CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Bay vs Knostic

Bay is an AI agent security platform that gives enterprises visibility into every agent across devices, browsers and cloud workloads, and control over what those agents do in real time. Knostic discovers and secures agents, coding assistants, and their supply chain, from MCP to skills and Code to Cowork. CISO Tribune files both under AI model and agent security. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Bay
  • Knostic
Bay vs Knostic: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
BayBay is an AI agent security platform that gives enterprises visibility into every agent across devices, browsers and cloud workloads, and control over what those agents do in real time.bay.ioKnosticKnostic discovers and secures agents, coding assistants, and their supply chain, from MCP to skills and Code to Cowork.knostic.ai
What it sells
  • Bay[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]Bay is an AI agent security platform covering agents on devices, in browsers and in cloud workloads. Bay returns allow, ask, steer or block decisions on agent actions at runtime.
  • Lighthouse[6]Lighthouse is Bay's embedded agentic system that drafts policy from an organization's own agent activity.
  • Wave[3]Wave is the ephemeral binary Bay uses to deploy through an existing MDM or EDR.
  • Kirin[4][5][6][7][11]Runs on the endpoint inside supported agents. Denies or blocks unsafe agent actions.
  • AgentMesh[4][5][6][7][11]Rates every skill, server, and extension.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesReston, United States[3]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2023[2][7]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[5]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • June 12, 2026Knostic was recognized in the Cloud Security Alliance's first Agentic AI Security Innovator Market Map.[10]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Not written yetFrom its own pages, the company sells mainly to developers and teams that use AI coding agents and IDEs, with plans written for individual developers, growing teams, and engineering managers. Its pages describe developers and business users who install agents, extensions, MCP servers, and skills from open ecosystems. It lists an inventory export described as a register of AI systems for compliance and risk reporting. Its stated support covers macOS and Windows.
Last verified
November 5, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • AI model and agent security is the primary category of both Bay and Knostic.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Bay is also filed under Endpoint management and application control and Workforce AI usage security. Knostic is also filed under AI governance.
  • Bay lists Bay, Lighthouse and Wave. Knostic lists Kirin and AgentMesh.
  • Knostic is headquartered in Reston, United States.
  • Knostic was founded in 2023.
  • Knostic is privately held.

How they differ

CISO Tribune files both Bay and Knostic under AI model and agent security as their primary category. Bay sells an AI agent security platform covering agents on devices, in browsers and in cloud workloads, and it returns allow, ask, steer or block decisions on agent actions at runtime. Knostic sells Kirin, which runs on the endpoint inside supported agents and denies or blocks unsafe agent actions, and AgentMesh, which rates every skill, server, and extension. CISO Tribune also files Bay under endpoint management and application control and workforce AI usage security, and files Knostic under AI governance.

Bay deploys with one script through an existing MDM, uses an ephemeral binary called Wave, and does not require a proxy. Bay also sells Lighthouse, which drafts policy from an organization's own agent activity, and Bay replays 30 days of agent history to show what a policy would do before enforcement. Knostic's Kirin deploys as an extension for Cursor and VS Code, and Knostic states support for macOS and Windows, with Linux in beta. Knostic's pages describe a focus on developers and teams that use AI coding agents and IDEs.

Bay describes itself as a Series A stage company, and its enterprise customers include Micron Technology, Peloton and ClickUp. Knostic is headquartered in Reston, United States, was founded in 2023, and is privately held. On June 12, 2026, Knostic was recognized in the Cloud Security Alliance's first Agentic AI Security Innovator Market Map.

What it sells: Bay

What Bay does[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
Bay maps every agent, MCP server, extension, model and skill on devices on its first scan. Bay builds a contextual entity graph of the users, MCP servers, SaaS apps and access connected to each agent. Bay deploys with one script through an existing MDM and does not require a proxy. Bay keeps full transcripts of prompts, actions and MCP calls.
What Lighthouse does[6]
Lighthouse drafts policy from an organization's own agent activity. Users answer 7 questions about risk appetite, and Lighthouse recommends a setting for each question and builds the policy. Bay replays 30 days of agent history to show what a policy would do before enforcement.
What Wave does[3]
Bay is agentless and deploys through an existing MDM or EDR using Wave, an ephemeral binary. There is no persistent agent to maintain and no proxy in the path.

What it sells: Knostic

What Kirin does[4][5][6][7][11]
Kirin runs on the endpoint inside supported agents and sees the tools, extensions, servers, and skills actually installed and used. Kirin denies a destructive command before it executes, tells the developer why, and logs a Prevented alert for the SOC. Kirin blocks the connection to an MCP server before it is established, after AgentMesh scans and rates the server. Kirin deploys as an extension for Cursor and VS Code.
What AgentMesh does[4][5][6][7][11]
AgentMesh rates every skill, server, and extension. AgentMesh scans MCP servers for prompt injection, malicious behaviour, and supply-chain risk. AgentMesh detects prompt injection in skills, MCP servers, and extensions before install. Every paid AgentMesh plan includes Kirin IDE security.

Questions about Bay and Knostic

What do Bay and Knostic sell?
Bay sells Bay, Lighthouse and Wave. Knostic sells Kirin and AgentMesh.
Are Bay and Knostic in the same category?
Yes. AI model and agent security is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are Bay and Knostic headquartered?
Knostic is headquartered in Reston, United States.
When were Bay and Knostic founded?
Knostic was founded in 2023.
Who owns Bay and Knostic?
Knostic is privately held.
Who are Bay and Knostic sold to?
From its own pages, the company sells mainly to developers and teams that use AI coding agents and IDEs, with plans written for individual developers, growing teams, and engineering managers.
What have Bay and Knostic announced recently?
June 12, 2026: Knostic was recognized in the Cloud Security Alliance's first Agentic AI Security Innovator Market Map.

About Bay

Bay is an AI agent security platform that gives enterprises visibility into every agent across devices, browsers and cloud workloads, and control over what those agents do in real time. Bay describes AI endpoint security as protection for the AI agents, coding assistants and MCP servers running on employee devices. Bay was founded by three engineers who spent their careers in endpoint and API security. Bay is a Series A stage company.[2][3]

Teams run agents like Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and GitHub Copilot in clusters, cloud workspaces and hosted sessions.[5]

Bay finds and maps agents first. On the first scan, Bay maps every agent, MCP server, extension, model and skill on devices, including ones nobody approved. Bay finds every agent, extension, CLI tool, MCP server, skill and model on employee devices. Bay builds a contextual entity graph of how everything connects: the user behind each agent, the MCP servers and SaaS apps it touches, and the access it holds. Bay scans every agent, package, extension, MCP server and skill for malicious indicators before approval. In the browser, Bay brings shadow AI into view, covering chatbots, extensions and embedded SaaS agents. In cloud environments, Bay discovers agents across virtual machines, Kubernetes, Coder workspaces and hosted sessions.[1][3][5][6][7]

Lighthouse, Bay's embedded agentic system, drafts policy from an organization's own agent activity. Users answer 7 questions about risk appetite, and Lighthouse recommends a setting for each question and builds the policy. Policies can be scoped by IdP group, device or runtime, and can set which MCP servers can read or write. Before enforcement, Bay replays 30 days of agent history to show what a policy would do before any user is affected. Bay also lets teams run any policy in simulation mode to see what it would allow, ask or block. At runtime, Bay enforces guardrails inline with the agentic action and returns allow, ask, steer or block in milliseconds. Bay can also prevent prompt injection attempts at runtime.[6]

Bay keeps records of agent activity. Bay keeps full transcripts of prompts, actions and MCP calls, traceable to the person behind each session. A metadata-only mode in Bay keeps prompts on the device when they must not leave it. Bay ties every prompt and agent action to a real identity, corporate or personal. Bay logs every policy change and agent action with who approved it and whether a person or an agent took it. Every decision in Bay is logged against the policy behind it, ready for auditors. Bay connects to an identity provider, so every policy applies to the right people and groups.[5][6][7][8]

Bay also checks configuration. Bay checks how every agent and AI tool is set up, across devices and cloud workloads, so risky settings can be fixed before an agent puts them to use. Bay spots bypass-permissions mode, sandboxes switched off and unrestricted tool access, rates how serious each one is and shows how to fix it. Bay finds the credentials, tokens and secrets that agents and MCP servers can read.[9]

Bay deploys with one script through an existing MDM and does not require a proxy to route traffic through. Bay deploys through an existing MDM or EDR using Wave, an ephemeral binary, so there is no persistent agent to maintain. Bay tells corporate AI accounts from personal ones, including in personal Chrome profiles. Bay's enterprise customers include Micron Technology, Peloton and ClickUp.[1][2][3][6][7][8]

Bay on the record

Sources

Bay full record

  1. [1]bay.ioBay · bay.io · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Security Researcher — Careers at BayBay · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]AI Endpoint Security — BayBay · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]About — BayBay · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cloud Workspaces — BayBay · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Platform — BayBay · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Browser — BayBay · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AI Governance & Compliance — BayBay · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Security Posture — BayBay · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

Knostic full record

  1. [1]Knostic - The control plane for agentic AI on the endpointKnostic · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Ending llm oversharing we raised 11 million to secure enterprise aiKnostic · knostic.ai · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Rsac 2025 innovation sandbox knostic reshaping the access control paradigm for enterprise ai securitySecurity Boulevard · securityboulevard.com · published April 25, 2025 · Tier B
  4. [4]Shadow AI Discovery & Governance - KnosticKnostic · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Pricing - KnosticKnostic · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Agent Security - KnosticKnostic · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]MCP Security Posture Management - KnosticKnostic · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Terms of Service - KnosticKnostic · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Knostic Knostic Trust Center | Powered by SafeBaseKnostic · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Knostic Featured Across Three Categories in CSA's Agentic AI Security Innovator Market MapKnostic · published June 12, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Prompt Injection Defense - KnosticKnostic · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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