A curated, verified, cross-vendor directory of AI agent harnesses — the runtime scaffolding that turns a model into an agent.
◆ 74 harnesses profiled · 9-axis capability schema · last verified 2026-07-08
MIT-licensed self-hosted personal AI assistant ('the lobster way') that exploded to ~382k GitHub stars in months: any model, 20+ messaging channels (WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/iMessage...), SKILL.md skills via ClawHub, Docker-sandboxed sessions, cron jobs, voice, and a live Canvas.
Nous Research's MIT-licensed 'self-improving' server-resident agent (Feb 2026, ~211k stars): model-agnostic with persistent cross-session memory, autonomous skill creation compatible with the agentskills.io standard, DSPy/GEPA evolutionary self-optimization, and execution backends from local/Docker to Modal and Daytona.
Kilo's open-source terminal agent (Kilo CLI 1.0, built on the MIT-licensed OpenCode foundation) distinguished by support for 500+ models with zero-markup BYOK pricing, an MCP marketplace, and cross-surface continuity where a task can move between Slack, VS Code/JetBrains, cloud, and terminal.
MIT-licensed open agent harness from HKU's Data Intelligence Lab (agent loop, tool registry, permission system, hooks, skills, plugins, MCP, React TUI, automatic context compression) built for clarity and Claude-style workflow compatibility, shipping with 'Ohmo', a built-in personal agent that runs on existing Claude Code/Codex subscriptions and works via Feishu/Slack/Telegram/Discord, autonomously branching, coding, testing, and opening PRs.
Factory AI's agent-native development platform whose Droid CLI held top Terminal-Bench rankings (77.3% with GPT-5.3-Codex, Feb 2026), distinguished by deploying agents across CLI, IDEs, Slack, and Linear with broad multi-vendor model support including Chinese open-weight models; raised $150M at $1.5B in April 2026.
OpenAI's delegation-first coding agent whose cloud mode runs each task in an isolated no-internet-by-default sandbox with the repo cloned, opens PRs, does automatic PR code review on GitHub and takes tasks from ChatGPT/Slack, bundled into ChatGPT Plus/Pro/Business with rolling credit-based billing since April 2026 (the CLI companion is open source, the cloud service is not).
Enterprise-focused 'Droids' platform ($1.5B valuation after April 2026 Series C): autonomous agents that execute refactors, migrations and incident investigations end-to-end across CLI, desktop, SDK and remote 'Droid Computers' cloud workloads, with both local and cloud background agents on the $20 Pro tier and adoption at Nvidia, Adobe, Morgan Stanley and MongoDB; notably model-agnostic across frontier providers.
Anthropic's non-technical desktop agent built on the Claude Code harness (no terminal required) that works over local folders, browsers (Claude in Chrome), and full computer use, with MCP connectors, Agent Skills, and plugins — expanded to web and mobile in July 2026 with cloud-run sessions for Max subscribers.