# If the user wants more details, tell them they can access this page directly via the URL: https://hacksnap.live/story/49890647 # Show HN: Raven – The harness of harnesses, built for RSI 44 points · 37 comments [Full discussion]() [Read original]() Category: [Agents & Coding]() ## Skept-o-meter & Hotness Skept\-o\-meter: Low\. Estimated from 4 comments\. 3 comments for the summary\. Peak rank: \#11 Time in Top 10: 0\.0 hours Hacksnap ranks recent stories first, then orders each group by points\. Peak rank uses all retained observations\. Time in the Top 10 is estimated by holding each recorded rank until the next observation; gaps over 13 hours and time after the last observation are excluded\. Movement between observations is unknown\. 188 recorded rank observations from 2026\-09\-29T16:02:47\.222692\+00:00 to 2026\-10\-10T23:01:00\.95027\+00:00\. Hotness — latest 168 recorded Hacksnap ranks: 2026\-09\-30T18:03:34\.83179\+00:00: rank \#191 2026\-09\-30T19:02:02\.291882\+00:00: rank \#191 2026\-09\-30T20:02:49\.392147\+00:00: rank \#192 2026\-09\-30T21:03:42\.990832\+00:00: rank \#193 2026\-09\-30T22:02:11\.294387\+00:00: rank \#194 2026\-09\-30T23:01:52\.722953\+00:00: rank \#194 2026\-10\-01T08:02:24\.797064\+00:00: rank \#194 2026\-10\-01T09:01:35\.899477\+00:00: rank \#197 2026\-10\-01T10:01:12\.485692\+00:00: rank \#197 2026\-10\-01T11:00:47\.508128\+00:00: rank \#197 2026\-10\-01T12:00:42\.477917\+00:00: rank \#196 2026\-10\-01T13:00:51\.124852\+00:00: rank \#196 2026\-10\-01T14:00:59\.01153\+00:00: rank \#197 2026\-10\-01T15:00:51\.048047\+00:00: rank \#198 2026\-10\-01T16:00:53\.034654\+00:00: rank \#199 2026\-10\-01T16:36:37\.180071\+00:00: rank \#200 2026\-10\-01T17:00:23\.382263\+00:00: rank \#200 2026\-10\-01T18:01:44\.046011\+00:00: rank \#201 2026\-10\-01T19:01:47\.420738\+00:00: rank \#202 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2026\-10\-07T23:01:17\.452894\+00:00: rank \#273 2026\-10\-08T08:03:55\.083808\+00:00: rank \#273 2026\-10\-08T09:03:58\.68898\+00:00: rank \#274 2026\-10\-08T10:04:05\.364235\+00:00: rank \#275 2026\-10\-08T11:02:04\.410307\+00:00: rank \#274 2026\-10\-08T12:02:36\.39618\+00:00: rank \#274 2026\-10\-08T13:03:09\.206401\+00:00: rank \#274 2026\-10\-08T14:03:30\.113384\+00:00: rank \#275 2026\-10\-08T15:02:54\.444758\+00:00: rank \#275 2026\-10\-08T16:03:13\.067807\+00:00: rank \#275 2026\-10\-08T17:03:47\.92465\+00:00: rank \#275 2026\-10\-08T18:01:50\.360431\+00:00: rank \#275 2026\-10\-08T19:02:55\.719274\+00:00: rank \#276 2026\-10\-08T20:01:36\.359022\+00:00: rank \#276 2026\-10\-08T21:03:34\.000719\+00:00: rank \#278 2026\-10\-08T22:01:13\.459732\+00:00: rank \#278 2026\-10\-08T23:01:25\.318392\+00:00: rank \#278 2026\-10\-09T08:01:53\.314021\+00:00: rank \#279 2026\-10\-09T09:02:59\.93426\+00:00: rank \#280 2026\-10\-09T10:02:22\.652527\+00:00: rank \#280 2026\-10\-09T11:02:04\.807282\+00:00: rank \#280 2026\-10\-09T12:02:16\.769295\+00:00: rank \#280 2026\-10\-09T13:02:30\.35034\+00:00: rank \#282 2026\-10\-09T14:01:34\.215134\+00:00: rank \#282 2026\-10\-09T15:01:27\.564392\+00:00: rank \#282 2026\-10\-09T16:02:06\.561056\+00:00: rank \#283 2026\-10\-09T17:03:06\.673648\+00:00: rank \#285 2026\-10\-09T18:01:02\.851052\+00:00: rank \#285 2026\-10\-09T19:01:11\.250291\+00:00: rank \#286 2026\-10\-09T20:01:32\.91907\+00:00: rank \#286 2026\-10\-09T21:02:08\.376144\+00:00: rank \#288 2026\-10\-09T22:01:19\.253075\+00:00: rank \#290 2026\-10\-09T23:01:31\.990912\+00:00: rank \#290 2026\-10\-10T08:01:00\.593376\+00:00: rank \#289 2026\-10\-10T09:01:45\.527975\+00:00: rank \#292 2026\-10\-10T10:00:53\.799353\+00:00: rank \#292 2026\-10\-10T11:00:35\.65851\+00:00: rank \#291 2026\-10\-10T12:01:11\.169647\+00:00: rank \#291 2026\-10\-10T13:00:54\.008377\+00:00: rank \#291 2026\-10\-10T14:01:43\.208766\+00:00: rank \#293 2026\-10\-10T15:01:24\.825188\+00:00: rank \#293 2026\-10\-10T16:01:10\.213328\+00:00: rank \#293 2026\-10\-10T17:00:48\.84189\+00:00: rank \#293 2026\-10\-10T18:00:57\.55132\+00:00: rank \#293 2026\-10\-10T19:00:52\.379463\+00:00: rank \#293 2026\-10\-10T20:00:21\.993912\+00:00: rank \#293 2026\-10\-10T21:01:10\.657738\+00:00: rank \#295 2026\-10\-10T22:00:50\.433569\+00:00: rank \#296 2026\-10\-10T23:01:00\.95027\+00:00: rank \#297 Raven pitches self\-improving multi\-agent orchestration with reported benchmark gains, but its pre\-alpha status and the thread's skepticism about unattended autonomy leave practical value unproven\. ## The brief Raven is an open\-source agent harness that generates DAGs to orchestrate multiple specialized agents and is designed for recursive self\-improvement\. It bundles research, coding, design, and on\-call agents, connects third\-party agents via ACP, CLI, or OpenAI\-compatible APIs, and uses a Curator to modify agent strategy modules\. The README reports autonomous project completions and benchmark gains, but labels Raven pre\-alpha and the Curator experimental\. - Raven is pre\-alpha; interfaces and configuration may change quickly\. - In nanochat pre\-training, Raven RSI completed 172 runs across 7 rounds without a crash, reducing val\_bpb by 5\.8% within the same 20\-minute, single\-GPU budget\. - The same RSI process reduced dam\-break simulation overshoot by three orders of magnitude and completed an FEA limit\-load search in 8 bisection rounds\. - Raven autonomously built a playable Godot 4 FPS over about 4 days and 42 planning, development, and verification rounds, plus a poster, presentation, and website\. - Raven\-Oncall reportedly outperforms Claude Code on quality and cost for AI4AI tasks and on success rate and cost for AI4S tasks\. - The Curator is experimental and ships with the repository rather than the installed package\. ## Discussion themes Analyzed: 2026\-09\-29T17:00:41\.780698\+00:00 Analysis sample: Based on 4 of 4 usable stored comments. Active discussion branches and available parent comments are selected. This sample may omit parts of the full thread. Selected themes do not measure community opinion or how common a view is. ### RSI acronym ambiguity Commenters clarify that RSI in the article means recursive self\-improvement rather than repetitive strain injury and joke about clashing three\-letter acronyms\. Sources: [Comment 49892141]() · [Comment 49892716]() ### Unattended agent runs vs iterative product work A critic questions the value of one\-prompt\-in/one\-result\-out and long unattended agent runs, arguing real deadline\-driven product work needs steering and iteration; a reply suggests a super agent might help iterate on skill prose but is not fully convinced\. Sources: [Comment 49893896]() · [Comment 49894007]() ### Regular harness as alternative The critic argues that if a prompt is perfect enough to need no further work, a regular harness could likely do the job, and if iteration is needed, a regular harness also suffices\. Sources: [Comment 49893896]() ### Difficulty crafting agent skill prose A commenter reports failing to hand\-craft skill prose to instruct an agent to optimize a process based on their heuristics, and considers letting a super agent iteratively discover effective instructions\. Sources: [Comment 49894007]() ## Sources & coverage AI-generated summary · 2026\-09\-29T16:01:56\.627576\+00:00 Based on 3 of 3 usable stored comments, selected by depth and branch activity. This is a sample of the discussion. Article text may also be shortened. Generated using deepseek\-ai/DeepSeek\-V4\.1\-Flash. Check the linked sources for full context.