harness

[ HAR-nis ]noun

Everything built around an AI to turn it into something that can do jobs: standing instructions, tools, retries, memory, and the wiring between them.

Explanation

Also called scaffolding. These days most of the improvement on long jobs comes from a better harness, not a smarter model, which is why builders talk about it more than they talk about the model itself.

Related words

• agentic coding — Working with an AI that goes off and does a whole job in a loop — looks things up, uses tools, checks its own work — instead of answering one question at a time.
• tool use — An AI actually doing something — running a command, reading a file, sending a request — instead of only writing about it.
• system prompt — Standing instructions that apply to every message in a conversation, sitting behind whatever you type.