Vocabulary
Harness
The thin (or not so thin) software wrapped around a model: tools, UI, memory, guardrails — where product value often actually sits.
Also called: AI harness
A harness is everything around the model weights: the chat UI, tool calling, memory, eval loops, permissions, the glue that turns a completion API into a product people pay for.
History is full of flashlight apps that died when the platform absorbed the feature. Model harnesses face a similar gravity. The durable ones usually own workflow, data, or trust — not just a prettier box around someone else’s model.
Cups that use this term