Are Harnesses Worth the Cost?
Compares coding agents building the same API service with and without a behavioral harness. A frontier model passed every run either way; a cost-optimized model went from 3 to 10 of 10 accepted runs at 33% lower cost than the frontier model.
AI Summary
Compares coding agents building the same API service with and without a behavioral harness. A frontier model passed every run either way; a cost-optimized model went from 3 to 10 of 10 accepted runs at 33% lower cost than the frontier model.
Why It Matters for Leaders
Helps engineering leaders decide when harness overhead pays off: pair cheaper models with continuous verification, and keep an independent acceptance gate for frontier models.
Category
Leadership, AITarget Audience
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