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# Forget humans “in” the loop. Harness engineering puts humans “on” the loop.

**[The New Stack](https://daily.dev/sources/newstack)** · [@jkriggins](https://daily.dev/jkriggins) · 7 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Thoughtworks distinguished engineer Kief Morris argues that as AI agents take over more of software development, teams must shift from humans being 'in' the loop to being 'on' the loop — overseeing and guiding agents rather than writing code directly. The key is harness engineering: building CI/CD pipelines with leading operability metrics (DORA, performance testing, failure scenario testing, compliance auditing) that enforce quality conventions and keep codebases production-ready without requiring developers to review every line of AI-generated code. Morris warns that LLMs optimize for shipping features, not building software that lasts, and that without proper guardrails, teams accumulate cognitive debt and lose control of their systems. The solution is treating agentic workflows the same way continuous delivery treats bugs — fixing the process, not just the output.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://thenewstack.io/ai-agents-harness-engineering>

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