Multi-Agent Harness
What to call the stack, how harness differs from chat rooms, and a map of QM, Buzz, Slack agents, GFAVIP, Hermes, OpenClaw, and more
← AI Agents · QM (YC) · Buzz · Hermes · OpenClaw · GFAVIP Webchat · Multiplayer agents · Company Brain
Is “multi-agent harness” the right name?
Yes — as a research category. YC’s QM post uses that phrase directly: an open-source multi-agent harness for company work. The industry also says “agent runtime,” “agent OS,” “company brain,” or “agent-first Slack.” Those overlap but aren’t identical:
| Term | Usually means | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-agent harness | Runtime that runs, schedules, and tools multiple agents with memory/triggers | Comparing QM, Hermes, OpenClaw, Grok workflows |
| Chat / collab surface | Rooms where humans (and agents) message | Buzz, Slack, GFAVIP, Teams |
| Multiplayer agent | Many humans ↔ one shared agent identity + memory | How people work with agents in rooms (guide) |
| Company brain / OS | Durable knowledge + workflows for the org | HEOS, single brain, vault, SOPs |
| CLI for agents | Task-shaped tools agents invoke in a shell | Maps under the harness (CLI guide) |
On this site we use multi-agent harness for the orchestration layer, and keep separate pages for each product. This page is the map.
Three layers (always separate them)
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Chat surface (Slack, Buzz, GFAVIP…) │ humans see work
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Multi-agent harness (QM, Hermes…) │ agents run, remember, trigger
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Portable OS / vault (HEOS, KB) │ durable truth, rulings
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
↑ CLIs / MCP / APIs as toolsMistakes happen when you treat Slack as the brain, or a harness as the only place knowledge lives. Own the vault; rent or open-source the harness; pick a surface your team will actually open.
Landscape map (what we track)
Company multi-agent harnesses
QM (Quartermaster) — YC
MIT multi-agent harness for whole-company use; Slack + web; triggers, memory, company-brain connectors, browser, artifacts, multi-player projects.
Hermes Agent
Operator favorite runtime: profiles by job, skills, crons, memory levels — “customize like Hermes” is the baseline YC compared to.
Read →Grok Build workflows
Terminal harness: /goal, /loop, /create-workflow
(Morgan Linton notes,
worktrees.
Chat / collab surfaces (humans + agents in rooms)
Slack + agent tags
Claude Tag (multiplayer in Slack, lock-in risk) · Open Tag (model-agnostic) · Project Deal
Memory, multiplayer, tools
Multiplayer agents
Shared room + durable memory + permissions — how teams share one agent.
Company Brain
Eric Siu single-brain: specialists, closed loops, Slack-native ambient agent.
Knowledge base / vault
Offer, client, voice, playbooks, rulings — harness food.
Headless Empire OS
Portable markdown OS: command center, agent roster, 05-knowledge-base.
CLI for agents
Task-shaped CLIs beat raw API thrash under any harness.
Computer use
When agents must click UIs (browser path QM also mentions).
Comparison matrix (decision aid)
| Need | Look first |
|---|---|
| Company agents in Slack + web, OSS from YC | QM |
| Solo/operator runtime, profiles, skills, crons | Hermes, OpenClaw |
| Open, self-sovereign rooms (not Slack) | Buzz |
| Our team already on GFAVIP | GFAVIP Webchat + harness of choice + HEOS vault |
| IDE/terminal coding agents | Grok Build / Cursor, Claude Code, Codex |
| Portable knowledge that outlives any product | HEOS + vault |
| API-native agent employees | PowerLobster |
Recommended stack for us (opinionated)
- Surface: GFAVIP Webchat as primary rooms (Buzz for experiments; Slack only if a partner forces it).
- Harness: evaluate QM for company-wide Slack/web patterns; keep Hermes/OpenClaw/Grok Build where they already run well.
- OS: Headless Empire OS + five-note vault + rulings — source of truth.
- Tools: agent CLIs over raw APIs; MCP only when the host needs it.
- Allocation: role agents in rooms, not one mega-agent per person (Hermes allocation / multiplayer).
Related deep dives
References
- QM — github.com/yc-software/qm · qm.ycombinator.com · X launch · our QM notes
- Block — Buzz · github.com/block/buzz
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