HarnessMatch

Search 73 product records by name, workflow, interface, or documented capability.

Quick access
Use ↑ ↓ to move, Enter to open, Esc to close.

Quick access links shown.

Menu

General-purpose agent

Kern

Self-hosted personal agent with coding tools, durable recall, channels, and subagents.

Status
Active
License
MIT
Evidence
Documented + code-verifiable, 13 sources
Product record checked
2026-08-22
Compare harnessesInspect sources

At a glance

A young MIT-licensed personal agent that qualifies as a coding harness through its iterative tool loop, repository and shell mutation, persistent JSONL and vector recall, tool scopes, background runtime, MCP, local Ollama path, and parallel read-only subagents across terminal, web, desktop, and messaging clients.

Good choice if

  • Self-hosters who want a personal agent that can also work directly in repositories
  • Long-running, multi-channel workflows with persistent local recall and scheduled tasks
  • Local Ollama users who want MCP and bounded parallel research subagents

Check before choosing

  • Kern is a general personal agent rather than a coding-first product, so its defaults and documentation span many non-repository workflows
  • Tool control uses coarse full, write, or read scopes rather than a documented per-call approval system; normal local execution remains host-first
  • Docker is an optional deployment boundary for the whole service, not proof of a per-task disposable sandbox
See 2 more considerations
  • Subagents are bounded read-only workers without the parent's MCP, notes, skills, or recall; running children do not survive restart and completed children are not reloaded into the live list
  • The project is young, has no repository security policy or contributor guide, and its engineering tests are not independent product evaluation

Capability support

Documented first-class product support, checked against the sources below.

External tools (MCP)
DocumentedProduct-supported MCP integrationSource · checked 2026-07-28The source establishes the mechanism, not its quality or availability in every mode.
Reusable skills
DocumentedProduct-supported reusable skill packagesSource · checked 2026-08-05Support does not establish portability, package quality, safety, or adoption.
Local models
DocumentedLocal or self-hosted model pathSource · checked 2026-07-28The source establishes the mechanism, not its quality or availability in every mode.
Agent parallelism
DocumentedDelegated or parallel agent workflowSource · checked 2026-07-28The source establishes the mechanism, not its quality or availability in every mode.
Runs without an open UI
DocumentedLong-running background agent service with automation and channel surfacesSource · checked 2026-07-28The source establishes the mechanism, not its quality or availability in every mode.
Browser control
Not documentedNo first-class support established by the current recordAbsence of current documentation is not proof that the capability is impossible.
Isolated execution
Depends on surfaceOptional whole-service container deploymentSource · checked 2026-07-28Docker isolates the deployed service; it is not a disposable per-task sandbox.
Undo file changes
Not documentedNo first-class support established by the current recordAbsence of current documentation is not proof that the capability is impossible.

Getting started

Install Kern from source or its documented distribution, start with read or write tool scope, configure a provider or Ollama, and use the Docker deployment when host separation is needed.

Open official documentation

Classification and operating model

Category fit and technical mechanisms are evidence records, not product-quality scores.

Category fit
Qualifies, 4/4 criteria
Operating model
7/7 layers documented
Inspect category criteria and operating mechanismsFirst-party records

Why it qualifies as a coding harness

This confirms category fit, not product quality. Every required criterion links back to first-party evidence.

Qualifies4 of 4 required criteria evidenced

  • Adaptive agent loop

    Documented

    The system repeatedly observes results and chooses the next action instead of following a fixed one-pass graph.

    EvidenceKern overview

  • Repository tool execution

    Documented

    The system can use tools to inspect and change a repository or its execution environment.

    EvidenceKern tools

  • Task-aware context management

    Documented

    The runtime assembles, updates, compacts, retrieves, or persists task-relevant context while work proceeds.

    EvidenceKern context managementEvidenceKern durable memory

  • Model-independent runtime control

    Documented

    Permissions, budgets, interruption, policy, or stop controls operate outside the model's own text generation.

    EvidenceKern configuration

Membership establishes category fit only. It does not score quality, safety, autonomy, model capability, or benchmark performance. · Read the membership rule.

How it works under the hood

Seven mechanisms mapped from first-party records. These labels describe what the harness provides, not how intelligent its model is.

7/7layers documented
  • Execution & isolationSandbox availableDocumented mechanism, not a performance score.
  • Tooling & integrationsExtensible toolsDocumented mechanism, not a performance score.
  • Context & statePersistent stateDocumented mechanism, not a performance score.
  • Lifecycle & recoverySession resumeDocumented mechanism, not a performance score.
  • ObservabilityLogs/transcriptsDocumented mechanism, not a performance score.
  • VerificationTool-assistedDocumented mechanism, not a performance score.
  • Governance & permissionsPolicy controlsDocumented mechanism, not a performance score.

Measured and public context

Configuration-specific measurements and source-native activity stay separate from general product capability.

Inspect code audit, measured configurations, and ecosystem signalsContext, not a product score

Public code audit

2/5public artifacts present
Security policy
Not found
CI workflow
Present at inspected commit
Automated tests
Present at inspected commit
Evaluation assets
Not found
Contributor documentation
Not found

The inspected young project contains 273 files, three workflows, and four test-like paths. It declares MIT in the README but has no root license file, security policy, contributor guide, dedicated evaluation suite, or immutable benchmark record; no product-performance score is inferred.

Inspect commit 8f82a046833128b2bf5f67fdf85a76b35b0fe847, checked 2026-07-28

Measured configurations

No benchmark run passes the full metadata admission policy for this harness yet. Missing data is not scored as zero.

Benchmark policy and all runs
Context, not quality

Public ecosystem signals

Source-native observations for exact mapped artifacts and reviewed stable release trains. Different units and populations stay separate, and missing coverage is never treated as zero.

View this harness in Usage
  • Latest stable releasev0.34.0Released 2026-09-08; 9 stable releases in 90 daysOpen release
  • OpenRouter 30d tokens19.13B#47 coding app; 2026-08-09 to 2026-09-07Open app page
  • GitHub stars62Full-source repository; 10 forksOpen artifact

Routing, package retrievals, release downloads, editor installs, and repository interest observe different populations. They are never added together and never affect capability evidence, classification, or measured results.

Interpretation rulesSignals checked

First-party evidence

Each capability claim links to the first-party record that supports it.

13 first-party sourcesProduct record checked

Product and interfaces

1 source

Agents, state and recovery

2 sources
View 1 more source

Additional first-party sources

10 sources
View 9 more sources

Ecosystem context

OpenRouter coding app directory Used to discover Kern; the classification is established from its official source and documentation. Observed 2026-07-28.