Harness docs
Harness Kit documentation — installation, plugin catalog, creating plugins, cross-harness setup, architecture, and FAQ. Use when working with or configuring harness-kit plugins, understanding the plugin/skill system, installing slash commands, setting up AI coding tool configuration, answering questions about the plugin marketplace, writing SKILL.md files, using harness.yaml, or integrating with Copilot, Cursor, or Codex. Do NOT use for general Claude Code questions unrelated to harness-kit.From its SKILL.md
npx -y skills add harnessprotocol/harness-kit --skill harness-docsAssembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.
One thing to look at
- 9 stars9 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.
SKILL.md
3.9 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it
Harness Kit Documentation
harness-kit is a harness-agnostic framework for AI coding tools. Plugins, skills, MCP servers, hooks, and conventions live in one portable config. It works with Claude Code today and is designed to travel across tools.
Repo: https://github.com/harnessprotocol/harness-kit
Docs: https://harnesskit.ai/docs
How to Use This Skill
This is a background knowledge skill. When the user asks about harness-kit, load the relevant reference file from ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/ and answer from it.
| Topic | Reference file |
|---|---|
| Installation, architecture, quick start | getting-started.md |
| Plugin list, what each plugin does | plugin-catalog.md |
| Creating plugins, writing SKILL.md, frontmatter | creating-plugins.md |
| Using with Copilot, Cursor, Codex | cross-harness.md |
| Core concepts, FAQ, harness.yaml, comparison with MCP/A2A | concepts-and-faq.md |
Load with: Read ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/<filename>.md
Quick Reference: 17 Plugins
| Plugin | Slash command | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| research | /research | Process any source (URL, GitHub, YouTube, PDF) into a structured knowledge base |
| orient | /orient | Topic-focused session orientation across knowledge graph and research |
| capture | /capture | Capture session info into a staging file for later reflection |
| review | /review | Structured code review for branches, PRs, or file paths with severity labels |
| rubber-ducky | /rubber-ducky | Second opinion on a plan, design, or diff — independent critics on different Claude models |
| explain | /explain | Layered explanations of files, functions, directories, or concepts |
| lineage | /lineage | Column-level lineage tracing through SQL, Kafka, Spark, JDBC |
| docgen | /docgen | Generate or update README, API docs, architecture overview, or changelog |
| open-pr | /open-pr | Pre-flight checks and PR creation: tests, review, CI |
| merge-pr | /merge-pr | Merge a ready PR: verify CI, sync base, squash merge, clean up |
| pr-sweep | /pr-sweep | Cross-repo PR sweep: triage, review, merge, fix CI |
| dependabot-sweep | /dependabot-sweep | End-to-end Dependabot remediation: fetch alerts, fix per ecosystem, verify, open/merge a PR |
| harness-share | /harness-export, /harness-import | Compile, export, import, and sync harness configs across 8 AI coding tools |
| stats | /stats | Interactive HTML dashboard for Claude Code token and session usage |
| iterm-notify | — | macOS desktop notifications and iTerm2 badge management for Claude Code events |
| frontend-design | /frontend-design | Production-grade frontend design rules: OKLCH color, typography, motion, accessibility |
| membrain | /memory | Graph-based agent memory — search, trace, and manage a persistent knowledge graph |
Key Concepts
Skill — A SKILL.md file: the workflow Claude reads when you type a slash command.
Plugin — The package wrapping a skill: a directory with plugin.json, the skill, optional scripts, hooks, and agents.
harness — Your complete AI tool setup: CLAUDE.md, plugins, MCP servers, hooks, permissions.
harness.yaml — A portable snapshot of your complete harness. Export with /harness-export, restore with /harness-import.
Install
/plugin marketplace add harnessprotocol/harness-kit
/plugin install <plugin-name>@harness-kit
What ships with it: 5 files
29.2 KB alongside SKILL.md
references/
- concepts-and-faq.md6.2 KB
- creating-plugins.md6.6 KB
- cross-harness.md6.0 KB
- getting-started.md4.5 KB
- plugin-catalog.md5.9 KB
Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most docs writing skills give
Counted across 1,951 of the 3,904 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-09-06
- Use third-person for skill descriptionsin 54 of 1951, across 35 files
- Start descriptions with Use whenin 43 of 1951, across 29 files
- Run baseline scenarios before writing any skillin 40 of 1951, across 26 files
- Use active voicein 40 of 1951, across 36 files
- Map file responsibilities before defining tasksin 36 of 1951, across 29 files
- Use checkbox syntax for tracking stepsin 35 of 1951, across 27 files
- Ask one question at a timein 35 of 1951
- Offer execution options after saving the planin 33 of 1951, across 24 files
- Include complete code in every stepin 33 of 1951, across 27 files
- Design units with clear boundaries and interfacesin 31 of 1951, across 23 files
- Announce the skill usage at the startin 30 of 1951
- Verify agent compliance after adding the skillin 29 of 1951, across 17 files
Said here and by no other author read
- load relevant reference files when asked about harness-kit
- answer questions using the loaded reference files
Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once.