repository-harness
repository-harness installs a small, repository-native operating layer for coding agents. It gives Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and other tools durable instructions, navigable context, explicit validation contracts, and a safe update path without replacing the repository's existing engineering workflow.
The repository remains the system of record. Code, tests, product documents, decisions, CI, and runtime evidence define the work—not chat history or an external task database.
View repository-harness on GitHub Download the latest release
Install in an existing repository
Run the bootstrap from the repository you want to make agent-ready:
curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hoangnb24/repository-harness/main/scripts/install-harness.sh?$(date +%s)" |
bash -s -- --yesThe bootstrap downloads a versioned binary and checksum, verifies the release identity, and delegates installation to that candidate. Use --dry-run to preview, --merge to preserve existing files and add only missing paths, or --override only when replacement is intentional.
Windows users can follow the PowerShell install command in the repository README.
What gets installed
- A compact
AGENTS.mdentry point that routes agents to repository-owned truth instead of duplicating it. - Repository context and navigation for finding current behavior, authority, and verification commands.
- Optional durable records for product intent, decisions, execution plans, runbooks, and evidence-backed harness improvements.
- Explicit-only skills for repository onboarding, invariant encoding, audits, and harness improvement. Installation never activates them automatically.
- A safe maintenance binary that verifies identity and checksums, performs three-way updates, preserves local edits, stages conflicts, and supports continuation or abort.
Maintain the installation safely
scripts/bin/harness status
scripts/bin/harness doctor
scripts/bin/harness update --dry-run
scripts/bin/harness updateThe updater keeps the exact upstream base under .harness-core/. When local and upstream changes overlap, it does not replace managed files or the executable. Instead, it preserves BASE, LOCAL, UPSTREAM, and RESOLVED copies so a human can make the semantic choice before continuing.
What repository-harness proves
- Fresh installation: the declared core installs without fabricated application truth or hidden lifecycle state.
- Repository navigation: an agent follows repository authority, avoids inventing product policy, and stops at real decision boundaries.
- Safe maintenance: updates verify identity, preserve local edits, stage conflicts, reject drift, and recover interrupted transactions.
It does not install application architecture, credentials, databases, orchestration, background processes, or validation commands that the consumer repository does not actually own.
Choose a starting path
- Understand the agent-ready repository model before changing an established codebase.
- Audit the current repository and identify the first missing operating contract.
- Migrate an existing repository incrementally without replacing its workflow.
- Start with the AGENTS.md template if the immediate problem is agent orientation.
- Coordinate multiple coding agents in one repository with bounded tasks, isolated worktrees, evidence handoffs, integration, CI, and review gates.