# HarnessRouter vs Qwen Code

> Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) to HarnessRouter's 53.2 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against HarnessRouter's 53.2 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. HarnessRouter leads on security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- HarnessRouter: grade D, 53.2/100, rank #796 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/harnessrouter.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/harnessrouter.json
- Qwen Code: grade BB, 72.4/100, rank #107 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen-code.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/qwen-code.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 331 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### HarnessRouter (D)

Good for: A product team that wants to run Codex, Claude Code, Hermes or 23 other harnesses server-side behind one task, session and file contract, and switch between them by changing an ID.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 58 against 53
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 63

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No status page found (status.harnessrouter.ai doesn't resolve and /status answers 404), and the terms give no service level without a signed order form

### Qwen Code (BB)

Good for: Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 69 against 35
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 83
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 73
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 72

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where HarnessRouter loses 5 points for them

Watch for: The default approval mode is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, and sandboxing and folder trust are both off by default


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | HarnessRouter | Qwen Code | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 69 | Qwen Code +34 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 91 | Qwen Code +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 85 | Qwen Code +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 53 | HarnessRouter +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | Qwen Code +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 88 | Qwen Code +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 63 | HarnessRouter +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **53.2 · D** | **72.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | HarnessRouter | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | HarnessRouter (Lumentree Corporation) | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.harnessrouter.ai` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 for the Community Edition server and the UHP specification, schema and conformance suite. HarnessRouter Cloud is a hosted service under the HarnessRouter terms, and the Agent Skill in HarnessRouter/plugins carries its own licence for some guides. | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 0 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated |  | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 3.1k stars | 28k stars, 105k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**HarnessRouter.** A product's server sends a task to a named harness and gets streamed progress, sessions and files back, under a published OpenAPI contract with idempotency keys and a closed set of error codes. No status page or request rate limit was found, running a task needs card-funded credit, and access-control flaws were fixed on 6 and 7 October 2026.

**Qwen Code.** Apache-2.0 with no account of its own, any OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini-compatible endpoint, and headless runs bounded by turn, tool-call and wall-time budgets with distinct exit codes. Out of the box, Auto mode lets an LLM classifier approve tool calls, with the sandbox and folder trust both off. Usage statistics are on by default.

## Before you call either

### HarnessRouter

1. Name the harness yourself. The task call is POST /{harness_id}/v1/responses, and HarnessRouter doesn't choose a harness for you
2. Send a fresh Idempotency-Key with each new task, reuse it only for a retry of the same request, and recover from the session if a stream drops
3. Call cancel to stop work. Closing the SSE connection leaves the agent running and billing
4. Keep the Workspace API key on the server. The docs forbid calling the API from a browser with it
5. Check each tool's enforcement in GET /v1/bases. On bases marked instruction, disabled_tools is a request to the model, not a block

### Qwen Code

1. Pass `--approval-mode` on every run. The settings default is `auto`, and one docs page says headless runs default to asking, so don't rely on either
2. Add `--max-session-turns`, `--max-wall-time` and `--max-tool-calls`. All three are unlimited by default. Exit 53 is the turn limit and 55 a budget
3. `--yolo` doesn't turn on a sandbox. Add `--sandbox`, or on Linux set `tools.executionSandbox` with `network` set to `closed`
4. Set `QWEN_USAGE_STATISTICS_ENABLED=false` to stop usage statistics
5. Authenticate with `OPENAI_API_KEY`, `OPENAI_BASE_URL` and `OPENAI_MODEL` in CI. The browser sign-in is discontinued

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, HarnessRouter or Qwen Code?

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against HarnessRouter's 53.2 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. HarnessRouter leads on security & auth and transparency & trust.

### Are HarnessRouter and Qwen Code open source?

Yes. HarnessRouter is open source (Apache-2.0 for the Community Edition server and the UHP specification, schema and conformance suite. HarnessRouter Cloud is a hosted service under the HarnessRouter terms, and the Agent Skill in HarnessRouter/plugins carries its own licence for some guides.). Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with HarnessRouter or Qwen Code

- [Agent Zero vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Aider vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [Aider vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Amp vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-harnessrouter.md)
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- [Antigravity CLI vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Claude Code vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [Claude Code vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-qwen-code.md)
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- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [goose vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-harnessrouter.md)
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