Compare

CockroachDB vs Fauna

CockroachDB scores higher on the AgentReady, 51/100 against 20/100. They differ on 16 of the 41 signals. Which ones decides whether an agent can adopt them without a person watching.

What each one is

CockroachDB. CockroachDB is a cloud-agnostic, PostgreSQL compatible database built for modern applications delivering unmatched uptime, scale and compliance anywhere in the world.

Fauna. Fauna is a distributed serverless database that combines document flexibility with relational power, automatic scaling, and zero operational overhead.

Where CockroachDB is ahead

CockroachDB passes clear canonical domain, clear product positioning, public docs discoverable, llms.txt published, llms-full.txt / full agent docs, mcp discoverable and machine-readable metadata, and Fauna does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.

It also holds adopt: self-service signup, no mandatory sales call, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, cli available and mcp integration available. Fauna misses those.

And on operate, canonical workflow succeeds. Fauna misses it.

Where Fauna is ahead

Fauna passes search discoverable, and CockroachDB does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.

It also holds adopt: official python sdk. CockroachDB misses it.

What neither does

Both fail structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, observable execution, agent compatibility verified. If your agent needs any of those, you will be building it yourself either way.

Score, pillar by pillar

The AgentReady splits into four pillars, scored separately, because a product can be easy to find and still impossible to adopt.

Discover is whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists. CockroachDB leads 87 to 33. CockroachDB misses search discoverable; Fauna misses clear canonical domain, clear product positioning, public docs discoverable, llms.txt published, llms-full.txt / full agent docs, mcp discoverable, machine-readable metadata.

Understand. Both sit at 23/100 here. CockroachDB misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented; Fauna misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented.

Adopt. CockroachDB leads 71 to 25. CockroachDB misses agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, official python sdk; Fauna misses self-service signup, no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, cli available, mcp integration available.

Operate. CockroachDB leads 24 to 0. CockroachDB misses structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, observable execution, agent compatibility verified; Fauna misses canonical workflow succeeds, structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, observable execution, agent compatibility verified.

Pricing

CockroachDB does not publish a machine-readable starting price and has a free tier. Fauna starts at $150/mo with no free tier.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

CockroachDB clears more of the signals an agent needs, so it is the safer default for unattended use. Full profiles: CockroachDB and Fauna. Alternatives to each: CockroachDB, Fauna.

An agent can fetch this as data: POST /v1/compare {"slugs": ["cockroachlabs", "fauna"]}