Runlayer and Rippling dropped their respective lawsuits on Wednesday night without a settlement, money changing hands or even lawyers’ fees, according to court documents seen by TechCrunch. Rippling immediately released its MCP gateway, the product at the center of the dispute and a competitor to Runlayer’s offering. Runlayer, an early-stage startup that emerged from stealth in November 2025, has raised $42 million from investors including Khosla Ventures’ Keith Rabois and Felicis. Its founder, Andrew Berman, previously founded Nanit and Vowel, an AI video conferencing company sold to Zapier in 2024. Runlayer said Rippling had tested its MCP gateway for more than a year before deciding to build a similar product, leading to a lawsuit over contractual agreements covering the tests. Rippling countersued, alleging patent violations. An MCP gateway (software that securely routes AI requests to company systems) retrieves enterprise data for AI agents without giving them direct access, while also supporting role-based access controls and observability. The dispute highlights how rapidly changing AI requirements can make lengthy enterprise evaluations risky for startups. Rippling has expanded from payroll and benefits management into AI gateways, offering model routing and employee-level token-spend dashboards, as well as AI security through role-based access. Runlayer’s broader pitch includes agent security services spanning agent creation and detection of shadow AI agents operating without IT knowledge.