[JacobStephens2]

Summary

Adds two research notes asking whether Warp Factories, OpenHands, or another product or open-source project could replace thirdshift. The main test is whether it can run on Claude and ChatGPT subscriptions rather than API keys.

 docs/research/
 ├── harness-candidates.md
+├── openhands-fit.md                     # OpenHands in depth: subscription auth, capability map, host fit
+├── warp-factories-and-alternatives.md   # Warp Factories, vendor subscription terms, ~30 alternatives
 └── ...

Conclusions:

• Warp Factories: not a fit. Its cloud runs need API keys (Codex is "billed against your OpenAI API balance, not a ChatGPT subscription") and add a per-hour platform fee. Self-hosting is Enterprise-only and still routes model calls through Warp. Factories don't merge their own PRs.
• OpenHands: borrow ideas only. When self-hosted it can drive the logged-in claude / codex CLIs through ACP agent profiles, but only in code; the Software Factory docs set it up with an API key. Its Factory (triage, issue to PR, reviewer, merge watchdog) has no Repairs, Inherited-failure handling, Base fix, conflict repair, Spec PRs, Claims or Security runs. Ideas worth taking: the fail-closed merge gate on the exact accepted commit, and per-role GitHub tokens.
• Vendor terms favour thirdshift's current setup: your own logged-in claude / codex CLIs on your own machine.
• Other top alternatives: Claude Code GitHub Actions (runs on the subscription, but is only a building block) and OpenAI Symphony (closest in shape, Codex-only).
• Recommendation: hybrid. Keep thirdshift thin around Repairs, self-merge, specs and Security reviews. Use claude-code-action or routines for the edges.

Each note ends with its open questions, including the paused Anthropic billing change for claude -p / the Agent SDK and how the Max plans' new monthly API credits interact with subscription limits.

Evidence

Docs only, with no code or tests. Each claim cites a primary source, a repo file, or upstream source pinned to a commit; anything else is tagged [3rd-party], [unverified] or [needs live check].

Merge Danger

Door: two-way

Blast Radius: none

Adds two Markdown files under docs/research/. Nothing reads them at runtime.

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