Layer L7
Middleware
The plumbing between models and applications.
Vector DBs, agent frameworks & MCP, eval & observability, AI gateways, data+AI platforms
Topics in this layer
AI Agent Frameworks & MCP
LangChain, CrewAI, LlamaIndex, MCP: the orchestration layer wiring models to tools, memory, and data.
Vector Databases
Pinecone vs Weaviate vs Qdrant vs Chroma: the retrieval layer every RAG and agent stack is built on.
AI Eval & Observability
LangSmith, Arize, Langfuse, Braintrust: shipping agents to production needs eval + tracing.
AI Gateways & LLM Routing
OpenRouter, LiteLLM, Portkey: the FinOps + routing layer controlling inference spend.
Agent Memory
Stateful, temporal memory for AI agents — a category now distinct from vector-DB retrieval.
Agent Runtime & Sandbox
Secure, ephemeral compute for AI agents to run code, tools, and browsers.
Agent Security & Governance
Securing and governing AI agents — identity, guardrails, and red-teaming as agents gain autonomy.
Companies (30)
Ranked leaderboard →Ranked suppliers for Middleware
Companies grouped by what they build, with the latest verified signal per company.
View the L7 leaderboard →Engineering reference, not investment advice.