Is Harden free?
Yes, per its Product Hunt listing it is free for an individual developer and installs with a single command.
Beam vs HARDEN
Beam vs Harden
Harden is a free, local pre-execution checker: a post-trained model evaluates each tool call against your request and session history before it runs, across seven coding agents including Claude Code and Cursor, and it says it beat frontier models on agent-security benchmarks. That is a claim from its own Product Hunt launch, not something our source research independently verifies. Beam differs by scanning skill files and MCP configs as a separate pre-run step and by keeping a full local activity timeline.
Beam vs Harden, side by side
Details below are drawn from a September 2026 review of the AI agent security market. Some figures are vendor-sourced or analyst estimates, and this is a fast-moving space — check with each vendor before you buy.
| Beam | Harden | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Local-first activity monitor and pre-run scanner for AI coding agents. Early prototype. | Free local security tool for AI coding agents, using a post-trained model to check tool calls pre-execution. |
| Monitoring | Shell commands, file changes, tool calls, network endpoints and browser actions from harnesses such as Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, normalised into local NDJSON with risk flags and evidence attached. | A post-trained model evaluates each tool call against the user's request and session history before it runs, across 7 coding agents: Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Openclaw, Hermes, Amazon Kiro and Gemini AntiGravity. It inspects below the tool-call boundary too — script contents, touched files and dependencies — so a harmless-looking call whose underlying script does something risky can still be caught. |
| Skill / MCP scanning | Yes. SKILL.md files and MCP configurations are scanned before you run them, using 11 heuristic patterns plus an MCP version-pin check. | Not a dedicated pre-run skill scanner. Coverage extends to the install step (e.g. an agent running npx) when that action goes through the monitored tool-call flow. |
| Blocking / enforcement | No. Beam observes and flags. It never allows or denies an action. | Yes. It is a pre-execution check, positioned as 'let it run' instead of approving every action; when it is unsure whether an action is safe, it currently allows and logs it by design rather than blocking, to avoid hurting productivity. |
| Individual use | Runs locally for one person on one machine. Shared teams, fleet rollout and approvals are not built yet. | Free for an individual developer, installed with a single command. |
| Deployment | A local collector plus a local interface. No MDM package, no central console, no SSO, no SOC 2, no SIEM forwarding. | Runs fully locally; repo and tool output reportedly never leave the machine. |
| Source / licence | Not open source today. | Not described as open source in our source research; runs fully locally. |
| Pricing | Not published. | Free for an individual developer. |
Harden in numbers
As reported in our source research. Some figures are estimates.
- Launched
- Product Hunt launch week, September 2026 (per its Product Hunt listing)
- Product Hunt rating
- 4.5 stars, 2 reviews at launch (as reported on Product Hunt)
- Agent coverage
- Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Openclaw, Hermes, Amazon Kiro, Gemini AntiGravity
- Claimed benchmark result
- Says it beat frontier models on agent-security benchmarks, per its own Product Hunt listing — not independently verified in our source research
Where Harden does more
- Checks a tool call before it executes using the user's request and session context, rather than only classifying activity after the fact.
- It is free for individual developers and installs with one command.
- Runs fully locally, keeping repo contents and tool output off any external service.
Where Beam differs
- Beam scans a SKILL.md or mcp.json as its own step before you run it, rather than only evaluating tool calls as they occur.
- Beam normalises shell, file, tool, network and browser activity from several harnesses into one local NDJSON timeline with evidence attached.
- Beam's record and its approach to uncertain cases are documented in this repo; Harden's own account of unsure-verdict handling ('allow and log') comes only from its Product Hunt comments, so treat that detail as vendor-reported.
Beam’s current gaps
- Beam observes and flags. It has no blocking or enforcement, so it cannot stop a destructive command.
- There is no MDM package, central console, SSO or SOC 2 report, so it is not ready for a managed fleet rollout.
- Scanning is heuristic pattern matching. It produces false positives, misses novel phrasing, and is not a guarantee of safety.
- Beam is early and has no published pricing. Every tool on this page is further along in at least one dimension.
Which one fits
If you want a free, always-on check in front of every tool call today, Harden is worth trying — it is free for individuals and installs in one command. Beam is worth a look if a persistent local timeline of everything an agent did, plus a dedicated skill/MCP scan, is what you're after; the two address overlapping but not identical problems.
FAQ
Does Harden block risky tool calls?
It checks tool calls before they run using request and session context. Per its maker's own comments on Product Hunt, when it is unsure whether an action is safe it currently allows and logs the action rather than blocking, to avoid hurting developer productivity. Beam v1 also has no blocking — it observes and flags.
Which coding agents does Harden support?
Seven, per its Product Hunt listing: Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Openclaw, Hermes, Amazon Kiro and Gemini AntiGravity.
See how Beam works
Beam is an early, local-first prototype. Read what it actually does today before comparing it further.