Point-in-time snapshot: April 2026
A curated list of projects describing themselves as AI agent harnesses or related to "harness engineering."
The term "agent harness" emerged in late 2025 / early 2026 as a way to describe the orchestration layer that runs an AI agent. A harness manages the tool-dispatch loop, permissions, context, and lifecycle of an agent — as distinct from a framework (which provides higher-level abstractions for building agents) or a backend (which provides the inference and model serving).
The term gained traction partly through the adjacent concept of "harness engineering" — the practice of configuring and optimizing these orchestration layers (writing CLAUDE.md files, designing tool schemas, structuring agent prompts, etc.).
This list captures projects that self-identify with the "harness" label as of April 2026. The terminology is still fluid and not universally agreed upon — some projects listed here blur the line between harness, framework, and agent platform.
Projects that provide runtime orchestration for AI agents — tool dispatch, conversation loops, context management, and agent lifecycle.
| Project | Description | Language | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| bytedance/deer-flow | Open-source long-horizon SuperAgent harness that researches, codes, and creates. Handles tasks from minutes to hours using sandboxes, memories, tools, subagents. | Python | 57,759 |
| code-yeongyu/oh-my-openagent | Agent harness (previously oh-my-opencode) with multi-provider support. | TypeScript | 48,154 |
| langchain-ai/deepagents | Agent harness built with LangChain and LangGraph. Planning tool, filesystem backend, and subagent spawning. | Python | 19,118 |
| aden-hive/hive | Outcome-driven agent development framework and runtime harness. Self-improving, human-in-the-loop. | Python | 10,038 |
| xerrors/Yuxi | Agent harness integrating LightRAG knowledge base and knowledge graphs. Built with LangChain + Vue + FastAPI, supports MCP. | Python | 4,805 |
| mindfold-ai/Trellis | Agent harness for agentic coding workflows. | Python | 4,610 |
| HKUDS/OpenHarness | Open Agent Harness. | Python | 3,363 |
| can1357/oh-my-pi | AI coding agent for the terminal — hash-anchored edits, optimized tool harness, LSP, subagents. | TypeScript | 2,646 |
| kevinrgu/autoagent | Autonomous harness engineering. | Python | 2,084 |
| chrysb/alphaclaw | Setup harness for OpenClaw. Deploy in minutes, stay running for months. | JavaScript | 943 |
| e10nMa2k/cc-mini | Ultra-light harness scaffolding for AI agents, a mini version of Claude Code. | Python | 677 |
| truffle-ai/dexto | Coding agent and general agent harness for building and orchestrating agentic applications. | TypeScript | 608 |
| Chachamaru127/claude-code-harness | Claude Code dedicated development harness — autonomous Plan-Work-Review cycle. | Shell | 420 |
| aristoteleo/PantheonOS | Evolvable, distributed agent framework and harness for data science and bioinformatics. | Python | 370 |
| MaxGfeller/open-harness | Code-first, composable SDK to build powerful AI agents. | TypeScript | 337 |
| vortezwohl/Autono | ReAct-based highly robust autonomous agent (harness) framework. MCP support. | Python | 209 |
| aiming-lab/AutoHarness | Automated harness engineering for AI agents — audit, governance, safety. | Python | 181 |
| dust-tt/srchd | Research agents harness. | TypeScript | 69 |
| thu-nmrc/OpenHarness | Fully autonomous AI agent execution framework for OpenClaw built on harness engineering. From Tsinghua University. | Python | 62 |
| thu-nmrc/OpenHarness-For-Codex | Specialized variant of OpenHarness designed for AI-driven software development. | Python | 39 |
| mastersof-ai/harness | Agent runtime with full system prompt control. Define agents in markdown, run in terminal TUI or web UI. Powered by Claude Agent SDK. | TypeScript | 31 |
Projects focused on curating resources, guides, and best practices for harness engineering rather than providing a harness runtime.
| Project | Description | Language | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| walkinglabs/awesome-harness-engineering | Awesome tools and guides for harness engineering. | — | 1,264 |
| AutoJunjie/awesome-agent-harness | Curated list of agent harness projects, orchestration tools, and developer resources. | — | 277 |
| Picrew/awesome-agent-harness | Awesome list of agent harness engineering resources — projects, tools, benchmarks, and guides. | Python | 109 |
| alchemiststudiosDOTai/harness-engineering | Harness engineering discussion — shortcuts, automation, hacks, and productivity with code agents. | Shell | 87 |
| jrenaldi79/harness-engineering | Context engineering for coding agents — CLAUDE.md templates, enforcement, and best practices field guide. | JavaScript | 55 |
Star counts as of April 2026. This is a static snapshot and will not be updated.