Creating services

Skill pvnarp/harness-agentic-skills/skills/harness/creating-services

Generate Harness Service YAML for deployable workloads and create via MCP. Supports Kubernetes, Helm, ECS, Serverless, SSH, and WinRm deployment types with artifact sources from Docker Hub, ECR, GCR, ACR, Nexus, and S3. Use when asked to create a service, define a Kubernetes service, set up a Helm chart deployment, configure an ECS service, or define what gets deployed. Trigger phrases: create service, service definition, Kubernetes service, Helm service, ECS service, deployment service, artifact source.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add pvnarp/harness-agentic-skills --skill creating-services

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SKILL.md

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Create Service

What this skill uses

Harness MCP tools: harness:harness_create, harness:harness_list, harness:harness_schema, harness:harness_update Resource types: service

Generate Harness Service YAML and push to Harness via MCP.

Schema discovery (do this first)

Before hand-rolling YAML, fetch the live schema from the MCP. It is authoritative and saves you guessing field names. Use these calls in order:

harness:harness_schema(resource_type='service') for top-level summary of fields and sections.
harness:harness_schema(resource_type='service', path='<dotted.section>') to drill into a specific section.
harness:harness_schema(resource_type='service', example_search='<keyword>') to find a working example.
harness:harness_schema(resource_type='service', example='<example-name>') to fetch the full example YAML.
harness:harness_schema(resource_type='service_v1') for top-level summary of fields and sections.
harness:harness_schema(resource_type='service_v1', path='<dotted.section>') to drill into a specific section.
harness:harness_schema(resource_type='service_v1', example_search='<keyword>') to find a working example.
harness:harness_schema(resource_type='service_v1', example='<example-name>') to fetch the full example YAML.

If a section is more complex than expected, drill into it with path instead of asking the user. Only fall back to authoring without schema lookup if the resource type is not in the bundled schemas list.

Instructions

Detect service type from codebase (if source code is available) - Scan the project for deployment manifests to auto-select the correct serviceDefinition.type and manifest configuration:
- k8s/, kubernetes/, manifests/ with YAML files → Kubernetes with K8sManifest
- kustomization.yaml → Kubernetes with Kustomize
- Chart.yaml, charts/, helm/ → NativeHelm with HelmChart
- task-definition.json → ECS with EcsTaskDefinition
- serverless.yml / template.yaml (SAM) → ServerlessAwsLambda
- function.json (Azure) → AzureWebApp
- .NET + Windows → WinRm
- Traditional app (JAR/WAR) without containers → Ssh
- See creating-pipelines/references/codebase-analysis.md Step 4 for the full decision tree
Detect artifact source - Match Dockerfile registry references to artifact source type:
- Docker Hub → DockerRegistry
- *.dkr.ecr.*.amazonaws.com → Ecr
- gcr.io / *-docker.pkg.dev → Gcr
- *.azurecr.io → Acr
Confirm with user - Present detected service type, manifest type, and artifact source for confirmation
Generate YAML following the structure below
Create via MCP using harness:harness_create with resource_type service

Service Structure

service:
  name: My Service
  identifier: my_service
  orgIdentifier: default
  projectIdentifier: my_project
  serviceDefinition:
    type: Kubernetes        # Kubernetes, NativeHelm, ECS, ServerlessAwsLambda, Ssh, WinRm, AzureWebApp, AzureFunction, CustomDeployment
    spec:
      artifacts:
        primary:
          primaryArtifactRef: docker_image
          sources:
            - identifier: docker_image
              type: DockerRegistry
              spec:
                connectorRef: dockerhub
                imagePath: myorg/myimage
                tag: <+input>
      manifests:
        - manifest:
            identifier: k8s_manifest
            type: K8sManifest
            spec:
              store:
                type: Github
                spec:
                  connectorRef: github_connector
                  repoName: my-manifests
                  branch: main
                  paths: [manifests/]
      variables:
        - name: replicas
          type: String
          value: "3"

Deployment Types

Kubernetes Service

serviceDefinition:
  type: Kubernetes
  spec:
    artifacts:
      primary:
        primaryArtifactRef: main_image
        sources:
          - identifier: main_image
            type: DockerRegistry
            spec:
              connectorRef: dockerhub
              imagePath: myorg/api
              tag: <+input>
    manifests:
      - manifest:
          identifier: manifests
          type: K8sManifest
          spec:
            store:
              type: Github
              spec:
                connectorRef: github
                repoName: k8s-manifests
                branch: main
                paths: [deploy/]

Helm Service

serviceDefinition:
  type: NativeHelm
  spec:
    artifacts:
      primary:
        primaryArtifactRef: chart
        sources:
          - identifier: chart
            type: DockerRegistry
            spec:
              connectorRef: dockerhub
              imagePath: myorg/api
              tag: <+input>
    manifests:
      - manifest:
          identifier: helm_chart
          type: HelmChart
          spec:
            store:
              type: Http
              spec:
                connectorRef: helm_repo
            chartName: my-chart
            chartVersion: <+input>
            helmVersion: V3

Kustomize Service

serviceDefinition:
  type: Kubernetes
  spec:
    artifacts:
      primary:
        primaryArtifactRef: main_image
        sources:
          - identifier: main_image
            type: DockerRegistry
            spec:
              connectorRef: dockerhub
              imagePath: myorg/api
              tag: <+input>
    manifests:
      - manifest:
          identifier: kustomize
          type: Kustomize
          spec:
            store:
              type: Github
              spec:
                connectorRef: github
                repoName: k8s-config
                branch: main
                folderPath: overlays/production
            pluginPath: ""

ECS Service

serviceDefinition:
  type: ECS
  spec:
    artifacts:
      primary:
        primaryArtifactRef: ecr_image
        sources:
          - identifier: ecr_image
            type: Ecr
            spec:
              connectorRef: aws_connector
              region: us-east-1
              imagePath: my-image
              tag: <+input>
    manifests:
      - manifest:
          identifier: task_def
          type: EcsTaskDefinition
          spec:
            store:
              type: Github
              spec:
                connectorRef: github
                repoName: ecs-config
                branch: main
                paths: [task-definition.json]

Serverless Lambda Service

serviceDefinition:
  type: ServerlessAwsLambda
  spec:
    artifacts:
      primary:
        primaryArtifactRef: s3_artifact
        sources:
          - identifier: s3_artifact
            type: AmazonS3
            spec:
              connectorRef: aws_connector
              region: us-east-1
              bucketName: my-deployments
              filePath: serverless-app.zip
    manifests:
      - manifest:
          identifier: serverless_manifest
          type: ServerlessAwsLambda
          spec:
            store:
              type: Github
              spec:
                connectorRef: github
                repoName: serverless-config
                branch: main
                paths: [serverless.yml]

Artifact Source Types

DockerRegistry - Docker Hub (connectorRef, imagePath, tag)
Ecr - AWS ECR (connectorRef, region, imagePath, tag)
Gcr - Google GCR (connectorRef, registryHostname, imagePath, tag)
GoogleArtifactRegistry - Google Artifact Registry (connectorRef, region, repositoryName, package, version)
Acr - Azure ACR (connectorRef, subscriptionId, registry, repository, tag)
ArtifactoryRegistry - JFrog Artifactory (connectorRef, repository, artifactPath, repositoryFormat, tag)
Nexus3Registry - Nexus (connectorRef, repository, artifactPath, repositoryFormat, tag)
GithubPackageRegistry - GitHub Packages (connectorRef, packageType, org, packageName, version)
AmazonS3 - S3 (connectorRef, region, bucketName, filePath)
GoogleCloudStorage - GCS (connectorRef, project, bucket, artifactPath)
CustomArtifact - Custom source (scripts, delegateSelectors, version)

Creating via MCP

Call MCP tool: harness:harness_create
Parameters:
  resource_type: "service"
  org_id: "<organization>"
  project_id: "<project>"
  body: <service YAML>

List existing services:

Call MCP tool: harness:harness_list
Parameters:
  resource_type: "service"
  org_id: "<organization>"
  project_id: "<project>"

Examples

"Create a K8s service with Docker Hub artifact" - Kubernetes type with DockerRegistry source
"Create a Helm service" - NativeHelm type with HelmChart manifest
"Create an ECS service with ECR" - ECS type with Ecr artifact source

Related skills

Prerequisites (skills typically run before this one):

Composes with (skills commonly invoked together):

Follow-ups (skills commonly chained after this one):

/creating-pipelines

Performance Notes

Verify that referenced connectors exist before creating the service definition.
Ensure the deployment type matches the infrastructure type that will be used in the pipeline.
For artifact sources, confirm the image path and registry are accessible.
Quality of service configuration is more important than speed.

Troubleshooting

CONNECTOR_NOT_FOUND - Create connector first or fix connectorRef
DUPLICATE_IDENTIFIER - Service exists; use harness:harness_update
Artifact tag <+input> means the tag is provided at runtime