# Harness vs Sculptor (slim)

> Harness scores 60.9 (C) to Sculptor's 53.1 (D) for multi-agent orchestration. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-sculptor.md (~5,300 tokens) · this version ~1,880 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-sculptor.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-sculptor
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Harness scores 60.9 (C) on agent readiness against Sculptor's 53.1 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Sculptor leads on payments & pricing. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- Harness: C 60.9, rank #632 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/harness-autonomous.min.md
- Sculptor: D 53.1, rank #966 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sculptor.min.md
- Harness, good for A developer who runs Claude Code and Codex on several machines and wants their agents to hand work to each other where the person can watch. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 85 against 45; Agent ergonomics, 77 against 50; Transparency & trust, 64 against 57. Also Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card.
- Sculptor, good for Developers who want parallel coding agents in isolated workspaces and are fine with a research preview. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 60 against 40. Also No key needed to call it.

| Category | Harness | Sculptor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 40 | 43 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 85 | 45 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 77 | 50 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 54 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 75 | 75 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 64 | 57 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Harness | Sculptor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Autonomous, Inc. | Imbue, Inc. |
| Transports | stdio |  |
| Auth | OAuth | None |
| Tools exposed | 11 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `ai.autonomous.harness/harness` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-07 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 1.3k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, Harness +40: Harness 85 (Read as an MCP server and CLI. Eleven tools in source at v0.5.33, each with a typed JSON Schema input built by one helper, required fields marked, plus `--json` on every command. No OpenAPI, which a stdio server does not need (23). llms.txt and a Markdown-like agents page written for agents, per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November, since Autonomous's terms forbid access to its sites by automated means, including scripts or web crawlers, and its hosts are paused pending the founder (10). The tool descriptions and server instructions say when to call whoami first, to prefer a new project over an existing folder, to read before telling a harness more, and that turning a setting on is the person's yes to give (20). An enum on `agent` and on the setting `name`, `minItems` on wait names, minimum and maximum on `timeout_seconds`, a minimum on `chars` and `limit`. `machine`, `folder`, `project` and `model` are free strings (12). Worked examples, the exit code table and the `Next:` line per the 17 October reading of the agents page and llms.txt, with exit codes still in the source (13). Per-component semver tags, but the only CHANGELOG.md covers the provider protocol (0.3.0, 6 August 2026), and GitHub's release pages could not be read (7). 23 + 10 + 20 + 12 + 13 + 7 = 85.); Sculptor 45 (Harness reading. A README, specs and agent docs in the repository; no API reference (45).)
- Agent ergonomics, Harness +27: Harness 77 (Eleven tools at v0.5.33 (seven on 17 October). Added since then are harness_search, harness_machines, harness_tell and harness_settings; harness_send and harness_tell are listed only inside a harness, so an agent outside one sees nine. Descriptions total about 4,000 characters. Judgement call. By the total, 11 tools fall in the 11 to 30 band (15), with 5 back for listing two tools only inside a harness (20). Counting only the nine an outside agent sees gives 25. We took the stricter reading, as the 17 October check counted the total (20). `chars` sizes a read (4,000 characters by default), `limit` sizes a search (10 by default), `all` widens the list, and `any` returns on the first finished harness. No pagination (14). Exit codes, refusals returned as answers rather than errors so a model does not retry them, and a timed-out wait reported as still working, in the source (19). readOnlyHint on whoami, list, search, machines, wait and read, destructiveHint false on start, tell and send, idempotentHint on close, and no hint on settings so an engine that asks before an unmarked tool asks the person (16). Two required fields on start, defaults of Claude Code and a 45-second wait. No SDK, but a CLI, an MCP server and a plugin with a skill (8). 20 + 14 + 19 + 16 + 8 = 77.); Sculptor 50 (Harness reading. Workspaces as isolated copies, review and merge back, and built-in skills (50).)
- Payments & pricing, Sculptor +20: Harness 40 (No payment protocol (0). Read with the self-hosted rule. The software is free and the optional hardware prices are public, per the 17 October check, not re-read on 4 November, since Autonomous's terms forbid access to its sites by automated means, including scripts or web crawlers, and its hosts are paused pending the founder (20). Free with no card (20). An agent cannot start harnesses until the person signs in with Google or Apple in a browser; the agent can now turn the experimental setting on with the person's yes, but the browser sign-in still needs the person, so 0 for autonomous onboarding, as the other harnesses that need an account were read (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.); Sculptor 60 (Free self-hosted software with nothing to buy, so 0 for a protocol and 20 each for public pricing, a free tier and onboarding with no sign-up, 60.)
- Transparency & trust, Harness +7: Harness 64 (MIT licence for the whole repository under Autonomous, Inc., with third-party Store covers under their own licences (30). The repository documents what usage counts contain, a 10-day pseudonymous activity mark and the encrypted relay in detail. Autonomous's privacy policy of 7 July 2026 is general to its stores and sites and does not mention Harness, per the 17 October reading and the site's policy reading of 30 October (14). The provider protocol promises both revisions side by side for a deprecation window after a breaking change. Nothing similar for the app or CLI (6). Telemetry is disclosed with an opt-out in the app and CLI, but it is on by default and described in the repository rather than in the privacy policy (14). 30 + 14 + 6 + 14 = 64.); Sculptor 57 (MIT (30). Consent-based telemetry documented in the repository (18 of 30). The README warns of drastic changes during the research preview, with no deprecation policy (5). Opt-in telemetry (20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 20 = 73.)