Harness init

Skill cekrauseee/harness/skills/harness-init

File-native project continuity and engineering standards for coding agents.

Install

npx -y skills add cekrauseee/harness --skill harness-init

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What its author says it does

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Initialize, link, resolve, or repair a local project's Harness identity without writing project metadata. Use for first setup, moved paths, host bindings, or unresolved continuity in Git and non-Git projects.

SKILL.md

2.2 KB, 413 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

Harness Init

Initialize the global, file-native Harness without adding metadata to the project. Treat this skill as setup, binding, and repair. Normal recall is agent-initiated and does not depend on hooks.

Initialize

Run:

python3 scripts/init.py init --project <project-path> --json

The command:

uses ${HARNESS_HOME:-~/.harness};
assigns an opaque UUID;
stores all Harness state under projects/<uuid>/;
registers the project path as a machine-local binding;
can also register host identity and retain a legacy Git link when available;
creates no project files;
is idempotent when the path already resolves to a valid project.

Use link --project-id <uuid> only when an existing Harness project has been selected. Use resolve to inspect identity without mutation. Resolution priority is explicit UUID, host binding, nearest registered path ancestor, then legacy Git identity.

--repo remains a compatibility alias for --project.

Optional lifecycle adapters

Harness does not require hooks. When a host supports silent lifecycle maintenance, install or refresh its adapters explicitly:

python3 scripts/install_hooks.py --host codex --host claude-code --json

The explicit command is the only supported installation path. It is idempotent and preserves unrelated host configuration.

Adapters must fail open and remain model-silent. They may maintain timestamps or clean temporary workspace files. They must not inject memory, create empty sessions, initialize an unrelated path, persist raw host messages, or promote durable memory.

Boundaries

Never create .harness, .project-harness, or any other Harness file in the project.
Never infer two projects are identical when multiple remote matches exist.
Do not require Git, a remote, or a lifecycle hook.
Never ask routine lifecycle questions; report an actionable warning and let the host continue.
Read references/layout.md when inspecting or repairing storage.

What ships with it: 6 files

37.2 KB alongside SKILL.md, 4 of them executable

Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most project setup skills give in 413 tokens

Counted across 999 of the 1,637 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-08-07

Ask one question at a timein 29 of 999, across 28 files
Detect the package manager from lockfilesin 28 of 999, across 9 files
Present findings to the userin 26 of 999, across 5 files
Explore current repo statein 24 of 999, across 3 files
Update the agent skills block in place if it existsin 24 of 999, across 3 files
Install husky lint-staged and prettierin 23 of 999, across 4 files
Create the lintstagedrc filein 22 of 999, across 3 files
Commit all changed filesin 22 of 999, across 3 files
Run lint-staged to verify it worksin 22 of 999, across 3 files
Create the husky pre-commit filein 21 of 999, across 2 files
Create a prettierrc file if missingin 21 of 999, across 2 files
Initialize huskyin 21 of 999, across 2 files

Said here and by no other author read

initialize the harness without writing project metadata
use link only with an explicit project id
use resolve to inspect identity without mutation
install lifecycle adapters with the explicit command
make adapters fail open and model-silent
read layout documentation when repairing storage

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.