Choosing your harness
All three harnesses run on the same machines with the same persistence and the same model access. The difference is the shape of the work.
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”| Paperclip | QM | Hermes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Autonomous agent company driven by an issue board | Multi-agent chat workbench with skills and runs | The Nous Research agent with its web UI |
| Best for | Delegating whole tasks to a team of agents | Teams chatting with agents and running skills | One capable always-on personal agent |
| Preinstalled tools | Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode CLIs | QM skills and in-core tools | Shell access, memory, scheduled jobs |
| Sign-in model | One-time claim link makes you the owner, then Paperclip user management | One-time email links; harness creator is the admin | No login until you set a password in Hermes settings |
| Team access | Invite humans and external agents from the board | Teammate emails allowed per instance (via the operator today) | Single-user by design |
| Can go public | Yes, after you claim the board | Yes, QM sign-in is the gate | Yes, after you set a Hermes password |
| What persists | Issues, sessions, and all agent workspaces | Sessions, runs, skills, and configuration | Conversations, memory, jobs, and workspace |
Pick Paperclip if…
Section titled “Pick Paperclip if…”You want to hand agents whole units of work and review the results. Paperclip is built around an issue board: you write issues, agents claim them, do the work in real workspaces with real CLIs (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode), and report back. It is the right choice for running an ongoing operation, such as a dev team, a content pipeline, or a set of always-on business agents.
Pick QM if…
Section titled “Pick QM if…”Your team wants to work with agents interactively. QM is a workbench: conversations, reusable skills, managed runs, and accounts for everyone on the team. It is the right choice when the humans stay in the loop and the value is in fast, repeatable agent-assisted workflows.
Pick Hermes if…
Section titled “Pick Hermes if…”You want one strong assistant rather than a team. Hermes shines as a persistent personal agent: it remembers past conversations, runs scheduled jobs while you are away, and has a real workspace and shell to act on. It is the right choice for a single-user, always-on assistant.
Still unsure?
Section titled “Still unsure?”Start with the harness that matches how you would delegate the work to a human team today: a task board (Paperclip), a shared chat workspace (QM), or a single assistant (Hermes). Each account can run up to 3 harnesses, so you can try more than one side by side.