State of Agent Readiness 2026
Access is the step where a person is most often needed, appearing on 86 of 105 report cards. On cards for products listing an MCP server, 29% are graded A or better, against 1% without one. Only 3 cards, or 3%, need no person at any step.
release sha256:d98e25459185…as of 26 Oct 2026cite this version
- jobs an agent can do with at most one light step from a person
- 12 of 105
- need a person to sign up and hand over a key before the agent can act
- 86
- of the best-graded jobs run through an MCP server
- 11 of 12
- jobs where the agent can tell a failure from a success
- 97
Who does each step
A person most often has to handle Access, stepping in on 86 of the 105 cards. At Confirm, the agent did the work alone on 97 cards, while a person stepped in on 7 cards. At Pay, the step was not needed on 60 cards, while a person handled it on 43 cards.
Agent aloneAccount holder approvesA person does itVendor decidesNot needed
Data
| Step | Question | Agent alone | Approves | Person | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discover | Can an agent find the interface and a description of the job? | 86 | 0 | 18 | 0 |
| Access | What does the request need: nothing, consent, or a key a person hands over? | 2 | 15 | 86 | 0 |
| Onboard | Can the agent register itself, or does a person sign up for it? | 13 | 2 | 77 | 11 |
| Pay | Can it pay as it goes, or does a person put a card on file? | 1 | 0 | 43 | 0 |
| Confirm | Can it tell a failure from a success? | 97 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Sustain | Can it keep its access alive and revoke it on its own? | 32 | 0 | 71 | 0 |
Where a person is first needed
Access is the first step where a person takes part on 83 cards, or 79% of them. No step needs a person on 3 cards, which is 3% of the total. A person first takes part at Discover on 18 cards, and at Onboard on 1 card.
Grades
The most common grade is B+ on 39 report cards, captioned "A person signs up and hands over a key". Grade B follows on 35 report cards, captioned "A card on file". Only 2 report cards are graded A+, captioned "No person needed".
- 2A+
- 10A
- 39B+
- 35B
- 7C
- 11D
- 1F
What each grade means
| Grade | Jobs | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| A+ | 2 | No person needed |
| A | 10 | One light, one-time step |
| B+ | 39 | A person signs up and hands over a key |
| B | 35 | A card on file |
| C | 7 | A person again and again |
| D | 11 | The vendor decides |
| F | 1 | No machine interface |
MCP servers and grades
Report cards for products with an MCP server have 29% graded A or better, against 1% for products without one. Of the 12 cards graded A or better, 11 list an MCP server, which is 92%.
A+AB+ to CDF
Grades by category
Among categories with at least 3 report cards, "Payments and fintech" ranks first with 2 of 3 cards graded A or better, or 67%. "Databases" ranks second with 3 of 10 cards graded A or better, or 30%. Six categories with at least 3 cards have none graded A or better: "Authentication and security", "CRM and sales", "Finance and accounting", "Marketing", "Observability", and "Customer support".
| Category | A+ | A | B+ | B | C | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting and infrastructure16 | 1 | · | 3 | 12 | · | · | · |
| AI and machine learning11 | 1 | · | 2 | 7 | 1 | · | · |
| Databases10 | · | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | · | · |
| Communication9 | · | 1 | 3 | 4 | · | 1 | · |
| Developer tools8 | · | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | · | · |
| Observability7 | · | · | 4 | 2 | · | 1 | · |
| Productivity6 | · | 1 | 5 | · | · | · | · |
| Authentication and security5 | · | · | 3 | · | 1 | 1 | · |
| Data and analytics5 | · | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | · | · |
| No-code tools4 | · | 1 | 2 | · | · | 1 | · |
| Customer support4 | · | · | · | 3 | 1 | · | · |
| CRM and sales3 | · | · | 2 | · | · | 1 | · |
| Finance and accounting3 | · | · | · | 2 | · | 1 | · |
| Marketing3 | · | · | · | 1 | · | 2 | · |
| Payments and fintech3 | · | 2 | 1 | · | · | · | · |
| Banking2 | · | · | · | · | · | 2 | · |
| CI/CD2 | · | · | 1 | · | 1 | · | · |
| Design2 | · | · | 1 | · | · | · | 1 |
| Legal and compliance1 | · | · | · | · | · | 1 | · |
| Other1 | · | · | · | 1 | · | · | · |
Jobs graded A or A+
The two products graded A+ are Frantic bounty board, for the job "Claim a bounty", and Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 Public DNS, for the job "Resolve a name". The ten products graded A are PostHog Feature Flags, Notion API, Resend Email API, Stripe Payments API, Neon API, MongoDB Atlas Administration API, Upstash Redis, Polar Checkout Links, Sanity Content Lake, and Webflow CMS.
Frantic bounty board
Claim a bounty
A+
To claim a bounty, an agent needs no person.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Machine The vendor lets the agent get its own credential with no person.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 Public DNS
Resolve a name
A+
To look up a domain, an agent needs no person.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Not applicable The job's request needs no account.
- Onboard Not applicable No account needed.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Not applicable No access to renew or revoke.
PostHog Feature Flags
Create a feature flag
A
To create a feature flag, an agent needs a person to decide once at Onboard.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Machine The vendor lets the agent get its own credential with no person.
- Onboard Approval · setup The agent gets in with no person, and a person claims what it made, confirms its registration, or turns on its access, once.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Notion API
Create a page
A
To create a page, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Resend Email API
Send an email
A
To send an email, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Stripe Payments API
Create a payment link
A
To create a payment link, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Neon API
Create a database deployment
A
To create a database deployment, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
MongoDB Atlas Administration API
Create a database deployment
A
To create a database deployment, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Upstash Redis
Create a database deployment
A
To create a database deployment, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Polar Checkout Links
Create a payment link
A
To create a payment link, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Sanity Content Lake
Create a content entry
A
To create a content entry, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Webflow CMS
Create a content entry
A
To create a content entry, an agent needs a person to decide once at Access.
- Discover Machine The vendor's machine-readable docs show the agent where and how to call this job.
- Access Approval · setup You consent once to the agent's own client.
- Onboard Machine The agent can register itself with no person.
- Pay Not applicable Nothing to pay for the job.
- Confirm Machine The response or specification defines errors the agent can distinguish from success.
- Sustain Machine The agent can renew and revoke its own access.
Method and data
Each card binds one product to one job from Sourcey's job library, so a vendor cannot choose an easier job and cards in a category compare. Sourcey's agent sends the job's declared request with no key, follows the authorisation metadata it is given, and stops at any sign-in or consent. It never completes a sign-in or registers an account.
Each step records who has to do it, and the grade comes from the heaviest kind of person step on the job. Grades are ordinal and never averaged. The services are the ones Sourcey lists, not a random sample, so every figure is of the jobs assessed.
- Release
- sha256:d98e25459185…
- Evidence
- Probed (105)
- Policies
- kind-2026-10-12.2 (85), kind-2026-10-12 (20)