# Choose a coding harness by the layer of control you need

> Original title: Choose Your Coding Harness by What You Need to Control—Not by Who Built It

- Source: O'Reilly Radar
- Published: 2026-11-06T11:54:19.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/dna2z5b6spm9lounrlo87mehg
- Original: https://www.oreilly.com/radar/choose-your-coding-harness-by-what-you-need-to-control-not-by-who-built-it/

## Summary

O'Reilly Radar argues that developers should choose a coding harness by which layer they need to control, not by its overall quality. It says Claude Code gives control inside the run through instructions, skills, subagents and hooks, while Codex offers separation through sandboxed, noninteractive runs. Pi exposes the loop itself, and DeepSeek's harness is built from composable plug-ins.