Agent harnesses
Independent comparison of AI agent harnesses, checked 3 Oct 2026 (Australia/Perth). Alphabetical. Not a ranking.
View 3 Oct 2026
Rows 7 harnesses
Cells maker docs only
Feature comparison
| Harness | Runs | Steer with | Skills | Scheduled work | MCP | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude CodeAnthropic | Your machine, plus browser and cloud sessions. Terminal, IDE, desktop app, and the web share one engine. | Terminal, IDE, desktop app, browser. | Yes | Yes. Cloud routines, desktop schedules, and an in-session loop. | Yes | Most surfaces need a Claude subscription or an Anthropic Console account. The terminal, VS Code, and JetBrains also support third-party providers. Dollar prices are not copied here. |
| CodexOpenAI | Your local repository in the terminal. The cloud docs also say you can start a cloud task from the CLI. | Terminal. Interactive, or codex exec for scripts and CI. | Yes. Skills and plugins. | not stated | Yes | Sign in with ChatGPT or another method the CLI offers. Which models you get depends on plan. Dollar prices are not copied here. |
| Grok BotCursor | A persistent computer in Cursor’s cloud. Desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux) and iOS apps are clients. | Chat in the desktop and iOS apps. Work continues with the laptop closed. | Yes | Yes. Routines. | not stated. Plugins are documented. | Included with every paid individual Cursor plan and the Cursor Teams plan, or by linking individual SuperGrok, SuperGrok Plus, or SuperGrok Heavy. Dollar prices are not copied here. |
| Hermes AgentNous Research | Laptop, VPS, or documented serverless backends (local, Docker, SSH, Daytona, Modal, Singularity, Vercel Sandbox). | CLI, desktop app, and many chat platforms through one gateway. | Yes. The project describes a learning loop that writes and revises skills. | Yes. Built-in cron. | Yes | A price for Hermes itself is not stated. Optional Nous Portal subscription covers a model plus the Tool Gateway tools. |
| OpenClawOpenClaw Foundation | Your machine or a server. One Gateway process. No hosted service in the middle. | Chat apps (Discord, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, and others), Control UI, CLI. | Yes | Yes. Cron, hooks, and webhooks. | not stated on the overview. Channel, provider, and tool plugins are. | No paid tier. MIT licensed. You bring a model provider key. |
| OpenCodeOpenCode project | Your machine. Terminal, desktop app, or IDE extension. | Terminal TUI, desktop app, IDE extension. | Yes. SKILL.md files, loaded on demand. Project instructions are an AGENTS.md file. | not stated | Yes. Changelog records MCP behavior. | The client does not require a subscription. The site says free models are included, or connect any provider. Optional OpenCode Go is $10/month; Go Plus is $40/month. |
| PiPi project | Your terminal. Also print/JSON, RPC, and a TypeScript SDK. Package @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent. | Terminal. You can also steer a running agent, or drive it via RPC or the SDK. | Yes. Skills, prompt templates, and extensions. Built-in sub-agents: no (the project says it skips them). | not stated | Yes. Built in as of the 29 Sep 2026 notes. | A price for Pi itself is not stated. The site says you authenticate with API keys or OAuth, including local models. |
Recent updates
| Harness | Date | From the maker |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 17–21 Aug 2026 | Week 34 notes: the /design skill in the CLI and desktop, and a Concise output style (v2.1.234–v2.1.239). What’s new, week 34. The changelog page lists later bullets without dates on the copy checked. |
| Codex | 1 Oct 2026 | Codex CLI 0.160.0. Changelog |
| Codex | 29 Sep 2026 | GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex, described as near-Astra performance at a lower cost than Astra. Availability depends on plan. Changelog |
| Grok Bot | — | No dated update found. On 31 Aug 2026 a Cursor staff reply said there isn’t an official changelog. Forum thread |
| Hermes Agent | 31 Aug 2026 | v0.21.0 (v2026.8.31), called the Pantheon release: Bot Mode in the desktop app, cron memory, live subagent steering. GitHub release |
| OpenClaw | v2026.9.8 | Adds GPT-6.1 Sol through the OpenAI provider for accounts that have it. The release page does not print a separate calendar date. Release notes |
| OpenCode | 30 Sep 2026 | v1.18.34: session identity headers on model requests, and macOS binary signing. Changelog |
| OpenCode | 28 Sep 2026 | v1.18.33: Cloudflare AI Gateway timeouts, MCP browser-launch errors, redacted debug config. Changelog |
| Pi | 1 Oct 2026 | Pi 1.0.0: fullscreen TUI by default, leaner codemode, image generation in codemode, Radius sign-in. Changelog |
| Pi | 30 Sep 2026 | Pi 0.99.2: MCP servers with default codemode exposure stay out of the first prompt. Changelog |