Research Papers
In-depth technical analysis to help engineers evaluate frameworks, tools, and practices.
Harness Engineering: How Claude Code and Codex Became Long-Running Agentic-Engineering Systems
June 2026
A survey of "harness engineering" as an emerging discipline: the pre-wired agentic loop, a borrowed nine-component harness anatomy, three distinct separation patterns for long-running work, a CoALA-grounded memory mapping, and the copilot-to-operator shift, with evidence-status labels on every vendor and practitioner claim.
Topics: Harness engineering, agent harness anatomy, separation patterns, CoALA memory mapping, multi-agent orchestration
When the Loop Never Stops: How Long-Running Agents Broke Seat-Based Pricing and Created the AI Value Problem
June 2026
A causal account of how long-running coding agents mechanically multiplied token consumption, forced the seat-to-token pricing pivot, exhausted enterprise AI budgets, and triggered the late-May 2026 cost reckoning, with every link in the chain traced to a dated, publicly verifiable proof point.
Topics: Token economics, usage-based billing, agentic cost mechanism, enterprise AI budgets, the AI value problem
Always-On Enterprise Agents: Persistent Architecture, Delegated Identity, and the Productivity Hypothesis
April 2026
A research taxonomy of persistent agent patterns for enterprise deployments, grounded in primary vendor documentation. Covers session-anchored architecture, identity-bound governance, and the cycle-time productivity hypothesis.
Topics: Persistent agents, identity-bound delegation, tool-boundary governance, reference architecture, cycle-time productivity
Autonomous AI Agents: Execution Loops vs Interactive Assistance
February 2026
Evidence synthesis comparing autonomous AI agent execution loops against interactive human-in-the-loop assistance, covering SWE-bench benchmarks, the METR RCT, industry telemetry, and adjacent domain evidence.
Topics: Autonomous agents, execution loops, SWE-bench, developer productivity, multi-agent systems, scaling laws
Agentic Development Tools and Execution Architectures
January 2026
Architectural comparison of Claude Code, Goose, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot - how they differ in execution model, context management, and governance.
Topics: Execution architectures, multi-context systems, tool comparison, failure modes
Spec-Driven Development Framework Patterns
January 2026
Analysis of BMAD, SpecKit, and OpenSpec frameworks - when to use each, how they integrate with existing workflows, and practical adoption guidance.
Topics: Specification-driven development, BDD patterns, contract testing, CI/CD integration
Companion Articles
Each paper is supported by practitioner articles in the Articles section.
About
These papers are:
- Practically focused - real-world implementation over theory
- Based on primary sources - official docs, repos, and hands-on experience
- Open - free to use, share, and contribute to
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