Is Cisco's mcp-scanner free?
Yes. mcp-scanner is published under Apache 2.0. The AI Defense platform is a separate commercial product.
Beam vs CISCO
Beam vs AI Defense
Cisco offers AI Defense as an enterprise platform, built partly on its Robust Intelligence acquisition, and separately publishes mcp-scanner as a free Apache-2.0 MCP scanner. The scanner overlaps directly with part of what Beam does, at no cost. Beam's difference is pairing scanning with a local activity timeline, and covering skill files too.
Beam vs AI Defense, side by side
Details below are drawn from a September 2026 review of the AI agent security market. Some figures are vendor-sourced or analyst estimates, and this is a fast-moving space — check with each vendor before you buy.
| Beam | AI Defense (Cisco) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Local-first activity monitor and pre-run scanner for AI coding agents. Early prototype. | Enterprise AI security from Cisco, alongside the open-source mcp-scanner. |
| Monitoring | Shell commands, file changes, tool calls, network endpoints and browser actions from harnesses such as Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, normalised into local NDJSON with risk flags and evidence attached. | Enterprise AI defence, built partly on Cisco's Robust Intelligence acquisition. |
| Skill / MCP scanning | Yes. SKILL.md files and MCP configurations are scanned before you run them, using 11 heuristic patterns plus an MCP version-pin check. | Yes, through the separate open-source mcp-scanner, licensed Apache 2.0. |
| Blocking / enforcement | No. Beam observes and flags. It never allows or denies an action. | Protection is part of the AI Defense platform. |
| Individual use | Runs locally for one person on one machine. Shared teams, fleet rollout and approvals are not built yet. | mcp-scanner is free and open source for anyone. |
| Deployment | A local collector plus a local interface. No MDM package, no central console, no SSO, no SOC 2, no SIEM forwarding. | Enterprise deployment; mcp-scanner runs standalone. |
| Source / licence | Not open source today. | Commercial platform; the separate mcp-scanner is Apache 2.0. |
| Pricing | Not published. | Enterprise, no public price. mcp-scanner is free. |
AI Defense in numbers
As reported in our source research. Some figures are estimates.
- Built partly on
- Cisco's Robust Intelligence acquisition
- Open-source scanner
- mcp-scanner, Apache 2.0
Where AI Defense does more
- Publishes a free, Apache-2.0 MCP scanner alongside a commercial platform, so the scanning layer costs nothing.
- Enterprise AI defence with Cisco's distribution and the Robust Intelligence technology behind it.
- Protection at platform level rather than observation alone.
Where Beam differs
- Beam combines MCP and skill scanning with a running activity timeline in one local tool.
- Beam covers skill files as well as MCP configurations in the same scan.
- Beam requires no platform relationship to start.
Beam’s current gaps
- Beam observes and flags. It has no blocking or enforcement, so it cannot stop a destructive command.
- There is no MDM package, central console, SSO or SOC 2 report, so it is not ready for a managed fleet rollout.
- Scanning is heuristic pattern matching. It produces false positives, misses novel phrasing, and is not a guarantee of safety.
- Beam is early and has no published pricing. Every tool on this page is further along in at least one dimension.
Which one fits
If you just want to scan MCP servers, Cisco's mcp-scanner is free and open source and there is little reason not to use it. Beam is worth a look when you also want a record of what the agent actually did afterwards.
FAQ
What is Cisco AI Defense built on?
It draws partly on Cisco's acquisition of Robust Intelligence.
Does Beam's scanner do anything mcp-scanner does not?
Beam scans skill files as well as MCP configurations and shows results alongside a local activity timeline. Its 11 heuristic patterns are pattern matching, not semantic analysis, and will produce false positives.
See how Beam works
Beam is an early, local-first prototype. Read what it actually does today before comparing it further.