Production agents that survive a regulated, multi-site environment.
Harness engineering and loop engineering for teams that need Claude Code as a practice, not a demo.
Rick Hightower
Claude Certified Architect (CCA-F). Authoring Manning’s Harness Engineering book. Former Senior Distinguished Engineer, with background at Capital One and Apple. Based in Austin; works remotely.
Full bio →A resident architect for production agents
This engagement is for buyers who need someone embedded with the team that has to ship agents in a regulated or multi-site environment. Demos are easy. Surviving policy, cost, and real traffic is the work.
Harness engineering and loop engineering
Harness engineering
The governed runtime around the model: evals, hooks, tool contracts, observability, and stop conditions. The model supplies intelligence. The harness supplies discipline.
Loop engineering
How the agentic loop is designed so it actually finishes, verifies, and stays in budget. A loop that cannot stop, check its work, or account for cost is a demo that will fail in production.
Claude Code as a team practice
Not a personal toy. Shared conventions, permissions, review, and a harness the whole team can run. The point is a practice your engineers own after the stand-up ends.
How a stand-up works
A resident / FDE architect sits with your team for a defined window, builds the system with them, and leaves the practice behind. The output is a system and a team, not a deck.
Resident / FDE architect
Embedded with the people who will run the agents after we leave. Design, implementation, and review happen in your environment.
4–16 weeks
Long enough to stand up a real harness and a working loop. Short enough that the team owns it before the engagement ends.
A system and a team, not a deck
Working evals, contracts, observability, and stop conditions. Engineers who can extend the practice without a consultant in the room.
$250+/hr
Rate for the resident architect engagement. Scope and duration are set in discovery so the stand-up has a clear finish line.
Engineering Reliable Agentic AI Systems
A hands-on workshop on system architecture, harness engineering, and loop engineering. Saturday, August 29, 2026 · 11:00 AM–4:00 PM EDT · online · with Rick Hightower.
The workshop is the class; the stand-up is the engagement. Book a discovery if you want a resident architect after the workshop, not just the session.