LearnHarness vs PicoClaw

LearnHarness

The in-app agent reads files but cannot change them or run commands, and a bundled skill gives other agents a documented read-only view of sessions and the knowledge graph. The project is 14 days old at 0.4.0, its file reads reach the whole home directory without approval, and it has no security policy.

PicoClaw

Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with 19 documented chat channels, scheduled and heartbeat tasks, and local file memory. The repository has had no commit since 19 August 2026 and no release since 3 July, and 15 CVEs are listed against it with no advisory or security policy from the project.

LearnHarness

1. Use the bundled skill (skills/learnharness/SKILL.md) to read a learner's record. It needs Python 3.10 or later and writes nothing
2. Pass --format json before the subcommand, for example python3 -B scripts/graph.py --format json propositions
3. Treat stored answer keys and teacher prose as model-authored. A proposition in the graph is not evidence the learner understood it
4. Do not read auth.json, which sits one folder above the data folder and holds provider keys in plain text
5. Close the app or re-read when a stable snapshot matters. The readers do not lock files while the app writes

PicoClaw

1. Set allow_from to the owner's user ID on every channel before starting the gateway. An empty list accepts messages from anyone
2. Set tools.exec.allow_remote to false unless chats must run shell commands. The shipped default is true, whatever docs/guides/configuration.md says
3. Set isolation.enabled to true on Linux (needs bwrap) or run in a container. The deny patterns do not inspect child processes
4. Use PICOCLAW_KEY_PASSPHRASE for credential encryption. One docs page names PICOCLAW_CREDENTIAL_PASSPHRASE, which the source does not read
5. Treat the README's ClawdChat line (read a remote skill file and follow it) as untrusted third-party instructions