WorkOS vs Ably
Side-by-side trajectory, velocity, and editorial themes.
WorkOS keeps shipping fine-grained identity primitives — for both humans and agents.
The cadence is steady and surgical: small, well-scoped releases across auth (user-scoped API keys, change-email API), authorization (FGA custom roles scoped to resource types, Groups API), admin operability (IT contacts, dashboard metadata editing), and directory enrichment. The recent MCP Auth resource-indicator support and a Node SDK feature-flags runtime client show the platform leaning toward agent/AI use cases and into developer tooling.
WorkOS is widening the identity surface in two directions at once. For humans, it's filling in long-tail B2B IAM gaps — granular API key scoping, self-serve email change, group-level org memberships, custom roles per resource. For agents, it's quietly building MCP Auth as a first-class control point. The two threads will meet at the application authorization layer, where the same FGA model can decide what a user or an agent is allowed to do.
Expect more MCP Auth surface area (token binding, scoped scopes, audit) and continued FGA depth — likely policy-language ergonomics or relationship-based filtering. Feature flags will likely gain server-side targeting and richer SDK coverage beyond Node.
Ably pivots its developer surface toward AI agents as first-class consumers
Ably's developer surface has been visibly pivoting toward AI agents over the last six weeks. The CLI hit v1.0 with structured JSON output envelopes, hint fields for self-healing agents, and unified --force semantics. Two weeks later v1.1 added `ably init`, which installs the CLI plus Agent Skills bundles directly into Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code in one step. A new AI Transport SDK lands separately, with end-to-end tool-calling and React providers for the Vercel AI SDK.
Ably is building two integration stories in parallel — agents as CLI users (via Agent Skills) and agents as transport consumers (via the AI Transport SDK). Together they bracket the workflow: agents read live data through the SDK and operate Ably itself through the CLI. The traditional client-library stream (JS, Python, Laravel) continues at steady pace in the background, with LiveObjects formally graduating to GA on the protocol-6 update.
Expect the AI Transport SDK to add tool-call adapters for at least one more AI runtime beyond Vercel — most likely the OpenAI Agents SDK or Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK — and Agent Skills coverage to expand to additional AI clients (Cline, Aider, Continue). Watch for the LiveObjects API to surface inside the chat/AI surfaces.
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