Open Claude Design: A Weekend Harness Built on Atomic

The article discusses the concept of "thin harnesses" in the context of coding agents, which are AI systems designed to assist with software development tasks. The key idea is that instead of building a new agent from scratch for each specific task, developers should leverage existing coding agents and create lightweight orchestrators (or thin harnesses) around them. This approach allows teams to build complex workflows tailored to their needs without reinventing the wheel.

Key Points:

1. Thin Harness Concept:

   • A thin harness is a minimalistic wrapper that coordinates tasks across different stages of a workflow.
   • It leverages existing coding agents' capabilities (like tool loops, permission models, and subagents) rather than reimplementing them.
   • The abstraction provided by the harness is typically s.session.query(prompt, opts) where prompt is the instruction for the agent and opts are options like model selection or permissions.

2. Workflow Structure:

   • A workflow consists of multiple stages (e.g., analysis, design, implementation, testing).
   • Each stage can be run under different conditions (models, permissions) to optimize performance and cost.
   • The orchestrator decides which stages run in sequence and the conditions under

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