Harnesses

A harness is the command adapter Tycho uses to run a coding-agent CLI.

Tycho includes harnesses for Codex, Claude, OpenCode, and Pi. Each one uses the same Tycho operator workflow: launch an agent session, monitor its state, read its output, send follow-ups, and resume its native session. The underlying CLI still owns authentication, permissions, models, and provider-specific behavior.

Built-in Harnesses

Harness	Executable	Override
Codex	codex	TYCHO_CODEX_BIN
Claude	claude	TYCHO_CLAUDE_BIN
OpenCode	opencode	TYCHO_OPENCODE_BIN
Pi	pi	TYCHO_PI_BIN

Install and authenticate the CLI you plan to use before starting its first agent session. A missing harness executable does not stop Tycho itself, but a session that uses it cannot run.

Tycho parses each built-in harness’s native output, records conversation and run history, preserves its native session ID, and maps configured model and reasoning-effort values to that CLI’s arguments. This creates a consistent supervision workflow, not identical behavior across the four CLIs.

Pi support targets @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent 0.73.1. Install the exact supported version:

npm install -g --ignore-scripts @mariozechner/[email protected]

Run pi, enter /login, and authenticate a provider. Then verify readiness before selecting the harness:

pi --list-models

Tycho reports Pi as ready only when that command returns at least one authenticated model.

Harness and Workspace Safety

Tycho starts the chosen CLI inside the registered project path. Review that path, the prompt, and the harness’s own approval and sandbox settings before starting an agent session. Tycho removes its Remote UI and GitHub bearer tokens, plus Ruby and Bundler loader state, before spawning a harness, but the harness still inherits the rest of the Tycho process environment.

Sandbox labels do not mean the same thing across harnesses. In particular, Pi has no native equivalent to Tycho’s workspace-write or read-only filesystem sandboxes. For any Pi mode other than danger-full-access, Tycho restricts Pi to read,grep,find,ls; this is a tool allowlist, not a filesystem boundary. Treat Pi’s restricted modes conservatively and do not give a project access to secrets that the selected CLI should not read.

Install the Tycho Skill

Remote UI Settings → Skills manages Tycho’s bundled agent skill for the supported harnesses:

Harness	Personal install path	Invocation
Codex	~/.agents/skills/tycho/SKILL.md	$tycho
Claude Code	~/.claude/skills/tycho/SKILL.md	/tycho
OpenCode	~/.config/opencode/skills/tycho/SKILL.md	$tycho
Pi	~/.pi/agent/skills/tycho/SKILL.md	/skill:tycho

Install and Update require confirmation. Tycho adds an ownership marker and checksums its managed files. It updates only an unmodified Tycho-owned installation; an unmarked directory, local edits, an invalid marker, or a symlink produces Blocked instead of an overwrite. Updates stage and atomically replace managed files while preserving extra files in the owned directory.

After installation, verify the row reads Installed and invoke the skill from the harness. Restart the harness if it does not discover a new top-level skill. TYCHO_SKILLS_HOME changes the home prefix for isolated profiles; normal installs should leave it unset.

Choose a Project Default

Set agent on a project in ~/.tycho/config/hq.yml:

projects:
  - key: my-workspace
    name: My Workspace
    group: Personal
    path: /Users/you/Code/my-workspace
    agent: codex

The TUI and Remote UI expose the same choice when you create or edit a project.

Override One Agent Session

Choose another harness when you create a session without changing the project default:

tycho agent create my-workspace \
  "Review the failing tests and suggest a fix" \
  --harness opencode \
  --run

The selected harness becomes part of that durable agent session. Follow-ups and resumed runs continue through the same harness.

Override Executable Lookup

Tycho normally resolves each built-in executable from PATH. Set its environment override when the binary lives elsewhere:

export TYCHO_CODEX_BIN=/opt/homebrew/bin/codex
export TYCHO_CLAUDE_BIN=/Users/you/.local/bin/claude
export TYCHO_OPENCODE_BIN=/Users/you/.local/bin/opencode
export TYCHO_PI_BIN=/Users/you/.local/bin/pi

Only set the override for the harnesses you use. The value must point to an executable file.

Add a Custom Harness Profile

Custom harnesses can use the native codex, claude, opencode, or pi adapter. Define a unique key, its native adapter, and an execution command. Tycho keeps that adapter’s native session, parsing, skills, metrics, and readiness behavior:

custom_harnesses:
  - key: claude-wrapper
    adapter: claude
    execution_command: /Users/you/bin/claude-wrapper

projects:
  - key: my-workspace
    name: My Workspace
    group: Personal
    path: /Users/you/Code/my-workspace
    agent: claude-wrapper

execution_command may be a shell string or an argument list:

custom_harnesses:
  - key: bedrock-claude
    adapter: claude
    execution_command:
      - env
      - CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1
      - /Users/you/bin/claude

The command must accept the selected adapter’s native flags for streaming output, structured results, model and effort selection, and native-session resume. Tycho validates the configuration and executable, but the wrapper remains responsible for its provider credentials and runtime dependencies. Existing adapter: claude profiles remain valid.

A custom key cannot be codex, claude, opencode, or pi, because those names belong to the built-in harnesses.

Structured Result Validation

Tycho validates a managed agent’s final result against ~/.tycho/config/schemas/agent_result.json before accepting success. If Codex, Pi, or a Claude-compatible harness returns malformed JSON or violates the schema, Tycho sends safe error details to the same native session and asks for one complete replacement payload. Error feedback contains codes, schema paths, expected types, and allowed enum values, not rejected field values.

The default is two correction attempts after the initial response. Set TYCHO_STRUCTURED_OUTPUT_CORRECTION_LIMIT=0 to keep validation but disable correction, or choose up to 5. If correction is exhausted, the run fails with an actionable summary. Tycho keeps the final invalid response in an owner-readable *.invalid_structured_output.json diagnostic file and does not expose it as a successful result.

OpenCode cold prompts use the same canonical result schema, but bounded same-session correction applies only to Codex, Pi, and Claude-compatible adapters. The Remote UI shows each validation attempt as a collapsed Tycho system event without copying rejected values into the conversation.

Keep Harness Behavior Explicit

Tycho standardizes supervision, not the coding agents themselves. When switching harnesses, expect differences in:

• authentication and provider access;
• model names and reasoning-effort values;
• permission and sandbox behavior;
• skill discovery and native configuration;
• error messages and CLI release behavior.

Configure and test each CLI directly when a difference comes from the harness rather than Tycho.