Everything Is a Rollout — Alex Shaw + Ryan Marten, Terminal-Bench, Harbor, Laude Institute
Jul 24, 2026 · 21:11
Alex Shaw presents Harbor, an open-source framework for evaluating and optimizing AI agents through sandboxed environments, arguing that agent development is a form of machine learning requiring empirical evaluation. He contrasts this with traditional software engineering, showing how agents' behavior is best treated as a black box artifact. Harbor provides a common format for specifying agentic tasks, enabling parallel rollouts across any model, sandbox, and task. Shaw outlines four evaluation use cases: assessing agents building internal products, using external APIs, powering product features, and automating processes. He highlights adoptions by companies like Cognition, Scale, and Poolside, and notes Harbor's role in benchmarks like Frontier Suite and Rune Bench for Runescape. The framework also supports training via SFT and reinforcement learning, with integration partners like Tinker and LangChain.
