Compare Harnesses

The four harnesses that come with Link, side by side. Every one takes a hosted model from Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter with your key, and speaks Telegram, Slack, Discord and Signal.

lnk agent use --harness openclaw    # switch to one, installing it the first time

Where they differ

Each row is one way they differ: who makes it, how it installs, which local models it takes, and what it remembers.

Link HarnessOpenClawHermes AgentDeepSeek Harness
Made byLocal LinkThe OpenClaw projectNous ResearchDeepSeek
Switch to itlnk agent use --harness linklnk agent use --harness openclawlnk agent use --harness hermeslnk agent use --harness deepseek
InstallIn a second, nothing from a third partyIts release, with its own NodeIts release, with its own Python and Nodedsh and Node, about 800 MB
Local modelsAny runtimeOllama only, 32k contextAny runtime, 64k contextAny runtime
ConnectionsAll four, carried by LinkAll four, carried by LinkAll four, carried by LinkAll four, carried by Link
Asks for more than Link's defaultsNeverNo sandbox with OpenAI on a MacNeverNever
Its memoryPlain files in your files folderMEMORY.md in its workspace, and what's kept elsewhereIts MEMORY.md, and what's kept elsewhereA dsh session per chat
Link Scheduler: subagents and schedulesYesNo; its own scheduled jobs reach no chatNo; its own scheduled jobs reach no chatNo
Its own sitelocal.linkopenclaw.ainousresearch.comGitHub

Pick one

Your agent runs Link Harness unless you pick another.

  • Link Harness to start. It's small and readable, installs in a second, asks for nothing beyond Link's defaults, and keeps each conversation as files you can read. It's the one harness that starts subagents and schedules messages to itself.
  • OpenClaw for OpenClaw's personal assistant, with its own personality files. It runs local models only through Ollama.
  • Hermes Agent for Nous Research's agent, with a model in Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, vLLM or Jan. Its hermes claw migrate brings over OpenClaw's memory and skills.
  • DeepSeek Harness for DeepSeek's open-source agent, with DeepSeek's models on OpenRouter or any other. Link turns off everything it would send DeepSeek, its web search among them.

Switch Harnesses says what comes along when you switch, and Harnesses what Link does for every one.