Raft Founder Richard Qian Claims Stronger Models Increase Agent Harness Complexity

Richard Qian argues that while models simplify individual tasks, multi-agent collaboration demands thicker external harnesses for coordination. Raft addresses this by unifying agents in shared workspaces.

Woofun AI reports that Richard Qian, founder of Raft and former creator of Kimi CLI, posits that stronger models may lead to thicker agent harnesses rather than thinner ones. As models handle fixed workflows directly, leaving only basic tools like Bash, new challenges emerge in long-term agent collaboration, including responsibility assignment, context synchronization, and conflict prevention. Raft, developed after Qian left Moonshot AI, addresses these gaps by integrating agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and Kimi CLI into a unified workspace where they can chat, claim tasks, and hand off work. While models replace older harnesses, the complexity of external collaboration systems increases as agents take on more tasks.