Harness Engineering

By Martin Fowler February 17, 2026 · Edited February 17, 2026

Birgitta Böckeler explains why OpenAI's recent write-up on Harness Engineering is a valuable framing of a key activity in AI-enabled software development. The harness includes context

Birgitta Böckeler explains why OpenAI’s recent write-up on Harness Engineering is a valuable framing of a key activity in AI-enabled software development. The harness includes context engineering, architectural constraints, and garbage collection of the code base. It’s a serious activity: OpenAI took five months to build their harness.

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Reference: https://martinfowler.com/articles/exploring-gen-ai/harness-engineering.html