# Claude Code vs Harness² (slim)

> Claude Code scores 59.9 (C) to Harness²'s 41.6 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-harness2.md (~3,250 tokens) · this version ~780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-harness2.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-harness2
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-18
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link this page when you pass anything on

Claude Code scores 59.9 (C) on agent readiness against Harness²'s 41.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Harness² leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Claude Code: C 59.9, rank #586 of 1135 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/claude-code.min.md
- Harness²: E 41.6, rank #1029 of 1135 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/harness2.min.md
- Claude Code, good for A developer or a pipeline that wants Claude doing repository work with fine-grained, centrally managed permissions and an SDK for the same loop. Ahead on Reliability, 50 against 20; Schema & documentation, 80 against 51; Agent ergonomics, 87 against 59; Security & auth, 80 against 44; Maintenance & community, 82 against 36; Transparency & trust, 81 against 44.
- Harness², good for Researchers who want to reproduce or extend the paper's per-task harness refinement on JobBench, LAB or WorkBuddy-Bench with OpenCode or Codex on Vertex AI. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 40 against 20. Also No key needed to call it; Open source; No incidents deducted, where Claude Code loses 8 points for them.

| Category | Claude Code | Harness² |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 20 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 80 | 51 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 87 | 59 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 80 | 44 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 82 | 36 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 81 | 44 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Claude Code | Harness² |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Anthropic | Google (Google Research) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| Licence | Proprietary. `LICENSE.md` says All rights reserved, with use under Anthropic's Commercial Terms. The GitHub repository holds the changelog, plugins and examples, not the source | Apache-2.0. Bundled benchmark runners keep their upstream licences (Apache-2.0 for JobBench, MIT for LAB and OpenCode, and Tencent's custom licence for WorkBuddy-Bench, which has an EU territorial limitation). |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 141k stars | 4.2k stars |