Agent frameworks

The job

Agent frameworks and harnesses supply the loop around a language model. The model asks for a tool, the code runs it, and the result goes back into the conversation. Many add memory and a way to approve actions.

How they differ

Some are libraries to build on. Langchain and crewAI are Python libraries, the first made of interchangeable components and the second built around teams of role-based agents. Pi is a TypeScript toolkit for shaping a coding agent, and openui is a set of front-end libraries that let a model draw charts and forms. Cactus runs small models on local hardware.

Others are coding agents you run yourself. Cline comes as a terminal tool, editor extension and desktop app. Fx is a single native binary for terminal users who also want to script it.

A third kind is a ready-made harness you host. Deer-flow, trueforge and qm each bundle the loop with somewhere to run commands. Qm is aimed at shared use in Slack, and hermes-agent, a terminal and desktop agent with memory, at one long-running agent reachable from chat apps.

The last kind is infrastructure around agents. Harnessrouter puts several coding-agent harnesses behind one API for product builders. Private-gpt is an API server for people building on local models, and reef is for teams that want to improve an agent from feedback. Cloudflare-os and computer target Cloudflare Workers, CLI-Anything wraps existing software in commands, and monid puts many tool APIs behind one gateway.

Licences

On 10 November 2026, GitHub detected MIT or Apache-2.0 on most of the tools here. Openhuman carried GPL-3.0. A licence can change, and each tool's own page gives the latest reading with its date.

What to check first

Cline's README says an auto-approve toggle lets it run on its own. By default fx edits files and runs tests without asking, and pi says it runs with its user's full permissions and no permission system. Deer-flow warns that gateway admin access amounts to code execution. DS-Bot says its private bots are not walled off by an operating system sandbox, and its main bot has very high rights.

Under qm's default posture, its README says, the agent uses each person's credentials with screening off, and trueforge's local mode has no login. Deer-flow writes API keys to a .env file, jiuwenswarm shows a key in plain YAML, and hermes-agent can import allowlisted keys from other agent tools.

CrewAI, cactus and openui name telemetry or hosted parts, as langchain does for LangSmith. Install scripts piped into a shell appear in fx, openhuman and pi.

Deepseek-harness, openhuman, cloudflare-os, jiuwenswarm and fx carry early or experimental labels, and reef is mid-refactor. Harnessrouter's container needs root, and its README says to keep it local until the first password is changed.