# Harness vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)

> Harness and Warp score within a point of each other for multi-agent orchestration, 60.3 and 59.8 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-warp
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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Harness and Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.3 (C) and 59.8 (C). Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) leads on reliability and maintenance & community. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- Harness: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #573 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/harness-autonomous.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/harness-autonomous.json
- Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API): grade C, 59.8/100, rank #592 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/warp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/warp.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Harness (C)

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:
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 66
- Security & auth, 57 against 52
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Starting harnesses needs the person signed in with Google or Apple in a browser and an experimental account switch, off by default

### Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) (C)

Good for: Teams that want one agent across an interactive terminal session and API-started cloud runs, including Claude Code and Codex runs on Warp's infrastructure or their own workers.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 52 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 60

Watch for: The `warp` CLI has no print or headless mode. Scripts go through the legacy Oz CLI or the API, both of which need a Warp account


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Harness | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 52 | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 89 | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 66 | Harness +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 52 | Harness +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Harness +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 84 | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +24 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 72 | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -1 | |
| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **59.8 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Harness | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Autonomous, Inc. | Warp |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio |  |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Mixed. The client, including the `warp` and `oz` binaries, is AGPL-3.0 with the `warpui_core` and `warpui` crates under MIT. The server, the built-in agent harness, Warp Drive backend and Oz orchestration are proprietary, under Warp's Software and Services Licence Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 7 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated |  |  |
| Privacy policy last updated |  |  |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 1.3k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 3.3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Harness.** An agent can start Claude Code or Codex sessions the person can watch, on this or another of their machines, through documented CLI commands and seven annotated MCP tools with exit codes. Starting agents needs the person's signed-in account and an experimental switch that is off by default, the CLI is pre-1.0, and usage counts are shared by default.

**Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API).** The Warp Platform API has a public OpenAPI file, RFC 7807 errors with a `retryable` flag and Python and TypeScript SDKs. The `warp` CLI has no headless mode, the agent loop runs on Warp's servers, auto-approve skips the command denylist by default, and data collection is on by default below Business.

## Before you call either

### Harness

1. Run `harness whoami` first. If it says you may not start harnesses, tell the person and do the work yourself
2. Ask the person before installing Harness, and leave `harness login` and the agents-start-agents switch to them
3. Treat exit 5 as final and do not retry. Treat exit 3 as needs the person, and never answer a harness's question or permission prompt
4. Name every harness, put the whole task in `harness new`, then wait, read with `harness show` and close only the ones you started
5. Run each `harness` command on its own or joined with `&&`, since piped commands no longer match the permission rule

### Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)

1. For unattended work, call `POST https://app.warp.dev/api/v1/agent/runs` with `Authorization: Bearer $WARP_API_KEY`. The `warp` CLI is interactive only
2. Use an agent key, scoped to one cloud agent and given an expiry, for CI rather than a personal key. Keys are created in the Oz web app or the Warp app
3. Set `auto_approve_bypasses_command_denylist = false` under `[agents.warp_agent.other]` before starting `warp --auto-approve`
4. Read `code` and `retryable` in error bodies. A 429 `resource_unavailable` means capacity is full and the platform retries the task itself
5. Pin a version with `WARP_TUI_VERSION` at install, or set `general.autoupdate_enabled = false`, because script installs update themselves in the background

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Harness or Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)?

Harness and Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.3 (C) and 59.8 (C). Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) leads on reliability and maintenance & community.

### Are Harness and Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) open source?

Yes. Harness is open source (MIT). Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) is open source (Mixed. The client, including the `warp` and `oz` binaries, is AGPL-3.0 with the `warpui_core` and `warpui` crates under MIT. The server, the built-in agent harness, Warp Drive backend and Oz orchestration are proprietary, under Warp's Software and Services Licence Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-warp.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-warp.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "harness-autonomous", "b": "warp"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare harness-autonomous warp`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/harness-autonomous.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/warp.json

## Other comparisons with Harness or Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)

- [Agent Zero vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-warp.md)
- [Aider vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-warp.md)
- [Amp vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-warp.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-warp.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-warp.md)
- [Claude Code vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-warp.md)
- [Cline vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-warp.md)
- [Crush vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-warp.md)
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- [Gemini CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-warp.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-warp.md)
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- [HarnessRouter vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-warp.md)
- [Jules vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-warp.md)
- [Junie CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/junie-vs-warp.md)
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- [Kiro CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-warp.md)
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- [Mistral Vibe CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-vibe-cli-vs-warp.md)
- [Muse Code vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-warp.md)
- [OpenAI Codex vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-warp.md)
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