Deterministic vs. harness

I learned after burning hundreds of dollars in tokens that a deterministic pipeline can't reach a complex goal when the input keeps changing.

Deterministic flows are fast and cheap when you know the expected output.

A harness wins when the goal is clear but the input keeps changing.

For easy problems with stable input, a harness is over-engineering.

If I'm defining the goal, I use a harness.

If I'm defining the steps, I use a pipeline.