Choose your path
Pick Service, Harness, or Harness UI by where your agents run and who operates them.
Agent Foundation supports managed execution through Service, embedded execution through Harness, and interactive work through Harness UI.
| Your goal | What you need | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy a shared agent platform | Docker Compose and a model provider account for the local trial | Service quickstart |
| Use your team's agents | Console URL, an account, and permission to run an agent | Use an existing platform |
| Call remote agents from an application | Service URL, workspace API key, and a configured agent | Connect your application |
| Run agents inside your Python process | Python 3.13+ and uv; the first example uses an offline model | Harness quickstart |
| Work interactively in a repository | Harness UI and a supported model subscription or API key | Harness UI setup |
Choose where execution lives
- Service: your application submits work to a running deployment. Service owns identities, saved conversations, and durable execution; Console is its browser application.
- Harness: your Python process constructs and runs the agent. Your application owns storage, access policy, and delivery.
- Harness UI: the terminal and browser workbench runs agents with its own configuration and conversation history. Share an instance with trusted collaborators.
A Service SDK is a client for remote execution. The Harness library executes agents inside your process. Service Console and Harness UI's browser are separate applications.
Use individual components
| Need | Guide |
|---|---|
| Portable files and commands, with or without an agent | Environments |
| Environment operations through a daemon | Envd |
| AG-UI events from Harness observations | Stream Protocol |
| Distribution names, imports, and runnable examples | Package catalog |
For a guided explanation of one conversation, read Core concepts. For deployment operations, see Run and maintain. Service clients have independent versions; check their supported contract against your deployment.