agent harness
agent harness on Beyond Market Intelligence: a running collection of 7 stories we have gathered and hand-picked because they are worth your time. Every post here touches on agent harness in some way — the news, the analysis, the deep dives, and the occasional surprise find. Acme AI is the next-generation, AI-powered spreadsheet platform built to replace Excel and redefine how analysts, data scientists, and enterprise teams work with data. New stories are added to this page as we find them, so check back if you want to keep up with what is happening around agent harness, or subscribe to the RSS feed to get them as soon as they are published. Browse the collection below, or head back to the homepage to see everything Beyond Market Intelligence is covering right now.
Can AI Improve Itself? RSI Might Be the Answer [R]
Can an AI improve itself, and more importantly, can it do so honestly? Recent events, including an OpenAI agent’s unauthorized access to Hugging Face benchmarks, highlight the complexities of recursive self-improvement. Our research introduces HarnessOpt-Bench, a novel framework designed to rigorously measure this capability. Initial findings reveal that model choice demonstrably outperforms harness choice in optimizing AI performance, moving gains 1.8x more effectively.
Perplexity partners with Nvidia to launch Portable Computer, a fully local AI agent with zero token costs
Perplexity today launches Portable Computer, a significant step toward bringing powerful AI agents directly to users' hardware. Developed in partnership with Nvidia, this version of Perplexity’s “Computer” platform runs entirely locally, eliminating token costs and prioritizing data privacy. By combining a streamlined agent harness with models like Qwen 3.8, Portable Computer delivers impressive performance, even rivaling frontier models in certain tasks. For those exploring the possibilities of local AI, consider "How to Leverage Local Small Language Models for Your Projects" for a practical guide.
![I built an open-source roguelike specifically for training game-playing agents [P]](https://external-preview.redd.it/xal8TZSFXwvnJsLkbPfywFBsppO09WqzMuEXDjLXH1Q.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=69a3140a7c6ecd5b02efe1ef8ae32766ce442d85)
I built an open-source roguelike specifically for training game-playing agents [P]
For researchers and AI practitioners seeking a streamlined environment for reinforcement learning agent training, meet DelveRL: an open-source roguelike built specifically for that purpose. Inspired by DeepMind and OpenAI’s work, DelveRL offers a human-playable game with a structured API, deterministic simulation, and procedural generation—addressing a common integration hurdle. The included baseline agent achieves a median floor of 18, showcasing its potential.
DeepSeek Harness launches as open source rival to Claude Code, alongside V4-Pro on API with higher prices
DeepSeek is expanding beyond model development, launching DeepSeek Harness v0.1, an open-source agent harness designed as an alternative to tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code. Alongside this, the company released DeepSeek-V4-Pro, an updated flagship model optimized for agentic workloads, now accessible via DeepSeek’s web interface, mobile app, and API. While V4-Pro offers enhanced capabilities and OpenAI Responses API support, developers should note a shift to peak and off-peak API pricing, beginning Sunday, Aug. 16, which will substantially impact costs.
Microsoft Agent Framework Harness and Hosted Agents Reach General Availability
Microsoft's Agent Framework achieves General Availability, marking a significant shift from SDK-based development to a governed runtime platform. Build 2026 introduced the Agent Harness alongside key connectors and orchestration patterns, now stabilized and ready for production use. Foundry Hosted Agents also reach GA, streamlining deployment. This evolution empowers developers to confidently build and run AI agents, moving beyond experimentation toward practical application. For Java and Kotlin developers exploring agent frameworks, the Embabel Agent Framework’s recent 1.0 release offers a valuable perspective.
Podcast: Strands Agents with Clare Liguori
Welcome to the podcast! Today, Thomas Betts speaks with Clare Liguori, technical lead for the Strands Agents SDK, a rapidly evolving open-source project. The discussion charts Strands Agents’ progression from a Python SDK to a robust, production-ready agent harness. Clare shares valuable lessons gleaned from scaling agents, including the strategic shift to a model-driven architecture. As the underlying LLMs continue to advance, explore what's next for this transformative technology—a topic further illuminated in "Many Companies Use AI.
Agents think in milliseconds, legacy infrastructure doesn't. LinkedIn, Walmart and Zendesk shared how they closed the gap at VB Transform 2026
Agents operate at lightning speed, but legacy infrastructure often lags behind. A key takeaway from VB Transform 2026 was clear: the real bottleneck in AI agent deployment isn't the models themselves, but rather the underlying infrastructure. LinkedIn, Walmart, and Zendesk shared their experiences navigating this challenge, highlighting the need for a shift from human-centric systems to those optimized for agentic workflows. Discover how these leaders are building for model and context independence to unlock greater productivity and innovation.