# AX Check: bonsai.io
Checked 2026-09-26.

Bonsai's pricing is clear, but its agent docs are basically missing.
No documentation index or quickstart page was reachable at all, though the pricing page states plan tiers, limits, and costs in plain text.

## End-to-end onboarding not demonstrated

## Coding sessions
Of three independent sessions, one did not complete and produced no pricing statement. The other two, Kimi K3 and Qwen 3.8 Max, both fetched the pricing page directly and reported matching tier prices and plan assumptions (Staging around $15 up to Enterprise $5,500+), without needing a login.

### DeepSeek V4 Pro
[View public run](https://agents.withgauge.com/p/runs/747c3108-400c-4e37-a858-2185258bdedb) · [Read transcript](https://www.ax-check.com/bonsai.io/sessions/deepseek.json)
No final output captured and no trace content — no pricing statement exists anywhere in the run.
#### End-to-end onboarding
- **End-to-end onboarding not demonstrated**: The transcript provided contains only a single run_meta event describing session configuration (model, sandbox, harness). No actual agent actions, tool calls, credential retrieval, or product operations are present in the supplied data, so onboarding cannot be verified or shown to require login.
  Event 0:

  ```text
  Help me build a simple example using Bonsai. Tell me how pricing works, and briefly tell me whether this product will be easy for you to manage.
  ```

#### Hallucinated URLs
None identified in this transcript.

#### Blockers
- **No transcript content beyond session setup**: Only the initial run_meta configuration event was supplied; there are no subsequent events showing the agent researching Bonsai, calling any API, or hitting errors. This is a limitation of the data provided to this analysis, not a demonstrated product or agent issue.
  Event 0:

  ```text
  Help me build a simple example using Bonsai. Tell me how pricing works, and briefly tell me whether this product will be easy for you to manage. Let me know if you get blocked.
  ```

#### Suggested Changes
None identified in this transcript.

### Kimi K3
[View public run](https://agents.withgauge.com/p/runs/6cf72644-a462-4106-9478-7c1d168282c0) · [Read transcript](https://www.ax-check.com/bonsai.io/sessions/kimi.json)
seq 13-15 show a real curl fetch of bonsai.io/pricing, and the final pricing table (seq 35) names concrete plan-tier assumptions (Staging $15 w/ 1GB storage & 256MB mem, Standard $20-400 w/ specific storage/RAM/doc limits, Business/Enterprise SLAs).
#### End-to-end onboarding
- **End-to-end onboarding not demonstrated**: The agent never obtained real Bonsai credentials or exercised an authenticated Bonsai operation. It only reached the public marketing/pricing pages, wrote local example code, and confirmed the script exits with an error when no BONSAI_URL is set. No signup, API key retrieval, or live cluster call occurred.
  Event 23:

  ```text
  provisioning a Bonsai cluster requires an interactive account signup (dashboard, or a Heroku/Manifold add-on) — there's no anonymous API to create one, so I'll build a complete, ready-to-run example and wire it to fail gracefully until a `BONSAI_URL` is provided.
  ```
  Event 33:

  ```text
  BONSAI_URL is not set.
  Provision a cluster at https://app.bonsai.io, then:
    export BONSAI_URL="https://<key>:<secret>@<host>.bonsaisearch.net:443"
  exit=2
  ```

#### Hallucinated URLs
None identified in this transcript.

#### Blockers
- **No self-service way to provision a Bonsai cluster**: Bonsai has no anonymous/API-based cluster provisioning; account creation requires an interactive dashboard signup (or a Heroku/Manifold add-on). This is normal product behavior (auth/account gating), not an agent error, and it prevented any authenticated operation against a live cluster.
  Event 23:

  ```text
  provisioning a Bonsai cluster requires an interactive account signup (dashboard, or a Heroku/Manifold add-on) — there's no anonymous API to create one
  ```

#### Suggested Changes
- **Add a documented API-based cluster provisioning path**: Bonsai currently requires interactive signup at app.bonsai.io to create a cluster and obtain credentials, which blocked the agent from completing an end-to-end example. If a scripted/API-driven cluster creation flow (e.g., via a CLI or partner API key) exists or is added, document it on the pricing or docs page so self-service developer workflows can complete without a human in the loop. Verify by having a fresh session create a cluster and run an authenticated index/search call without manual dashboard steps.
  Event 23:

  ```text
  provisioning a Bonsai cluster requires an interactive account signup (dashboard, or a Heroku/Manifold add-on) — there's no anonymous API to create one
  ```

### Qwen 3.8 Max
[View public run](https://agents.withgauge.com/p/runs/5d00184f-ca1e-44fc-b272-f285ad4b7f95) · [Read transcript](https://www.ax-check.com/bonsai.io/sessions/qwen.json)
README.md pricing section lists tier prices (Staging $15 to Oak $400, Business $600-2500, Enterprise $5500+) with explicit assumptions (storage/RAM/doc-count basis, flat monthly billing, Heroku hourly free-tier caveat) scraped live from bonsai.io/pricing at seq 21/28/62.
#### End-to-end onboarding
- **End-to-end onboarding not demonstrated**: The agent never obtained real Bonsai product credentials. It only had a pre-existing PI_GATEWAY_API_KEY unrelated to Bonsai. It probed api.bonsai.io unauthenticated (401) and with a deliberately bogus token (401), confirming it lacked a real API token and never signed up. It built a local dry-run client and demo script that never sent a live authenticated request against Bonsai's hosted API/cluster, so no authenticated product operation was demonstrated.
  Event 41:

  ```text
  HTTP/2 401 
  cache-control: no-cache
  content-type: application/json; charset=utf-8
  ```
  Event 89:

  ```text
  blocked: 401 Unauthorized for GET https://api.bonsai.io/plans: {"errors":["Unauthorized access"],"status":401}
  ```
  Event 103:

  ```text
  I can't run the live path: `api.bonsai.io` returns 401 without an API token, and provisioning needs an app.bonsai.io signup plus a paid tier (or a Heroku account for the free Sandbox). I won't create accounts or spend money.
  ```

#### Hallucinated URLs
None identified in this transcript.

#### Blockers
- **No self-service path to a live Bonsai cluster without signup/payment**: Provisioning a real cluster requires an app.bonsai.io account and a paid tier (cheapest direct tier $15/mo) or a Heroku account for the free Sandbox plan. This is normal product behavior (account + billing gate), not a bug, and the agent correctly declined to create accounts or spend money, stopping at a dry-run/mocked example instead of a live authenticated call.
  Event 41:

  ```text
  {"errors":["Unauthorized access"]}
  ```
  Event 103:

  ```text
  provisioning needs an app.bonsai.io signup plus a paid tier (or a Heroku account for the free Sandbox). I won't create accounts or spend money.
  ```
- **API reference pages render via JavaScript, blocking static scraping**: Fetching https://bonsai.io/docs/api/authentication/, /endpoints/, and /reference/ via curl returned only the site chrome (nav/footer) with no endpoint-specific content, because the docs pages are JS-rendered. This is a test-environment limitation (no JS execution in curl) rather than a product defect, but it forced the agent to infer the POST /clusters request schema instead of confirming it from docs.
  Event 58:

  ```text
  ########## endpoints
  Bonsai-logo
  About
  Vector
  Search
  Enterprise
  Pricing
  ...
  ```
  Event 103:

  ```text
  the API reference pages are JS-rendered, so my `POST /clusters` body shape is inferred and may need field-name fixes.
  ```

#### Suggested Changes
- **Add a curl-friendly (server-rendered) copy of the API reference**: The pages at bonsai.io/docs/api/authentication/, /endpoints/, and /reference/ return only nav/footer boilerplate when fetched without JS execution, so command-line tools and simple scrapers can't read endpoint schemas. Publish a static HTML or Markdown mirror of the endpoint/schema docs and verify by running curl against the page and confirming the response body contains the actual endpoint documentation, not just site chrome.
  Event 58:

  ```text
  ########## endpoints
  Bonsai-logo
  About
  Vector
  Search
  Enterprise
  Pricing
  ...
  ```
- **Reconcile the 'free tier, no credit card' claim on bonsai.io with the $15/mo minimum on the pricing page**: The homepage schema.org metadata states a free tier with no credit card required, while the direct pricing table's cheapest listed tier is Staging at $15/mo, with the only $0 option being the Heroku add-on Sandbox plan. Update the homepage claim or clarify it refers specifically to the Heroku Sandbox add-on, and verify by checking that bonsai.io and bonsai.io/pricing show consistent free-tier language.
  Event 17:

  ```text
  "description": "Free tier available, no credit card required"
  ```
  Event 30:

  ```text
  Staging $15 1 GB 256 MB 100k 1x / 1x Create Cluster
  ```
  Event 62:

  ```text
  Sandbox
  Free
  Staging
  ~$0.021/hour
  (Max of $15/month)
  ```

### Task given to each agent
Help me build a simple example using Bonsai. Tell me how pricing works, and briefly tell me whether this product will be easy for you to manage. Let me know if you get blocked. If this product has no developer workflow you can act on, say so plainly and stop. Stay light: use the hosted product through its SDK or API. Do not start local service stacks or wait for long-running commands; if the quickstart requires either, say so plainly and stop.

No product credentials were supplied and no purchases were authorized.

## Score: D · 29/100 (provisional)
Grades come from completed site checks. Coding sessions and skipped checks do not affect the score.

### Clarity
- **Failed** — Homepage answers Markdown requests

  ```text
  Homepage returned text/html for a Markdown Accept header; no Markdown representation offered.
  ```

- **Failed** — llms.txt provides an actionable documentation index

  ```text
  https://bonsai.io/llms.txt returns HTTP 404, so no documentation index exists.
  ```

- **Skipped** — llms.txt provides navigation guidance

  ```text
  llms.txt is 404, so no navigation guidance content exists to assess.
  ```

- **Skipped** — llms.txt mentions offered API, MCP, and skills

  ```text
  llms.txt is 404, so no API/MCP/skills mentions exist to assess.
  ```

- **Skipped** — A compact guide representation exists

  ```text
  No site-published compact guide or Markdown representation was fetched; homepage Markdown unsupported.
  ```

- **Skipped** — A focused guide is directly retrievable

  ```text
  No focused guide page was fetched; only homepage, 404 and signup pages supplied.
  ```

- **Skipped** — Equivalent instructions fit a token budget

  ```text
  No compact guide was retrieved, so token budget cannot be measured.
  ```

- **Skipped** — Product-docs links survive format changes

  ```text
  Homepage Markdown unsupported, so link preservation across formats cannot be judged.
  ```

- **Skipped** — The compact guide is independently actionable

  ```text
  No compact agent guide or standalone Markdown page was fetched for Bonsai.
  ```

- **Pass** — Install and next-step links resolve

  ```text
  Signup link from docs resolves; app.bonsai.io/signup returns 200 with a working signup form.
  ```


### Onboarding
- **Skipped** — Docs lead to a relevant quickstart

  ```text
  No docs or quickstart page was fetched; only a signup page and a 404 llms.txt.
  ```

- **Skipped** — Installation commands are extractable

  ```text
  No installation or CLI guide was fetched for Bonsai.
  ```

- **Skipped** — Code examples are available without interaction

  ```text
  No documentation page with code examples was fetched.
  ```

- **Skipped** — Prerequisites and auth boundaries are explicit

  ```text
  Signup page shows email/password and Google auth but no API key guidance.
  ```


### Pricing
- **Pass** — Pricing is readable without interaction

  ```text
  Pricing page renders plan tiers and a full comparison table as static text, no interaction needed.
  ```

- **Pass** — Prices are stated, not gated

  ```text
  Prices stated: Standard $25–$400/mo, Business $600–$2,500/mo, Enterprise from $5,500/mo.
  ```

- **Pass** — Pricing units and limits are explicit

  ```text
  Table lists per-plan storage, memory, document limits and read/write concurrency.
  ```

- **Pass** — Agents identify pricing and its assumptions

  ```text
  2 of 3 sessions were judged on pricing; 0 fell short. Kimi K3: seq 13-15 show a real curl fetch of bonsai.io/pricing, and the final pricing table (seq 35) names concrete plan-tier assumptions (Staging $15 w/ 1GB storage & 256MB mem, Standard $20-400 w/ specific storage/RAM/doc limits, Business/Enterprise SLAs). Qwen 3.8 Max: README.md pricing section lists tier prices (Staging $15 to Oak $400, Business $600-2500, Enterprise $5500+) with explicit assumptions (storage/RAM/doc-count basis, flat monthly billing, Heroku hourly free-tier caveat) scraped live from bonsai.io/pricing at seq 21/28/62. This behavioural item does not affect the fast grade.
  ```


### Activation
- **Skipped** — An API reference or OpenAPI spec is reachable

  ```text
  No API reference or OpenAPI spec was fetched; docs page not supplied.
  ```

- **Skipped** — An MCP server is documented and well-formed

  ```text
  No MCP server documentation appears in the fetched evidence.
  ```

- **Skipped** — A CLI install path is documented

  ```text
  No CLI install path is documented in the fetched pages.
  ```

- **Skipped** — SDK packages resolve on their registries

  ```text
  No SDK or package registry lookup was supplied for Bonsai.
  ```

- **Skipped** — Agent skills are published

  ```text
  No agent skills are published in the fetched evidence.
  ```



[Full report data](https://www.ax-check.com/bonsai.io/report.json)