What are the trade-offs between using Catalyst vs building on Dapr directly for agent workflows?

Building on Dapr directly gives you full control over workflow configuration, but requires you to integrate agent runners, workload identity, MCP tool policies, and verifiable execution yourself. Catalyst provides these as managed features, reducing engineering effort. Dapr is open-source and free, while Catalyst is a paid managed service. If your team has deep Dapr expertise and needs custom agent integration, building on Dapr may be viable. For faster production deployment with less custom work, Catalyst is better.