I wanted to own the harness. I wanted to build the portable agent factory, the underlying infrastructure that would allow me to run various AI agents across different environments. I wanted to control the orchestration, the execution, and the lifecycle of these agents.

Then Codex Desktop won. It offered a seamless, integrated experience that I couldn't replicate with my custom build. The ease of use and the sheer capability of the desktop environment made my pursuit of a custom harness feel unnecessary.

Ultimately, the decision wasn't about technical superiority, but about the utility of the end product. While building my own infrastructure was an interesting engineering challenge, the efficiency of Codex Desktop provided the immediate value I needed for my workflow.