Is numbat free?
Yes. numbat launched on July 29, 2026 under the Apache 2.0 licence and is free to use, with contributions to the NVIDIA-backed Open Secure AI Alliance.
Beam vs PERPLEXITY
Beam vs numbat
numbat is the closest comparison to Beam and, on core monitoring, the more capable and more mature product: it is free, Apache-2.0, backed by NVIDIA and the Open Secure AI Alliance, and it offers opt-in blocking that Beam does not have. Beam differs by scanning skill files and MCP configurations before you run them, and by keeping everything local with credentials redacted. Beam also imports numbat's records, so they interoperate.
Beam vs numbat, 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 | numbat (Perplexity) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Local-first activity monitor and pre-run scanner for AI coding agents. Early prototype. | Open-source local monitor for coding agents, with forensic session replay. |
| 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. | Shell, file, network, MCP and tool events from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, OpenCode and Pi, collected via local hooks, OTLP/HTTP logs and on-disk session artifacts. Reconstructs past sessions forensically. |
| 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. | Not a dedicated pre-run skill scanner. MCP and tool activity is captured as events and matched against 52 detection rules covering categories such as secret access and data exfiltration. |
| Blocking / enforcement | No. Beam observes and flags. It never allows or denies an action. | Yes, opt-in. Monitor-only is the default. |
| Individual use | Runs locally for one person on one machine. Shared teams, fleet rollout and approvals are not built yet. | Free and self-hosted for anyone, with no paid tier to reach. |
| Deployment | A local collector plus a local interface. No MDM package, no central console, no SSO, no SOC 2, no SIEM forwarding. | A single Go binary. Also deployed to fleets through MDM. |
| Source / licence | Not open source today. | Apache 2.0, contributed to the Open Secure AI Alliance. |
| Pricing | Not published. | Free. |
numbat in numbers
As reported in our source research. Some figures are estimates.
- Launched
- July 29, 2026
- Licence
- Apache 2.0
- Detection rules
- 52 rules across 11 behaviour categories, written as Common Expression Language expressions
- Backing
- NVIDIA and the Open Secure AI Alliance
- Traction
- About 961 GitHub stars in its first six weeks; star counts move quickly
Where numbat does more
- It is free and open source under Apache 2.0, with backing from NVIDIA and the Open Secure AI Alliance. Beam is neither free-and-open nor similarly backed.
- It ships opt-in pre-action blocking. Beam has none, so numbat can stop an action Beam can only record.
- Broad harness coverage plus forensic replay of past sessions, from a single Go binary.
Where Beam differs
- Beam scans a SKILL.md or mcp.json before you run it, as its own step, rather than only classifying events after an agent acts.
- Beam stores everything locally, redacts known credential formats before writing, and sends no cloud telemetry by default.
- Beam imports numbat's normalised event and finding records, so the two can run together rather than instead of each other.
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 want a free, self-hosted monitor today and are happy to run and maintain it, numbat is a genuinely strong choice and we would not argue otherwise. Beam is worth a look if pre-run skill and MCP scanning is the part you care about, or if you want Beam's timeline alongside numbat's records.
FAQ
Can numbat block a dangerous command when Beam cannot?
Yes. numbat offers opt-in pre-action blocking, though it runs monitor-only by default. Beam v1 has no blocking at all — it observes and flags.
Can I run Beam and numbat together?
Yes. Beam imports numbat's normalised event and finding records, so numbat can do the collection while Beam adds its skill and MCP scan reports.
See how Beam works
Beam is an early, local-first prototype. Read what it actually does today before comparing it further.