What each is for, where StrongDM is strong, and how the two differ, capability by capability.
Delinea · Based on the vendor's public documentation, last reviewed .
StrongDM
StrongDM, now part of Delinea, proxies access to databases, servers, Kubernetes, clouds and MCP servers through nodes in your network. Cedar policy can allow or forbid individual MCP tools, and access can require approval.
Nodes (gateways, relays or proxy clusters) run in your infrastructure and proxy traffic to resources, and people connect with the StrongDM desktop app or CLI. The MCP Gateway is part of the Secure AI offering, and Cedar policies need the Enterprise plan.
Vekri
Runtime authorization for AI agents. Vekri Gateway checks every tool call against a verified identity, a task scope and Cedar policy; privileged writes wait for a person's approval of the exact operation; a broker executes with credentials the agent never sees.
In Vekri's cloud, or self-hosted in your Kubernetes cluster with no connection to Vekri.
Side by side
| Capability | What it means | Vekri | StrongDM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decides each tool call inline | Every agent tool call is allowed or denied before it reaches the protected system. | Yes Vekri Gateway decides every MCP tool call sent through it before the broker executes it; a denied call never reaches the system. It is a boundary only when it is the only path to that system. | Documented The MCP Gateway proxies remote MCP servers through a StrongDM node and enforces access policy before any tool call is permitted. [1] |
| Verified workload identity | An agent running as a workload proves who it is with a credential the platform issued, not a shared key. | Yes Kubernetes projected service-account tokens, verified with TokenReview before Vekri issues a short-lived token for the run; every call is then authenticated. SPIFFE X.509-SVIDs from a configured trust bundle (no Workload API yet). | Partly StrongDM ID offers platform attestation from Kubernetes, AWS, Azure and macOS, and SPIFFE-compatible workload identity. How these identities authenticate agents to the MCP Gateway is not described. [8] |
| Employee agents use company SSO | Agents that employees run sign in as that employee, through the company identity provider. | Yes Vekri is the MCP authorization server for Claude Code and federates to your OpenID Connect provider. SAML sign-in is not available yet. | Documented People sign in to StrongDM through single sign-on with an OIDC or SAML provider such as Okta, and their desktop agents connect through the StrongDM client. [6] [1] |
| Task-scoped permissions from the server | What an agent may do is set per task by the server, not by the agent or its prompt. | Yes A run scope for workloads, or a protected access assignment for employees. The effective permission is always an intersection, never a widening. | Partly Just-in-time access requests grant temporary access to resources after an approval workflow. A scope issued by the server for each agent task is not described. [4] |
| Policy as code, deny by default | Decisions come from versioned policy, and anything not allowed is refused. | Yes Cedar over typed operations. Unknown operations and evaluation errors are denied, and a revision can be simulated before it is published. | Documented Cedar, denying by default, with forbid rules taking precedence, on the Enterprise plan. MCP tools are matched by exact name, and conditions on tool arguments are not described. [2] [1] |
| Approval of the exact operation | A person approves one specific operation, and the approval cannot be reused for another. | Yes Privileged writes wait for another person to approve that operation, bound to its digest, short-lived and single use, with separation of duties. | Partly A Cedar policy can require an approval workflow before it permits an action, and approvals last four hours by default. Approval of a single MCP tool call with its arguments is not described. [3] [4] |
| Agent never holds backend credentials | Secrets for the protected system stay out of the agent's reach. | Yes A broker executes with narrowly scoped Kubernetes or GitHub App credentials. Incoming tokens are never forwarded. | Documented Resource credentials are stored encrypted in StrongDM or an external secret store and used by the node without being exposed to the user. Agents connect to a local address from the StrongDM client. [1] [5] |
| Audit evidence of decision and outcome | Each call leaves a durable record of what was decided and what happened. | Yes Intent is recorded durably before execution and the outcome after; an uncertain outcome is never retried blindly. | Documented Every MCP tool invocation is logged, policy evaluations are recorded, and SSH, RDP and Kubernetes sessions can be replayed. [1] [7] |
| AI agents on workstations | Finds AI coding agents and other AI applications on employee devices, and watches or controls what they do there. | Partly Vekri Endpoint discovers coding agents, desktop and IDE AI apps, local models and their MCP servers on macOS and Linux, and its local MCP gateway decides each MCP tool call sent through it (Claude Code verified connecting; tool calls verified with an MCP client library). On macOS, a network gateway mediates MCP requests to approved remote servers, and agent control stops AI agents the organization has not allowed. Hooks observe built-in tools without blocking them; Windows is not supported. | Partly The open-source Leash runs coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex in containers on macOS or Linux and enforces Cedar policy on their file, network and MCP activity. Discovering agents already installed is not described. [9] [10] |
| Prompt and output inspection | Detects prompt injection or sensitive data in what models read and write. | Partly Tool results on Vekri Gateway and the local MCP gateway are inspected for prompt injection before the agent reads them; sensitive-data categories are detected on the device, off by default. Browsers and file uploads are not inspected. | Not in public docs Inspecting prompts or tool output is not described in the public documentation. |
| Systems covered | Which systems, platforms or agents the product works with. | Kubernetes and GitHub, with GitLab, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Slack, Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp, monday.com, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zendesk, Freshdesk and custom OpenAPI connectors in preview. | Databases, Linux and Windows servers, Kubernetes, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, web applications and remote MCP servers over streamable HTTP, used from Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, Copilot and Kiro. |
| Deployment | How the product is delivered. | In Vekri's cloud, or self-hosted in your Kubernetes cluster with no connection to Vekri. | Nodes (gateways, relays or proxy clusters) run in your infrastructure and proxy traffic to resources, and people connect with the StrongDM desktop app or CLI. The MCP Gateway is part of the Secure AI offering, and Cedar policies need the Enterprise plan. |
Every agent tool call is allowed or denied before it reaches the protected system.
An agent running as a workload proves who it is with a credential the platform issued, not a shared key.
Agents that employees run sign in as that employee, through the company identity provider.
What an agent may do is set per task by the server, not by the agent or its prompt.
Decisions come from versioned policy, and anything not allowed is refused.
A person approves one specific operation, and the approval cannot be reused for another.
Secrets for the protected system stay out of the agent's reach.
Each call leaves a durable record of what was decided and what happened.
Finds AI coding agents and other AI applications on employee devices, and watches or controls what they do there.
Detects prompt injection or sensitive data in what models read and write.
Which systems, platforms or agents the product works with.
How the product is delivered.
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