Harness overview

Harnesses are the reason FlightPath can keep one workflow model while talking to very different AI assistants.

At a glance

Harness	Runs where	Best for	Notes
copilot-cli	CLI	Default path for GitHub users	Good general-purpose default
claude-cli	CLI	Long-form reasoning and coding	Strong session continuity
codex-cli	CLI	OpenAI Codex workflows	Exposes Codex-specific sandbox controls
opencode-cli	CLI	Provider-flexible OpenCode setups	Useful when OpenCode is already your standard
qwen-cli	CLI	Qwen Code users	Similar workflow model to other CLI harnesses
gemini-cli	CLI	Gemini-based coding workflows	Supports MCP config support
copilot-chat	VS Code chat UI	Users who want to stay in the chat window	No standalone CLI equivalent

Choosing a starting harness

• Start with copilot-cli if you want the path FlightPath is built around by default.
• Use claude-cli if your team already works in Claude Code.
• Use copilot-chat if you want a VS Code-native experience and do not need the standalone CLI.
• Reach for the other CLI harnesses when they already match your preferred assistant or hosting model.

Capability differences

All harnesses use the same workflow schema, but they do not expose identical runtime behavior.

Capability	CLI harnesses	copilot-chat
Interactive terminal mode	Yes	No
Headless execution	Yes	No
Per-harness CLI args	Yes	No
Chat UI integration	No	Yes
CLI session IDs	Yes	No

See the per-harness pages for setup notes and tradeoffs.