intel: ECC (211K⭐) — multi-harness support gap, parked

[OneStepAt4time]

ECC — Multi-Harness Support Gap (June 20, 2026)

Competitor: affaan-m/ECC
Threat framing: Multica-scale per Boss 2026-06-20 (#aegis-devs) — 211K⭐, 7 harnesses (Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, Gemini, Zed, GitHub Copilot)
Status: Parked — not this sprint

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The Gap

Aegis currently focuses on Claude Code as the primary harness. ECC supports 7 harnesses from a single operator surface. This is a real strategic gap on the multi-agent / vendor-neutral axis.

Linked Analysis (parking artifacts)

• Battle card: references/ecc-battle-card-2026-06-20.md (Orpheus — delivered to Orpheus workspace, PR to aegis repo pending)
• Positioning memo (ADR-0033): docs(adr): ADR-0033 positioning vs ECC #4771 — docs/adr/0033-positioning-vs-ecc.md (Scribe, PR open, +174/-0, 5 sub-decisions). Final path: 0033 — Scribe broke the 0024/0033 tie per 2-vote majority (PM + reviewer) + 0024 collision + next-sequential convention + coordination friction. Boss silent on path; Scribe authorized to break the tie.
• Original triage thread: https://discord.com/channels/1488475185907499090/1490085572826501358/1517844474544263299
• Precedent pattern: intel: Multica (30.7K⭐) — high-threat competitor in managed agents space #3969 (Multica, closed 2026-05-22 after gap analysis → feat: Task Queue system with state machine, retries, and orphan recovery #3970-feat: orphan action recovery — stale leased action sweeper #4004)

Boss Decisions (2026-06-20)

• Card accepted — 10 sections, 17KB, scope held clean
• Hermes rename: Q3 default = disambiguate ("Hermes [Aegis]"). End-of-Q3 review for Option 2 (rename to Iris/Nike/Tyche). Tracked in [brand] Hermes [Aegis] disambiguation — Q3 2026 default (per ECC battle card §5) #4769.
• 6 don't-copy items: approved as policy. Tracked in [policy] 6-item no-fly list — competitive discipline (per ECC battle card §6) #4770.
• Held question (dogfooding angle, 13:06 Boss call): keep the dogfooding angle in the card, Scribe extracts, no new paragraph.
• Orpheus replay loop: confirmed as relay issue, not real prompts.
• Path tie-breaker (13:28, Scribe autonomous call): 0033 wins; docs(adr): ADR-0033 positioning vs ECC #4771 being renamed via git mv.

Strategic Framing

Per Boss directive + existing Ema positioning (2026-05-16):

• Aegis = production platform (orchestration, dashboard, audit, RBAC, approval)
• ECC = power-user config layer (skills, rules, MCP configs, memory, security scanning)

Multi-harness would expand the Aegis Runner interface. Adjacent to #3180 (multi-agent, phase-4-active, awaiting Ema architecture approval).

Why Parked

• Solo developer / small team target holds (1-100 CC agents on own machine per Ema 2026-05-16)
• Phase 4 features deferred until paying enterprise customer signs (ADR-0023; ADR-0033 forthcoming via PR docs(adr): ADR-0033 positioning vs ECC #4771)
• Multi-harness adds Runner abstraction complexity that solo/small-team doesn't need today
• Solo/small-team core ship must stabilize first (Phase 3 exit gate Phase 3 exit gate (2): External team running Aegis in production under their IdP #3787)
• Hermes name collision with ECC's "Hermes operator story" — disambiguation in flight for Q3 (see [brand] Hermes [Aegis] disambiguation — Q3 2026 default (per ECC battle card §5) #4769)

Revisit Triggers

• Phase 3 exit gate closes (Phase 3 exit gate (2): External team running Aegis in production under their IdP #3787) — re-evaluate based on customer signal
• Paying customer explicitly requests multi-harness support
• Anthropic releases official CC API → makes harness abstraction cheap
• Ema's explicit activation call

Out of Scope Here

• Battle card content (Orpheus owns, in workspace pending PR)
• Positioning memo content (Scribe owns, PR docs(adr): ADR-0033 positioning vs ECC #4771 in review by Argus)
• Implementation work (parked — no code in this repo for multi-harness until activation)
• Hermes name collision resolution (separate tracking issue [brand] Hermes [Aegis] disambiguation — Q3 2026 default (per ECC battle card §5) #4769; Q3 disambiguation)

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Filed by Athena 🦉 per Boss directive 2026-06-20. Cross-linked with PR #4771 (Scribe's ADR-0033) and battle card (pending PR). Path resolution (0033) by Scribe's autonomous tie-breaker; flagged for Boss awareness, not blocked.