HarnessRouter Community Edition

What is HarnessRouter Community Edition?

HarnessRouter is open-source infrastructure that puts multiple agent harnesses behind one Agent API, so a product integrates once and can switch the harness underneath without rebuilding its backend. The open-source page names Codex, Claude Code and Hermes as supported harnesses; the repository README additionally lists Pi and DeepSeek Harness. The Community Edition is Apache-2.0 and runs as a single Docker container — Gateway, Runner and Console start together with local SQLite state and persisted workspace files, and it requires no managed database, external vault or cloud account. A fully managed HarnessRouter Cloud tier adds serverless sandboxed execution, managed concurrency and isolation, and execution tracing; its pricing is not published.

Key features

• One unified Agent API across harnesses — Codex, Claude Code and Hermes are named on the open-source page, with Pi and DeepSeek Harness also listed in the repository README
• Session lifecycle as a first-class contract: create, resume and inspect agent sessions
• Streaming — follow tokens and events while the work is still running
• File handling: upload inputs, persist workspace files, and return finished outputs as artifacts for your product
• Cancellation through one contract, and structured errors handled consistently across every harness
• A versioned spec built on OpenAPI 3.1 and JSON Schema 2020-12, with 52 runnable conformance checks
• Single-container deployment: one Docker container starts Gateway, Runner and Console together on local SQLite, with no managed database, external vault or cloud account required
• Four starter kits shipped with the Community Edition: Slides, Sheets, Dashboards and Videos

Who it's for

• Shipping an agent feature in a product without betting the backend architecture on one agent runtime
• Self-hosting agent execution so session state, workspace files and provider keys stay on infrastructure you control
• Comparing or migrating between harnesses — swapping Claude Code for Codex or Hermes becomes a configuration change rather than a rewrite
• Validating an agent integration against a versioned spec using the 52 runnable conformance checks
• Standing up a working agent backend quickly from one of the four starter kits (Slides, Sheets, Dashboards, Videos)

When not to use it

If you run a single harness and are content with it, this is one more abstraction and one more service to operate for portability you may never exercise. Note also that managed concurrency, isolation and execution tracing are Cloud-tier features rather than Community Edition ones, and Cloud pricing is not published — so the managed path cannot be budgeted in advance.

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