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
Google's fully open-source (Apache-2.0) terminal agent with a generous free tier, distinguished by built-in Google Search grounding, an extensions ecosystem bundling prompts/MCP servers/commands, GEMINI.md context files, checkpointing, and real-time voice mode.
The dominant open-source VS Code agent (Apache-2.0, 64k+ stars, 1.5M+ installs): human-in-the-loop plan/act workflow with per-edit and per-command approval, terminal and browser control, an MCP marketplace, and a BYOK-first model with optional pay-as-you-go credits and an enterprise tier.
The veteran model-agnostic IDE extension (VS Code + JetBrains, strong local-model support) that pivoted to 'Continuous AI' — a cn CLI running markdown-defined async agents as GitHub PR status checks — before being acquired by Cursor in 2026, with the original team shipping a final v2.0.0 (telemetry and auth removed).
Alibaba's Apache-2.0 terminal agent (originally a Gemini CLI fork) optimized for Qwen3-Coder models, distinguished by broad provider flexibility (OpenAI/Anthropic/Gemini/Qwen APIs plus Ollama/vLLM local models), skills/subagents primitives, headless mode, and TypeScript/Python/Java SDKs.
The Cline/Roo merger-fork turned all-in-one agentic platform (~26k stars, 3M+ users): IDE extension, CLI, and hosted KiloClaw background agent reachable via Telegram/Discord/Slack, with 500+ models, mid-task model switching, an MCP marketplace, subagents (GA April 2026), and optional Kilo Pass credits from $19/mo.
An early (2023-era) open-source background agent that turned labeled GitHub issues into pull requests by planning, coding and opening a PR asynchronously; the original bot is effectively sunset — the repo README redirects to the company's pivot into a proprietary JetBrains AI plugin (autocomplete + in-IDE agent, $10-60/mo) using Sweep's own LLMs, so the background-agent product itself is legacy.
Copilot's agent mode inside VS Code (extension itself MIT open-sourced; backend service proprietary) iterates on errors, runs tools/terminal, and applies multi-file edits, distinguished by deep GitHub-ecosystem reach: MCP support, SKILL.md Agent Skills (added April 2026), custom .agent.md agents, a multi-vendor model picker with Ollama BYOK, and a cloud 'coding agent' that works issues into PRs on GitHub Actions.