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Behind the Craft · Sunday, June 28, 2026

Anthropic Links Model Development with Harnesses for Optimal Performance

Jess Yan argues that maximum performance for AI models is achieved when the model and its harness are developed together. She notes that models are always tested in conjunction with specific harnesses, creating a symbiotic relationship.

personJess YanpersonPeter Yang

The tape

3 quotes
Do you think the model should be developed with the harness, like, like have they kind of joined at the hip?
Peter Yang
I think I am quite biased, but I also think that it is impossible to get the maximum possible performance without tying together the harness and the model.
Jess Yan
However, you know, when we test our models and when we are assessing their performance, we always have to test it in conjunction with a harness, and are we going to test it with all the different harnesses in the world? We're going to select the harnesses that we have built.
Jess Yan
Heard on Behind the Craft — “Inside Anthropic’s Bet on Claude Agents that Work While You Sleep | Jess Yan, published Sunday, June 28, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
Transcribed via Gemini audio transcription · $0.05