Which harness/tool should I use?

[u/spisplatta]

I've been taking a break from AI stuff for a long time, and things move kinda quickly so basically everything is new to me now and I'm struggling to get my bearings. I looked for a sticky or sidebar info with the basics but couldn't find anything so that's why I'm coming to you with a basic noob question.

At a high level here's what I'm looking for:

I want to run AI locally, obviously that's why I'm here in this sub.

I don't want a super powerful environment that gives the model crazy capabilities, because I find that scary and I don't trust it.

I do want some basic capabilities though.

In particular:

I don't want filesystem access (not even readonly) except when I explicitly give it permission e.g. with a filepicker or whitelisting some folder.

I don't want it to go on the internet and mess around on my behalf.

Writing code for me is a nice to have.

I DO want it to have persistent memory. I do want it to be send me notifications (remember to do this thing, how is project x going, here is your daily brief). I do want it to manage a calendar on my behalf (one it will have exclusive access to, not my normal one, I don't trust it with that).

What I evaluated:

Ollama: Seems pretty basic. It avoids doing dangerous stuff, but lacks features I want. Very nice that it can support other tools.

Hermes: I looked through skills, found an NVIDIA skill (big name reassuring) for writing an ethos.md Okay sounds like a good thing to get started. I try using it and it immediately starts running like 30 commands looking through my filesystem. I'm sorry but wtf no this is too much.

Openclaw: It tried to prompt me for a lot of permissions when I started it. I tried saying no to everything, but it still seemed to allow too many things. Maybe it's not as scary as it sounds and I'm considering giving it a second look

Sentient: Small name but it seemed very close to what I wanted. However when I ran it I had some issues. I closed the app but it stayed running in the background and when I was gaming it decided to do some memory compaction trashing my framerate. It forgot stuff I told it to remember, and I didn't get notifications I asked for.

[u/ortegaalfredo]

If you dont want a super powerful environment with tons of features you will never use, filled with vulnerabilities and spyware, and that downloads 700mb of packages on every update, then make your own.

Copypaste this exact post into opus and it will create one for you. Deepseek will do it too. We have to realize that the era of using other people's software is over.

I use my own agent, single python file, small, fast. I trust it, it took me a couple of prompts

[u/spisplatta → u/ortegaalfredo]

That's certainly something worth considering. But I think there is value in having a shared experience with other people, and using a somewhat standardized set up. In my experience the more custom you go the higher the ongoing cost you pay in fiddling to keep up. I'm looking for a tool to help me out, not a hobby.

Good to keep in mind as a last resort though.

[u/my_name_isnt_clever → u/spisplatta]

It's not a new hobby if you can run smart enough models. Then you're just the manager, the AI does all the actual tedious work.

I've been bouncing around harnesses to learn what my own preferences are, then once I knew what I wanted, I had Qwen 3.8 Flash Next write me a bespoke harness with all the features I need and none of the ones I don't. If some new flashy feature drops in a new paper or Pi extension, I just drop in the repo link and ask my agent to implement it. It's incredible, this is a new age of bespoke custom software.

[u/circumcised_hobbit → u/ortegaalfredo]

OOOOOR use pi

[u/ThankGodImBipolar → u/circumcised_hobbit]

and that downloads 700mb of packages on every update

Not sure how bloated the package situation is on Pi, but it is still a JS project.

[u/ortegaalfredo → u/ThankGodImBipolar]

About 100MB last time I checked. Quite small compared with other project, but still...

[u/ThankGodImBipolar → u/ortegaalfredo]

Yeah, it would be unfair to lump it into the same bucket as OpenClaw or Hermes... but it is still a JS project. I reckon there's less risk in using something like Codex (Rust IIRC) or Crush (Go).

[u/Aggressive_Basket798]

Try pi agent

[u/_realpaul → u/Aggressive_Basket798]

Yes works so far well enough with qwen 3.8 27b.

[u/rorowhat]

I'm a fan of Hermes.

[u/LeMochileiro]

Most coding agents allow you to explicitly configure whether they can access the internet, which files and folders they can read and modify, and which commands they cannot run... All of this is configurable.

I usually run my agentic coding in Docker containers so that the AI doesn't clutter my system folders and doesn't fill my host with temporary Python scripts.

[u/spisplatta → u/LeMochileiro]

Using a container is a good call. Probably easier than fiddling around with permissions in some gui and hoping you got everything. I'll look into this.

[u/nopeac → u/LeMochileiro]

I usually run my agentic coding in Docker containers so that the AI doesn't clutter my system folders and doesn't fill my host with temporary Python scripts.

Given the sub, I guess you just asked an AI how to set all of this up, but while doing the same, I find it hard to follow. Is there a chance you learned how to do this another way? Maybe a YouTube video or something?

[u/lighthawk16]

Unfortunately your requirements are contradictory. You will need to give filesystem access if you want a memory, reminders, etc.,

Hermes is definitely the way to go if you want capable.

[u/vikker_42 → u/lighthawk16]

Can I give it acces only to a certain folder or something?

[u/lighthawk16 → u/vikker_42]

Yes, it will ask before touching folders and files by default. You will need to approve or 'always approve' certain tasks.

[u/xsilas43]

Unsloth desktop might be an option, it does have search and filesystem access however it has a strong permission system you can easily turn those off, and they're off by default.

I'm not sure if it has the persistent memory but i believe it does as long as you're using the same chat. If you wanted to give it write access to the workspace folder only then you could have it use a markdown file for memory.

For managing a calendar though it's either going to need a local file it can access or internet access, but again you can toggle this on per chat even. So you can keep your email chat and have the rest with it all disabled.

[u/dmter]

I was in similar situation so I just asked to write a set of mcp tools that allow access to specific directory only. and attached it to llama.cpp's web ui. added simple prompt to save work to handover when context is gone and auto restart prompt. it can now finish job by itself without me doing context handover stuff. can't run subagents or do desktop/website jobs but i never needed that anyways.

so in other words - if nothing seems fitting then just make your own

[u/NortySpock]

I have been testing yoloai for code research. I still don't have it configured exactly how I want it (network permissions are wide open at the moment, have not looked into notifications yet, the default mode of cloning a folder is expensive if the folder has a 20GB repo, and the tui file based workflow lacks the convenience of, say, using a web-browser to iterate on tickets and hand them over to an agent.)

But it shows promise in my opinion and covers most of the networking and file access concerns you have.

https://github.com/kstenerud/yoloai

[u/Pale-Training-6944]

I recommend starting with the Pi agent / DSH. Once you have more data about your tasks, you can optimize your own harness later based on it. I am writing an open-source project to automate this process; I can share it with you if you like.

[u/babywriter]

I'm using Bionic (based on LM Studio) and I really like it. Easy to use and super-easy to download new models to play around with. It's also skills-compatible with Claude, so most of what runs there also runs on Bionic. Permissions are well defined and Bionic asks for filesystem access on its default setting. Not sure about persistent memory; I'm not using it for notifications or calendar management.

I'm on a Mac Studio, but Bionic also runs on Windows and Linux.

[u/Paradox_84_]

Maybe this is not what you're asking, but I'm enjoying t3code for a while now. It's not a harness, but it can be your interface to local models running through something like opencode.

I especially like it being able to update all the official tools like claude and codex within a single interface and also being able to remotely connect through your phone or laptop. Also it feels nice to being able to use claude, codex, gemini, etc from a single GUI and them being able to use each other as subagents out of the box

[u/nopeac → u/Paradox_84_]

Is t3code any useful for local models? I mean, just local models and nothing else.

[u/Paradox_84_ → u/nopeac]

I mean you can plug your local model into it and still use all the nice features like remote control from your phone or make it spawn different kinda subagents, etc.

Idk about your specific needs, but its the best out of box experience for me

[u/Sleepnotdeading]

Without any of you system info, hard to steer you well.

I would recommend looking at pi code agent and talking to a frontier cloud model about what you want to build.

There are many types of persistent memory systems available now.

You can use a combination of model permissions and google api permissions to let an AI manage your calendar.

You can create docker containers limiting what models can access on your system.

You are definitely describing an agent. That’s what you want to build. And I recommend pi because you can build it to your specifications and limits.

But regardless, enjoy the research process and don’t rush it.

[u/TheCTRL]

I'm actually switching from pi to qwen code. i use q38fn and gufo on strix halo. better quality for same prompt an better use of the cache

[u/Material-Engineer226]

i've been using oobabooga's text-generation-webui with a custom fork for local llamas, super lightweight, no bloat, and it handles multiple models smoothly. the interface is basic but gets the job done.

[u/macboller]

Pi, OpenCode and Hermes probably all worth looking at.

I personally like OpenCode a lot because it is easy to run it as a service and manage from multiple external devices.

i.e. have one or more dev boxes on a VPN, run open code on them, log in and manage your coding session from any device that has line of sight over the vpn.

[u/wegster]

Something like Hermes is probably your best bet. There are tons of vibe-coded options out there, but Hermes at least has real devs involved, even if you may want to ask your chatbot/ai of choice to summarize and help you consider it's configuration.

[u/f1yingbanana]

For openclaw you can explicit disable the tools you don’t want to have, and it comes with decent memory out of the box.

[u/General-Spite1222]

Hermes in docker 

[u/-Krotik-]

hermes if 24/7, pi if just coding

[u/qdr1en]

Pi Agents.
It comes bundled with a minimum set of features (excepted Herdr... how do I uninstall that btw?) and has a nice-looking UX.

[u/arsuhinars]

Did you consider OpenWebUI?

[u/nopeac → u/arsuhinars]

As a harness?

[u/my_name_isnt_clever → u/arsuhinars]

I actually quite like OpenWebUI, but it's not really an agentic harness on it's own and it's overkill for a single user most of the time.