Comment by rurban
4 hours ago
That's not a harness. That's an agent cli. A harness is something completely different. Wish people could use proper terminology.
A test harness is a collection of software and test data configured to test a program unit by running it under varying conditions and monitoring its behavior and outputs. It automates the execution of test suites, providing the necessary stubs, drivers, and runtime environments so developers can isolate and verify specific code components.
I use opencode (lockedcode is still vaporware), claude, kimi and codex.
And most models. Just no Google models so far, I don't trust them.
Harness: a piece of equipment with straps and belts, used to control or hold in place a person, animal, or object.
So yes the generel meaning applies to test setup and running and also to the agent cli which is the harness for the model.
No, an agent cli is no harness. You have to provide a harness for an agent by yourself, otherwise it will run free. Which is called vibe coding. Free as you wish, without any harness.
Akshually, they said "harness," and not "test harness."
There's no particular reason "agent harness" can't have practically the same definition, substituting test-specific concepts for agent-specific ones.