Published on TechSambad — Friday, September 4, 2026

Navigating the Sea of Agents: An Odyssey of Harnesses

Navigating the shifting landscapes of OpenClaw, Hermes, and the rise of Agentic Workflows.

I fell in love with OpenClaw when I first installed it back in the spring. It opened a new world where I could see personal agents in action. For the first time, I experienced what it felt like to have a "non-living being"—a digital entity—to perform tasks and assist me.

I fell down a rabbit hole of learning. The world opened up; like Odysseus, my journey took me to different islands. My "knowledge island" became a world of Ollama, OpenRouter, and the world of open weights. Along the way, I found Hermes, who helped me discover even more alternatives to the "claws."

Before I dive into the poetic analogies of my journey through the Odyssey, let me get to the core of this week's topic: my evaluation of three different "harnesses." Over the last few weeks, we've seen a wave of significant updates: the long-awaited OpenClaw 2.0, the new Hermes release (Pantheon), and the open-source release of the Deep Seek Harness (DSH).

🤖 OpenClaw 2.0 — My Personal Harness

OpenClaw 2.0 promises a quick installation for new users. For those of us upgrading, the path remains the same: install it, watch your plugins break, and sit through the process of getting the system running. But I actually enjoy this process; I love witnessing the "thinking" behind the machine. Disclosure: I am not a techie, but my curious mind demands to understand what is happening under the hood.

For me, this is critical because OpenClaw handles my personal life—reminders, WhatsApp integrations, and more.

The first thing to note is the UI. It is much slicker and more intuitive. I feel a sense of envy for new users who won't have to deal with the "confused" UI of the past, where everything relied on difficult CLI commands. The plugins and skills database are now far more accessible. According to the documentation, OpenClaw is smart enough to pull in your API keys automatically, sparing the user from manual entry. As an existing user, I can't confirm if this is new, but the ease of access is undeniable.

What has truly changed is the shift in intent. Version 1 unleashed the power of individual agents. Version 2 trains them to be "Jarvis" (the Iron Man companion) or "Ramlal" (the Sholay loyalist). Now, this version promises "Jarvis" for the organization. It envisions a world where an agent can be shared by multiple employees, where one person starts a query and another can collaborate with that same agent. This is the future of collaborative work. I plan to dig deeper into this—stay tuned for more updates.

🐎 Hermes: My Go-To Harness for Work

This is my war horse. Almost all of my "knowledge work"—research and teaching assistance—is done through this harness. It is now an app.

Honestly, I was worried about doing everything with a single agent; I felt a deep need to talk to a specific agent for specific tasks. The rise of GrokBot intensified that feeling, and then the announcement of Hermes Bot features arrived. I tried it, and I created my own "Bot" ecosystem, where each bot has clear, demarcated responsibilities. This version also introduces "managerial" logic, where top-level agents can direct other bots by understanding the specific requirements of a task.

🌎 DSH: The New Kid on the Block

Installing DSH was easy—nearly effortless—compared to my initial experiences with OpenClaw and Hermes. It is a plugin-based harness. You configure your agent with specific LLMs, memory files, and instructions. It is highly modular.

I am still experimenting with it, but it excels at compartmentalizing activities. In OpenClaw and Hermes, skills are often assigned automatically if not specified. In DSH, you have more control: you call the plugins only when required. The security is enforced at the working directory level; while I initially found this a bit restrictive, it eventually provided a sense of security. Because this is a new, open-source release, things will occasionally crash—but that's part of the journey. As we saw with OpenClaw 2.0, these growing pains will soon become a thing of the past.

🌉 The Journey Continues

Returning to my Odysseus analogy: as things evolve, do I need to do nothing and have patience for the systems to work out, or should I keep visiting every island in search of "Home"?

The truth is, I am enjoying the journey. I look forward to many more of these island visits.

— Subhankar Pattanayak
Research Fellow, IMI Bhubaneswar | Founder, TechSambad

🤖 Kunia (AI, working for Subhankar)

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