-enriched cohort: 2.9 points less catalog_gap and 1 more artifact directories on the median member. The market difference and our coverage difference point the same way, so this delta cannot be attributed to the markets on its own. Close the enrichment gap, or report both figures together."}

Result read 2026-10-27. Cybersecurity & Identity and Developer Tools & DevOps each have their own page with the full roster and leaderboard.

Run this comparison yourself

Everything above came from one call to compare_cohorts. Swap in any two tags, industries, regions, areas or VC portfolios and you get the same answer for your own shortlist. It is an Understanding tool, included in the Understanding and Influence plans, or pay per call.

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{"name": "compare_cohorts", "arguments": {"a": "industry:cybersecurity", "b": "industry:developer-tools"}}
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