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harness-sdk

Active·★ 8.9k·Apache-2.0·Updated 2026-10-22
★ Essential★ Trending

Strands Agents is an open-source SDK for building agents in Python and TypeScript, aimed at teams who would otherwise hand-write their own agent loop. It runs in your own process with no hosted control plane and bundles lifecycle controls (turn limits, token budgets, cancellation, stop reasons), tools, structured output, MCP, multi-agent patterns, memory, sessions, streaming, guardrails, tracing and evals.

The quickest entry is Strands harness, a fully assembled agent from a single create_harness() (Python) or createHarness() (TypeScript) call, with benchmarked defaults you can later override. When you need more control you drop down to the SDK and own the loop, tools, model providers and hooks yourself.

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Not affiliated with Anthropic, OpenAI or Microsoft.

Guides

It is model-agnostic with first-class support for Amazon Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenAI and Gemini, plus Ollama and custom providers. A Strands plugin for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor adds scaffolding, tool authoring and LangGraph migration help. The project is Apache-2.0 and developed in the open by AWS.

This write-up is based on the project's README and public repository data. We have not hand-tested the tool. Data as of 2026-10-20.

License
Apache-2.0
Latest release
python/v1.61.1 · 2026-10-15
Last commit
2026-10-20
Contributors
334
Forks
1,404
Open issues and PRs
1,030
First published
2025-05-14
npm package
@strands-agents/harness 0.3.0 · 2,021 downloads last week
PyPI package
strands-harness 0.3.1 · 9,270 downloads last week

Source: GitHub, npm and PyPI public APIs.

#agent-sdk#python#typescript#mcp#amazon-bedrock#multi-agent#observability
$ Install
$ pip install strands-harness
↗ Visit site★ GitHub
01

Features

01Strands harness: a ready-made agent with default model, tools, memory, sessions and context management
02Lower-level SDKs in Python (3.10+) and TypeScript (Node 22+) to own the agent loop yourself
03Lifecycle controls such as turn limits, token budgets, cancellation and hooks on every step
04Built-in MCP, structured output, streaming, multi-agent patterns, guardrails, tracing and evals
05Model portability across Amazon Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama and custom providers
02

Why choose it

+Two levels in one SDK: a ready-made harness to start fast, then drop to the loop when defaults aren't enough.
+Lifecycle controls, hooks, guardrails, tracing and evals are built in before you write any config.
+First-class Bedrock support plus Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini and custom providers, backed by AWS.
03

Trade-offs

!Newer than LangGraph or CrewAI, so community examples and third-party integrations are still fewer.
!The harness/SDK split and many built-in subsystems mean some reading before the first production agent.
!AWS lineage shows: Bedrock is the most polished path, others need more setup.
04

Maintenance check

ActiveChecked: 2026-10-19
Last commit
2026-10-19
Commits, last 90 days
100+
Releases, last 90 days
30
Latest release
python/v1.61.1 (2026-10-15)
Open issues
1041
Recent issues with at least one comment
0/14
Commits per week, last 12 weeks
Commits per week, last 12 weeks: 58, 69, 48, 63, 60, 40, 35, 81, 73, 64, 68, 4

Oldest week on the left; the latest four weeks are orange. Source: GitHub commit activity.

Status rule: archived on GitHub = Archived; last commit within 90 days = Active; 91 to 365 days = Slowing; older = Stale. All figures come from the GitHub API on the date shown.

05

Compatibility

Python
Python SDK
Verified via docs
TypeScript
TypeScript SDK
Verified via docs
Claude Code
Plugin
Verified via docs
Cursor
Plugin
Verified via docs
Codex
Plugin
Verified via docs
06

Quick start

1
$ pip install strands-harness
07

Use cases

↳Replacing a hand-rolled agent loop with a maintained SDK
↳Building production agents on AWS with Bedrock models
↳Prototyping a coding or research agent quickly with the harness and CLI
↳Adding tracing, guardrails and evals to existing agent code
08

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strands-agents /
harness-sdk
↗

AWS-backed agent SDK for Python and TypeScript, plus a batteries-included harness you get in one call

8.9k1.4kApache-2.0
Last commit1d ago
StatusActive
CategoryMulti-Agent
Contributors334
Latest releasepython/v1.61.1
Links
Documentation↗Discussion↗Issues↗Releases↗
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