Context Engineering vs. Harness Engineering: Building Better AI Agents

Published October 9, 2026

Explore the evolution from prompt engineering to context engineering and harness engineering, and learn how these approaches transform basic LLMs into powerful AI agents. In this discussion with Aarish, we break down how context is selected and managed, what makes up an AI agent harness, and why tools like Cursor and Claude Code can perform differently even when using similar models. Learn how tool orchestration, memory, runtime environments, and evaluations contribute to building more reliable AI systems. ⏱ Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:42 Evolution of Prompt Engineering 2:34 What is Context Engineering 5:29 Transition to Harness Engineering 8:11 What Does a Harness Include 10:55 Evaluating Harnesses #ContextEngineering #HarnessEngineering #PromptEngineering #AIAgents #LLM #AgenticAI #AIEngineering ============================= Brainforge helps teams build scalable data platforms and production AI agents that turn complex data into clear, actionable insights. ⚡ Learn more about what we're building: 👉 https://www.brainforge.ai/ 📅 Join upcoming Brainforge events: 👉 https://luma.com/brainforge ============================= Connect with Us LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ukumaran/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsengr/